OT: Francesca makes the left column on Drudge with SI soccer rant
- Thread starter kapyoche
- Start date
Just saw that. This is hysterical. Heard the show yesterday with some callers tying to defend soccer. He wasn't having it.
His point about hearing for 40 years now that soccer is going to take off in America was spot on.
People are still spouting this drivel today. Not gonna happen.
People are still spouting this drivel today. Not gonna happen.
We'll see. Changing demographics favor soccer.
And again, I have heard this ridiculous argument repeated over and over by soccer haters. It doesn't have to be the number one sport or "take off." Sports are all about niche marketing and it's doing just fine. There's plenty of interest in the sport, but it doesn't have to supplant football or baseball to be successful. You can make the argument that there is more interest now than ever since Americans have easy access to view the best soccer in the world every week. Just an assinine argument repeated again by a blowhard like Francesa. Hockey has always been a distant third, does the NHL still exist?
Spot on because Francesca's knowledge (if he has any) comes from 1985 and he's observed and learned nothing since.
I'm not a soccer fan, but to pretend like the sport has been static in the U.S. for 40 years (and that baseball is still the king it was 40 years ago) says a lot more about the person making the statement than it does about soccer.
Average per game attendance:
NFL: 68,216
MLB: 30,517
MLS: 21,574
NBA: 17,809
NHL: 17,503
But please, keep pretending soccer in the US is irrelevant.
NFL: 68,216
MLB: 30,517
MLS: 21,574
NBA: 17,809
NHL: 17,503
But please, keep pretending soccer in the US is irrelevant.
Last edited:
Half this board still believes cursive should be taught in schools...I'm sure plenty here will agree with Fatcesca.
It's more than a little amusing that he finds soccer so irrelevant, but yet Fox Sports felt the need to preempt his tv broadcast with ----- soccer.
I would argue soccer has taken off and anyone with kids would probably agree.
That's probably where this is coming from. He has complained on-air about that in the past. Grandstanding fool...
Mike delivered here like only Mike can. Say what you want about him but we all know he is right.
And once again, despite everyone on the board saying they hate him he once again has a thread. The guy knows what he is doing to get da ratings.
And once again, despite everyone on the board saying they hate him he once again has a thread. The guy knows what he is doing to get da ratings.
Same guy who thought nycfc and red bull was the same team. He is a hack.
The Donald Trump of sports talk..Basketball has conquered a good deal of the western world from its origins in the US. , something we never would have foreseen 30 years ago. Soccer, futbol, may someday become our 4th major.For a number of reasons
.
.
From a team sport perspective, football will always be king in this country, at least for the foreseeable future.
Baseball is not what it once was, but it's still solidly #2.
Basketball is pretty firmly entrenched as #3.
Soccer may be able to knock off hockey to move into the #4 slot. It already has in certain pockets around the country, and hockey already exists more in pockets than broad, nation-wide interest.
Outside of team sports, not sure how tennis, golf, and auto racing fit into the picture.
Baseball is not what it once was, but it's still solidly #2.
Basketball is pretty firmly entrenched as #3.
Soccer may be able to knock off hockey to move into the #4 slot. It already has in certain pockets around the country, and hockey already exists more in pockets than broad, nation-wide interest.
Outside of team sports, not sure how tennis, golf, and auto racing fit into the picture.
It is happening right now. NBC gets good ratings of EPL games in The States and the MLS grows every year in revenue and talent.
Guy is past his time, glad do see he is retiring soon. If it was up to him all he would talk about is Baseball and Horse Racing ....
And there aren't many people watching Horse Racing anymore
And there aren't many people watching Horse Racing anymore
I swear this guy's entire assumption is the fact that the men don't win the World Cup each time.
Youth soccer levels are at all time highs, I'm sure. MLS is as strong as ever, and yes, I know it's not the EPL, Bundesliga, or La Liga, but compared to when it started, it's on a lot sturdier ground. I live 10 minutes from the Philadelphia Union stadium, and I promise you that it's a legit major sport in this area with all of the fan support.
There's still a LONG way to go for soccer in the USA. But it has grown tremendously since the Alexi Lalas days.
Youth soccer levels are at all time highs, I'm sure. MLS is as strong as ever, and yes, I know it's not the EPL, Bundesliga, or La Liga, but compared to when it started, it's on a lot sturdier ground. I live 10 minutes from the Philadelphia Union stadium, and I promise you that it's a legit major sport in this area with all of the fan support.
