tom in salem
Active member
http://sportspath.typepad.com/files/soccer-popularity-continues-to-climb.pdf
soccer more popular than baseball among 12-24 age
- Thread starter tom in salem
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tom in salem
Active member
God help our future.
At least this generation knows how boring baseball is.
tom in salem
Active member
God help our future.
At least this generation knows how boring baseball is.
Agree baseball can be boring but soccer makes baseball feel like having sex with jessica alba.
You need to watch a soccer game some time.
They are all actually required to run, never sit, and not scratch their nuts for 40 seconds between touches of the ball.
Oh, they are all athletic, in case you hadn't noticed that either.
Baseball is like watching farming.
Is this poll regarding playing or watching the sport?
I never take away credit from soccer players at all. In my opinion, they are without question the best conditioned athletes on the planet. But I will maintain that baseball players are much more skilled. The majority of people on the planet cannot hit a ball that is thrown 90 to 95 mph. And the idea of hitting the ball when movement is put on it is absurd.
People who usually criticize are those that could never really pick the sport up.
I never take away credit from soccer players at all. In my opinion, they are without question the best conditioned athletes on the planet. But I will maintain that baseball players are much more skilled. The majority of people on the planet cannot hit a ball that is thrown 90 to 95 mph. And the idea of hitting the ball when movement is put on it is absurd.
People who usually criticize are those that could never really pick the sport up.
tom in salem
Active member
watching.
BTW, I played baseball till I was 28.
Guess because I played every day as a kid growing up in the Bronx, I never found it hard.
Northern Storm
Member
Soccer sucks more than Syracuse! 12-24 what in blazes do they know? Someday when their brain grows and matures they'll not only realize how much time they wasted on a boring sport :Z that makes golf seem exciting, but that baseball is the premier sport in this country. America's favorite past time. Soccer, Costa Rica's favorite past time. :yawn:
12-24 what in blazes do they know? Someday when their brain grows and matures they'll not only realize how much time they wasted on a boring sport :Z that makes golf seem exciting, but that baseball is the premier sport in this country. America's favorite past time. Soccer, Costa Rica's favorite past time. :yawn:
tom in salem
Active member
Soccer sucks more than Syracuse!
The 80's are over.
Class of 72
Active member
Soccer sucks more than Syracuse!
The 80's are over.
Some older fans over 60 that never watched or played soccer really cannot comprehend or appreciate the sport.
My first sport was soccer growing up and I played it but still enjoyed baseball, which I did not play, and off course watching St. John's BB and looking forward to the ECAC game of the week on TV-----before ESPN.
My older cousin in the sixties played for the Brookyn Italians and I attended many of his games at Eintracht Oval in Astoria where the German-American League teams played as well as the Astoria Greek teams. The small stadium held around 3,000 and was packed every weekend.
Baseball pitchers have to have a unique combination of God-given physical tools and great skill. Power hitters have the physical tools to hit the ball but your average baseball player would last less than 45 minutes on a soccer field before EMS would be needed. There is no comparison to the physical stamina between players of the two sports.
Soccer sucks more than Syracuse!
This is one of the more ignorant posts you'll ever read... There is a reason why soccer is the world's most popular sport. Americans were/are slow to catch on because of our limited success in the game on a world stage. Baseball has so many issues (massive PED use, games running 3-4 hours, 162 games) that even Americans are getting sick of it. I'd go so far as to say that in my lifetime soccer will surpass football and become a top 2 sport in America along with basketball. Football is an evolving game and nobody understands the implications of what's going on currently. When 60 percent of your league consists of juiceheads who crush people for a living, I'd venture to guess that in 10 years the game will be completely changed and thus not as entertaining as it is today. Basketball and soccer will always thrive. Baseball is on a massive decline. Football(rightfully the most popular in America now) may some day see a decline.
Football is not going to see any decline. If you didn't just see the Big East being pulled apart in the name of football, I don't know what you've been watching. Baseball is another story. Too slow of a sport for many and might be a bit on decline as compared to other growing sports.
