Wynalda tell hime Rome to suck his ****!

Bingo. And God bless Minnesota for this. Nothing beats covering a lazy afternoon Legion twinbill with an ice cold [cola] in your hand.

 

Hot summer night, breeze coming in down the Minnesota River valley, cold Schell's in your hand... good times..

 

I think of that every time the preps v. pros debate comes up on here.

There are some prep assignments that are better than just about anything else.

 

Yup... agreed... walk from the stadium to work and back...

 

I've read 6 pages of comments and I didn't see anyone mention the real two reasons why soccer won't be big time in the USA

1. Too difficult or too boring to bet on. I mean every game has an over-under of 1.

2. Fantasy sports - how does soccer work with fantasy sports? Football - great; baseball - great - hell even NHL, NBA and NASCAR are fantasy friendly. Soccer? Not so much.

I enjoy watching soccer from time to time but I don't see it going "big time" in the US because of those two above reasons.

 

1. Soccer if the most wagered upon sport in the world. Horse racing is very easy to bet on, and legal across the nation, but that hasn't helped that sport's popularity.

2. Yahoo! currently offers six soccer fantasy leagues.

 

Inky - I understand that soccer is the most popular sport in the world and that almost automatically makes it the most bet on sport in the world. However, unless you work at the UN - I doubt you'll see any office pools for soccer popping up at work and I'd wager that many of the people in the Yahoo fantasy soccer leagues are in multiple Yahoo leagues. Plus - how many baseball or football fantasy leagues does Yahoo have?

 

Yahoo only runs fantasy football on the NFL, not Canadian league or NCAA or AFL. Just the NFL. (Though I think they do some pick'em games for the NCAA) Same for MLB, NHL and NBA.

It runs NASCAR and F1 fantasy auto racing. But it runs fantasy soccer on the English Premiership, Superliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Cope Libertadores and Superliga Mexicana.

The gambling and fantasy aspects are minor bumps in growing a sport.

 

Exactly. I don't think it makes it a major problem. But it would help....

 

The funny thing about the gambling aspect is the Vegas lines on World Cup matches were very soft last summer. A few of us did quite well thanks to the line being 1 to 1.5 goals off the Ladbroke's line.

 

You are obviously a fan. And soccer already has your allegiance.

I'm a casual fan and its tough for me to make the investment of my time that watching a soccer match would require. Without the gambling or fantasy sports angle - it will be tough to hook the casual fan like me. I also bet the World Cup last year and because I had a stake in the outcome - I watched. I'm just saying that for the casual fan like me - the lack of action and unfamiliarity of teams means that I need an extra "hook" to grab my attention and time.

Don't get defensive - I'm not a soccer hater

 

I understand what you're saying Chris.

Gambling and fantasy sports absolutely help a sport's popularity. The NFL has been helped by fantasy football. March Madness wouldn't have as much madness without office pools.

But when you're growing a sport, I think it's such a minor issue to not be important.