Another reason soccer plays poorly on TV is that the field is huge and play moves constantly through it. There is no way to zero in on discreet action and show exciting plays in slow motion close ups. Of violent injury.
That, and it’s just boring as fuck.
:dubious: I’d consider baseball the LEAST team oriented of all the major sports.
According to a couple lectures I’ve listened to about the British Empire, sport was part of the imperial package. The first thing Germans built in a colony was a road, the French built a restaurant, the British a racetrack. Given the size of the empire, it makes sense that British sports and their derivatives are the most popular in the world.
Doesn’t really hold up for soccer when you get down to cases, though. Australia, Canada, and the US were all British colonies, none are big on soccer. The other major British sports are represented-- Australians play cricket and rugby; Canadians and Americans play games derived from cricket and rugby. South America and Europe are big on soccer and neither had notable British colonies.
I should note that the Canadian national sport has nothing to do with rugby or cricket, of course. Hockey’s popular in the US, too, despite not being well-suited (IMO) to television.
I don’t think soccer is particularly popular in India, either-- my understanding is that the big sport there is cricket.
Actually, we adore soccer. Can’t get enough of it. Just eat it up. We only PRETEND that we don’t have any interest in it to get a rise out of you. Ha ha!
I think it could be possible that soccer was popular in the U.S., but once rugby mutated into American football, we never looked back. After all, those changes took place in the 19th century when many believed “Progress” was very nearly synonymous with “G-d”. It would have been unthinkable to revert to a less-advanced form of sport. 
I was going to edit my above post and decided to just add this post script instead.
In the late 18th century, once America had broken away from the British empire, there was a lot of anti-British sentiment. Loyalists moved to Canada rather than live in a rebel ex-colony, and the rebels propagated the myth that only heathens cut their food with the fork in their left hand.
Likewise, I’m sure that soccer and cricket were judged for being “too British” and were therefore modified so as to make them fit sports for Americans.
The above was written with tongue firmly in cheek, but I am only half kidding.
It seems that the sports spread by the British Empire were the “posh”, establishment ones - rugby, cricket, maybe horse racing if what you say about racetracks is true. Soccer is the working man’s game. As the old saying went “Football is a game for gentlemen, played by ruffians. Rugby is a game for ruffians, played by gentlemen.”
That said, some of the great European clubs were founded by British ex-pats, such as Milan (whose name is spelt the English way rather than “Milano”, for that reason).
5
Watching paint dry is more interesting because you know for a fact that either the paint will dry or something will ruin the finish and it will take less than 90 minutes.
Because no self-respecting American would call something round a “ball.” And because another sport is already called “football.”
Besides, bouncing a ball off your head looks stupid.
^
the globetrotters do it, so did pete maravich.
Amusingly, in the old world the game that baseball was adapted from (“rounders”) is also considered a children’s game.
Oh, and pinguin, I’ll give you a #8- we’re thumbing our noses at snobs like you who insist that soccer/football is a superior game simply because it’s popular in other countries.
Baseball and basketball.
My neice and I went to watch Invictus in the employee theater of the (rather large) company she works for a while back. She had been something of a soccer fan, but after watching these big, burly guys playing rugby (more or less American football without pads or helmets) she said, “Damn, after seeing that, soccer players seem like pussies!” 
Really, compared to most popular American sports, soccer just isn’t that masculine or exciting. You have all that dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin ball-handling footwork, guys jumping up in the air with their arms at their sides trying to bounce the ball off their heads (and looking like demented sea lions in the process), and generally just running around a large field kicking a ball and occasionally colliding shins with somebody else. It’s about as exciting as golf, but at least in golf the players dress well and the scenery is pretty.
When I was in high school, in the 70s, it was considered to be a game for losers and nerds who weren’t good enough to play the “real” game of football.
That’s probably why, it’s a second rate to American Football. It will never be popular because that is how it’s viewed here in America, second rate.
It’s like softball is second rate to baseball.
Unless you change that perception you won’t make soccer popular in the US
i understand basketball in america also used to be considered for losers too unskilled for either football or baseball. that was generations ago.
:dubious:
They sometimes show NFL and baseball on late-night TV here in the UK. Whenever I’ve started watching it seems like they last for about 4 hours, what with all the stop-start bollocks. You can leave the game with 12 minutes on the clock, go and make a sandwich and a cup of tea, maybe go for a jog for half an hour, return to the couch and find the clock has reached 5:30.
The American football team ( soccer) has really impressed at the previous world cups. I think exposure to better quality games may improve its appeal in the US.
I never got into American football, but I couldn’t understand why as I love Rugby Union, until some American fans pointed out that I had been watching third rate games.
The trouble with European and English leagues now is the crazy money involved, overpaid primadonas more interested in their own inflated egos and delusions of self worth than passion and loyalty to the shirt they are wearing. Its turning even die-hard UK fans off.
“No rounders! No rounders!”
Because soccer can’t be interrupted by ads.
(Not saying by that I like soccer ; I hate it.)