My theory is that hockey and soccer both have the same problem - they suck on TV.
I can never pass this kind of comment, sorry. It's not the sport, it's the audience. I enjoy soccer very much on TV, and without knowing the teams I can pretty easily pick out English League play vs Italian or German League. It's a shame that the understanding of the game is not cultivated in the US, and HDTV won't really help IMHO. It's often said that it's because Football and Basketball are "quick hit" sports and Americans don't have the attention span - that's garbage - it's because, plain and simple, the grow up on those sports. The only people I've met from the States who play soccer after high school are those that played on University teams.
My 2 cents about TV - it's definitely on the way out. Niche markets, cheap, easy production cost, and cheap, easy distribution through the internet (check out http://www.newvoyages.com/). And, yes, they like Superbowl, etc. it's easy to sell the ad space. But when a medium sized audience is considered a giant hit (think Desperate Housewives), you know the writing is on the wall.
A few quick facts...
Baseball rules sports television in the summer.
(American) Football rules sports television on sundays in the fall.
But the sport most elementary and middle school kids are actually playing in organized leagues (including my 9 year old daughter) is......soccer. (That's why they are called "soccer moms"
That's been true for at least ten years, probably longer. When the kids get older, there are very few teams for them to play on. For example, in the county where I leave, there are probably over a thousand kids up to age 12 playing soccer in leagues. But there are probably only about 50 playing in high school (age 13-18) because they only teams they can play on are the actual school teams. All the other kids either give up sports all together or play something else.
back to my opinion...
(Disclaimer: I have grown to hate watching sports on T.V. I wasn't always that way, but now it's on my list of things that life is too short to do.
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Soccer hasn't taken off here professionally because there are no big American stars, which only develop when they get on TV, which never get on TV because there are no big stars....it's a vicious circle. I heard recently that the Los Angeles pro soccer team is buying a big star from England, so maybe that will change.
Basketball is also pretty popular here and the only difference between hockey and basketball is the ice.
Hockey is just as fast paced as basketball but because the rink is bigger and the sport moves faster, it sucks on TV.
Baseball and American Football are incredibly boring most of the time because most of the time nothing is actually happening. Everyone is between plays. (You could probably condense an entire game of either sport down to 30 minutes if you left out all the parts where players are just standing around.) Fast paced they are not.
I'm willing to bet that you've seen "real" soccer games live, not just on TV. You probably know the game. You know what's going on that you aren't seeing on the screen. You are an informed viewer. Most American adults know little or nothing about the game of soccer. When they see soccer on TV they see either a guy on the screen kicking a ball around or a big pullback shot with a bunch of ants. They have no idea what is happening. I took my daughter to see a college soccer game last year. Watching that was completely different that watching soccer on TV. Maybe when all those tykes grow up, buy big screen TV's and want to watch sports, they'll look at soccer. Who knows?