I think you’re wasting your time waiting for a sensible response from smiling bandit, as several people have already tried to get one and failed. I’ve addressed two posts directly to him, most recently three days ago but got nowhere, even though I notice he’s been on these boards today.
To summarise my own position in respect of the OP, I’m sure that if the “American” sports had got to the world before soccer they would be much more common and widespread than they are today. But I’m equally sure that my country would still have soccer and that it would be the most widespread team sport in the world for the reasons we’ve already explained at great length.
The existance of soccer does not require the non-existance of other sports. Even considering the top four US ones, they aren’t all equally popular or equally concentrated where they are played.
As a further aside, I have a friend in Tokyo who has had a journalist from The Guardian staying with him for the duration of the World Cup. He (the press guy) recently wrote about how soccer has grown in popularity in Japan since the J League was set up. Apparently the younger generation see baseball as an older salaryman’s game and see soccer as the game for them. Only time will tell how much this attitude is sustained, but although I don’t expect baseball to become extinct in Japan, it tends to suggest that soccer can be an easy game to promote even in a market where US sports already exist.
everton: I highly recommend reading Sebastian Moffet’s Japanese Rules, which is a history of professional soccer in Japan. Fascinating reading, particularly in the difficulties in setting up a non-corporate sport and importing the ‘football culture’.
I’m sorry F.G., however you are incorrect. In baseball the fielders are most assuredly in play on each pitch, whether the ball is hit to them or not. Certainly the catcher is in play, making by your count 3 players “in play”, and the others have to be on their toes and be ready for a hit ball otherwise they’re apt to get hit in the head with a line drive. You seem to think that the baseball fielders wander aimlessly around and can get away with not paying attention or not being in position to field and throw. Finally, rest assured it takes no more time for a pickup baseball game to be organized than it does for a pickup soccer game. Deciding who’ll pitch and when people will bat doesn’t require a full Senate committee hearing.
I have bloody well been trying to make a response, but I have been unable to get this infernal board to say “how high” when I say “jump”. If it bothers you that my posting schedule involves something other than your own whims. My few working attempts to read and post have been stymied by the fact I am looking at far mroe interesting threads.
While I started by refuting the blatantly false statements made by those with little conception of my purpose, I see I have been drawn into the larger debate, Therefore I will reply once and for all.
People were not always able to afford nice sports equipment either. Baseball was popularizd in the slums. There is essentially a big fat 0 difference in equipment requirements among the 5 sports we’re talking about. The only question centers around “Why did eople choose to spend their scarce resources on what they did?”.
The real answer involves cultural contact and a bit of chance. America, for all of its trade ties, wasn’t nearly as connected as Britain, nor was it physically, economically, and socially “close” to other cultural centers, like Spain, Portugal, France, etc. At the same time, the European powers engaged in huge volumes of trade amonst themselves in close proximity, which facilitated the spread of ideas even more. Even after the end of Imperialism, trade and other ties kept new states connected to the old powers. America, on the other hand, was not and old power.
You have missed the point. The question here is not at all “Would soccer be so popular in your country if you had the 4 major US sports FIRST?”. It should be “Why did the USA develop other sports?”
Yeah, I’ve been havin trouble posting here too. ‘Website not responding’ is all I gte 90% of the time.
No, there is a difference, though baseball comes close to soccer for minimal equipment requirement. Besides, nobody’s saying it’s just equipment that makes the difference.
No, the question is 'would soccer be so popular in your conutry if you had the 4 major US sports first. What you’re asking is interesting too, but is only a sub-issue here - not the major issue. You can’t change the question and then chastise people for giving you the ‘wrong’ answer.
American posters - we are not trying to be nasty about your games. We are trying to explain why a lot of kids in other countries play football - what you call soccer.
Football is now the biggest multinational sport. Viewing audiences for the World Cup far exceed those for the Olympics. Kids play it everywhere, because it needs only something you can kick - nothing else.
In my school, the official games were rugby, cricket and tennis. However, in any break in classes, we made goals from sweaters or sticks and played football. There were no markings on the ground, no complicated rules. If it went over the wall, it was a throw-in. If we did not have a football, we used a tennis ball.
We could play for five minutes or two hours, and there was no waiting to play. Everyone involved was playing all the time. We could start with two people. As other boys came, it became two a side, then three, then four and so on. The only limit was the available space. If someone had to go, we just carried on playing five against six. The best player might move to the smaller team.
Size did not matter - almost anybody could play. Indeed the best player in my class was also the smallest. In my time, only boys played, but now you will see girls playing in street games.
You can play anywhere. I have played with kids on a street in the west of Russia, with just a tennis ball and goals marked in chalk on the road. I have played with a beach ball on a beach in Jamaica, with sand castle goals.
Sports which need more complex equipment will never compete with football for the attention of small boys round the world. And ultimately that is why American sports have had little success outside America. Small boys are voting with their feet.