I wish they’d stop trying to market it to Americans, period. That’s how we end up with all these heresies like the shootout and the countdown clock and the eight team playoffs. There is a natural market in America - the Euro expat and Latino populations - and I know for a fact a lot of them aren’t going to the MLS games not because the standard of playing is poor (it is, but no worse than in a lot of other countries), but because the MLS has put in all these stupid rules to try to appeal to baseball fans.
Uh, to bring this back to your question, I don’t really care who they’re exploiting, as long as they leave the rules of the game alone.
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.
I think we are all agreed then that, whilst European football may be the most popular game in the world it is about as interesting as watching synchronised swimming, and American football is a game played by ogres with brains the size of peanuts who have a disturbing tendency for wearing very tight pants and touching each others ass at the slightest excuse. That leaves rugby as the only man’s game in town, all the rest of you get back to mommy where you belong.
Moonshine-humorous. But I disagree with “ogres with peanut sized brains” for ALL football players, many of them-yes, and basketball, for that matter. If you can’t get 700 on the SAT to play Division I sports, maybe you’re stupid or unprepared and need to study. I guess we don’t hear that much about Prop-48 casualties in other american collegiate sports because football and b-ball are the money makers with headlines in the press. Another thought, I wouldn’t be surprised if those two sports have the highest rate of Prop-48s recruits. As far as rugby goes, it’s the one sport I haven’t played but wish I had (well, team sport, anyway); it looks like fun. I shredded a knee playing football and lacrosse; and, as much fun as rugby looks, it’s not worth irreparable damage now. My knee makes enough funny noises as it is.
[[I think we are all agreed then that, whilst European football may be the most popular game in the world]]
Again, I am pretty certain that auto racing is considerably more popular.
[[American football is a game played by ogres with brains the size of peanuts who have a disturbing tendency for wearing very tight pants and touching each others ass at the slightest excuse. ]]
Surely you jest – why, they’re all college men!
I think that “most popular” sport can’t be defined by just the number of spectators but by the number of people who have actually played at some time, I hear that millions upon millions of people watch the Tour de France (up there in the Top Ten Boring Events) but cycling just can’t be that popular. Sure lots of football players aren’t dim, (hey, this is the Pit right) but you can’t tell me that all those college players with the low foreheads are making some sort of excellent grade average without just a little help from a sympathetic and influential coach right?
[[I think that “most popular” sport can’t be defined by just the number of spectators but by the number of people who have actually played at some time, I hear that millions upon millions of people watch the Tour de France (up there in the Top Ten Boring Events) but cycling just can’t be that popular. ]] Moonshine
What makes you say that? Anyway, I’ll bet a lot more people ride bikes than play soccer.
[[Sure lots of football players aren’t dim, (hey, this is the Pit right) but you can’t tell me that all those college players with the low foreheads are making some sort of excellent grade average without just a little help from a sympathetic and influential coach right? ]]
Picking up on sarcasm isn’t your strong suit, I take it.
BI: but are those folks riding bikes as a sport? There are a heck of a lot more autos in use today than just the ones used in racing. Does that mean everyone who drives a car is a racer?
I don’t recall exactly where everything else falls in the list but the top two most popular sports are Soccer and Cricket, in that order. Check any reference book.
BI: but are those folks riding bikes as a sport? There are a heck of a lot more autos in use today than just the ones used in racing. Does that mean everyone who drives a car is a racer? ]] Monty
Yeah, I thought of that – good point, but I do think a lot of people do it for the exercise and recreation of it (which makes it a bit different than having a car).
And I’m still pretty sure auto racing is the most popular spectator sport – NASCAR is going nuts here, and those zany Europeans love racing!
In the UK (this forum seems to be a little bit USA-centric!!) angling is the biggest participation sport - and actually accounts for more deaths than any other sport (including parachuting etc etc) as anglers fall in and drown quite regularly!
ANYWAY…
IMHO Football (soccer that is, not the bastardised Rugby americans play) is the finest sport known to man - it has the World Cup - every continent on the planet (apart from Antarctica!) sends teams to compete for the title of being the best in the WORLD - not just the America’s.
Is there an equivalent for “American” football? I think not.
If that’s your criteria, then soccer shares that distinction with, perhaps, track and field and gymnastics, so it hardly has any claims of exclusivity.
And baseball is still more popular than soccer in most of Latin America and in Japan.
I’m not an super-educated soccer fan, but I think that good soccer i.e., English Premier league or World Cup soccer is interesting: the passes are crisp, the amount of long balls and runs are awesome and the quality of shots on goal are excellent. But I can not sit through five minutes of MLS or Chick World Cup or college soccer without requesting a razor to slit my wrists. I went to a Chicago-NY/NJ last year (two of the best teams if I remember correctly) and I was bored out of my mind.
I think the problem isn’t that soccer is boring, it’s that American soccer sucks and therefore it is boring.
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it.
George Bernard Shaw
ruadh, in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico in particular, baseball is practically a religion. As excited as soccer fans may get for their national teams, and I have no doubt that they do, baseball is itin those countries.
Thinking about it, it seems to be the portions of Latin America closest to the U.S. in which baseball is the big sport; it probably doesn’t hold true in Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