Moose
Well-known member
I'm someone who has said recently I was 'new; to soccer and I'm really becoming obsessed with it. If anyone who thinks soccer is not growing in the US please take a few minutes to google about its rising popularity and you will see all the programs and initiatives they have under way to grow the game.
In regards to player safety, I think it's quite worrisome for the NFL that its old timers have started to develop a trend of brain problems after they play. Now guys are twice as big and have been taught since pop leagues to hit high leading with their head...People don't understand these implications, you can't watch 1 game without a guy getting his head taken off. Parents aren't letting their youngsters play anymore and that will only increase. It's ignorant to say football isn't in jeopardy of declining.
This is no breakthrough revelation.
Parents want their kids to play a structured sport where they run and burn off energy, without getting seriously hurt.
So the more and more kids play soccer, the more and more they will follow it on tv.
And now between espn, fox soccer channel, et al, there are plenty of options to watch games locally and around the world.
As a child of immigrants, soccer was my first love. I still remember the Cosmos as my first true sports love. When the Cosmos lost,
my day was riuned. And while I idolized those players, the NASL did a very poor job of developing American kids.
They didn't have a development system in place to teach actual soccer skills. The national team was an absolute mess.
They were a non-entity for 50 years. I remember the US losing its final qualifying home game to Costa Rica when just a tie would have sent
them to the 1986 world cup. Instead they went home.
American soccer kids had no other avenue except college ball. And as we know, the college game does a poor job developing.
The game is too broken up, with its endless subs. There is no flow to the game.
Another reason, and I think a big one, was there weren't any Americans playing pro that that made it big for American kids to emulate.
It is always nice to follow a fellow countryman's success. Lets face it, when Ricky Davis, Steve Moyers, and Jeff Durgan (who I loved as a kid)
are some of the best you can develop, there is an obviously glaring fundamental problem, which wasn't tackled when popularity
was high during the NASL's glory (albeit short) days.
Now Americans have had some success overseas. The bias against American soccer players abroad is slowly changing.
The preception of American players being nothing more than big, speedy athletes with little soccer acumen is changing because American kids
are getting better. Now make no mistake, there is a long way to go. The nitwits like Sunil Gulati (why is he still in charge?) running the
US Soccer Federation must be blown up. But the fact there is a US Soccer Federation big enough where people can be critical of means
we know where to make US soccer policy changes.
Of all the sports, baseball has been always the most boring to watch, and always will be. So while (American) football will always
be number one - just because it's part of our fiber, and plays so well on tv - don't think for one second, there isn't a seat at the entertainment
table for soccer in this country.
Sorry for the rant and going way off topic, but I am cautiously opptimistic soccer is here to stay.
Parents want their kids to play a structured sport where they run and burn off energy, without getting seriously hurt.
So the more and more kids play soccer, the more and more they will follow it on tv.
And now between espn, fox soccer channel, et al, there are plenty of options to watch games locally and around the world.
As a child of immigrants, soccer was my first love. I still remember the Cosmos as my first true sports love. When the Cosmos lost,
my day was riuned. And while I idolized those players, the NASL did a very poor job of developing American kids.
They didn't have a development system in place to teach actual soccer skills. The national team was an absolute mess.
They were a non-entity for 50 years. I remember the US losing its final qualifying home game to Costa Rica when just a tie would have sent
them to the 1986 world cup. Instead they went home.
American soccer kids had no other avenue except college ball. And as we know, the college game does a poor job developing.
The game is too broken up, with its endless subs. There is no flow to the game.
Another reason, and I think a big one, was there weren't any Americans playing pro that that made it big for American kids to emulate.
It is always nice to follow a fellow countryman's success. Lets face it, when Ricky Davis, Steve Moyers, and Jeff Durgan (who I loved as a kid)
are some of the best you can develop, there is an obviously glaring fundamental problem, which wasn't tackled when popularity
was high during the NASL's glory (albeit short) days.
Now Americans have had some success overseas. The bias against American soccer players abroad is slowly changing.
The preception of American players being nothing more than big, speedy athletes with little soccer acumen is changing because American kids
are getting better. Now make no mistake, there is a long way to go. The nitwits like Sunil Gulati (why is he still in charge?) running the
US Soccer Federation must be blown up. But the fact there is a US Soccer Federation big enough where people can be critical of means
we know where to make US soccer policy changes.
Of all the sports, baseball has been always the most boring to watch, and always will be. So while (American) football will always
be number one - just because it's part of our fiber, and plays so well on tv - don't think for one second, there isn't a seat at the entertainment
table for soccer in this country.
Sorry for the rant and going way off topic, but I am cautiously opptimistic soccer is here to stay.
God help our future.
At least this generation knows how boring baseball is.
Agree baseball can be boring but soccer makes baseball feel like having sex with jessica alba.
You need to watch a soccer game some time.
They are all actually required to run, never sit, and not scratch their nuts for 40 seconds between touches of the ball.
Oh, they are all athletic, in case you hadn't noticed that either.
Baseball is like watching farming.
Well they may never sit but they sure do stand around a lot. To each his own, but soccer takes boring to another level.
God help our future.
At least this generation knows how boring baseball is.
Agree baseball can be boring but soccer makes baseball feel like having sex with jessica alba.
You need to watch a soccer game some time.
They are all actually required to run, never sit, and not scratch their nuts for 40 seconds between touches of the ball.
Oh, they are all athletic, in case you hadn't noticed that either.
Baseball is like watching farming.
don't care how athletic the players are. Would you watch the greatest athletes in the world sleep, eat, dust-I think not. And for the post about saying soccer not so popular in US because we haven't had sucess-think it is more that we have so many other major sports to choose from-football is our most popular sport and it basically is not played anywhere else in the world.
Class of 72
Active member
God help our future.
At least this generation knows how boring baseball is.
Agree baseball can be boring but soccer makes baseball feel like having sex with jessica alba.
You need to watch a soccer game some time.
They are all actually required to run, never sit, and not scratch their nuts for 40 seconds between touches of the ball.
Oh, they are all athletic, in case you hadn't noticed that either.
Baseball is like watching farming.
don't care how athletic the players are. Would you watch the greatest athletes in the world sleep, eat, dust-I think not. And for the post about saying soccer not so popular in US because we haven't had sucess-think it is more that we have so many other major sports to choose from-football is our most popular sport and it basically is not played anywhere else in the world.
While you are correct, I think the poll and where it is gathered play an important part. As for watching sports, if television wanted, they could make women's beach volleyball a top 3 sport if they had more posterior close ups. LOL!
God help our future.
At least this generation knows how boring baseball is.
Agree baseball can be boring but soccer makes baseball feel like having sex with jessica alba.
You need to watch a soccer game some time.
They are all actually required to run, never sit, and not scratch their nuts for 40 seconds between touches of the ball.
Oh, they are all athletic, in case you hadn't noticed that either.
Baseball is like watching farming.
don't care how athletic the players are. Would you watch the greatest athletes in the world sleep, eat, dust-I think not. And for the post about saying soccer not so popular in US because we haven't had sucess-think it is more that we have so many other major sports to choose from-football is our most popular sport and it basically is not played anywhere else in the world.
Nah I'd still say it has to do with our limited success in world cups. Whenever the day comes that the US is in a World Cup quarterfinal, you will see how rapidly the sport becomes popularized. Like I said before there's a reason why the World Cup is the most popular sporting event in the world. The name speaks for itself. The rest of the world is absolutely fanatical about soccer (and I'm not talking fanatical in the sense that morbidly obese people place cheese on their heads or wave yellow towels for 5 minutes). Looking at it big picture it's easy to see soccer surpassing baseball among all age groups in the next 10 years and maybe giving football a run for its money (which coincidentally is all the NFL cares about) down the line.