There's still a LONG way to go for soccer in the USA. But it has grown tremendously since the Alexi Lalas days.
Rip fran Cessa wakes up after a long sleep, still thinks its 1985.
Seems kind of silly for a guy with an intense interest in horse racing to talk badly of soccer fandom.
It's like "My fringe sport is more blue-blood and meaningful than yours."
It's like "My fringe sport is more blue-blood and meaningful than yours."
Soccer is a long, long, long, long, long, long way from knocking off hockey as the #4 sport in the US. As per Wiki, the NHL made 10 times the revenue as MLS in 2014. This may not be a perfect comparison, but we don't need one when the difference is so massive:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_sports_leagues_by_revenue
But it's not just the MLS. As noted above, the Euro leagues get a lot of coverage here and when included with the MLS probably have more total eyeballs in the US than the NHL, while there is a sizeable number of viewers for the Spanish channels as well. It would be interesting to see a comparison of total viewership by sport per game or similar criteria.
Anyway, Francesa is such a dinosaur. He gets more attention by being a douche than for his sports 'knowledge'. Can't believe I even wasted a minute listening to the beginning his rant.
Not really. The NHL has 30 teams and plays 82 games. The MLS has 19 teams and plays 34 games. So of course the NHL has larger revenue overall.
Revenue per game, however, is another matter and a better apples to apples comparison. NHL=$1.3M. MLS=$713K. A big difference? Yes. But a lot closer than the total revenue numbers would have you believe, and the MLS is only continuing to grow in popularity. The NHL not so much. Indeed, as I noted above, the MLS already outdraws the NBA and the NHL on a per-game basis.
It's still a total demand issue. The NHL has enough demand to cover a 82-game season and 30 teams. Obviously, the NFL is restricted in total games just like soccer, so if the overall demand is there, the individual events would grow to accommodate.
Couple things...
First, soccer is more than MLS. Most soccer fans follow more than one team across different leagues. They may be a Sounders fan, but also an Arsenal fan. Or they may follow Sporting KC and also Real Madrid. I was talking about "interest in the sport" more than just revenue by one league. More and more soccer games are being shown in the US (partly due to interest, and partly due to the wide proliferation of sports channels that need programming). ESPN 's navigation bar has Soccer before the NHL right now *in the midst of the NHL playoffs*.
Second, both soccer and hockey are pretty regional in the US. The entire US Pacific NW is absent from the NHL, as is much of the Midwest. Not surprisingly, some of the more popular soccer clubs (Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Sporting KC) are in areas that have no nearby hockey teams (though Seattle does have the Canucks across the Canadian border). Given that, there are areas already where soccer has much more interest than hockey, and areas where hockey has much more interest than soccer - and areas where they are both fighting for mindshare. As demographics continue to shift, soccer may overtake hockey in overall national interest... but I don't see it catching the "big three" of football/baseball/basketball.
Youth soccer has been big in this country for a long time (30+ years) for several reasons. One, young children (ages 4-say about 9) can play it with the most ease. Kids are always running/Moving unlike tee ball, it doesn't take the strength needed to hoist a basketball and let's face it, football is a lot of start and stop and wearing pads sucks. I started playing organized football when I was 7 (full pads) and never played an organized game of soccer in my life. That was 30 years ago. However my 11 year old nephew has been playing soccer year round now on a super regional travel club for about 4 years now. Football was too much standing around for him. Even though my brother played college football (D2) he's fearing my nephew will want to play football in high school. He's not worried about concussions or injuries he just knows soccer is a much friendlier/more fun game to play at a higher level. He told me playing college football was beyond a full time job. While any college sport requires time and dedication nothing quite does like football of the major team sports.
Well said. At the risk of drawing @e5fdny's ire, lol, I think my personal perspective is illustrative of how far soccer has come in the US. Never played soccer, other than in gym, in HS in the late 70s, although I did enjoy the game (it was football season, not soccer season). Was a very casual fan for the next 20 years or so (would maybe watch some World Cup matches near the end or if the US was involved).
But then my son started playing youth soccer around 2000 and I got involved in "coaching" the game, i.e., doing whatever @mildone told me to do, as he was the head coach that first year or two and he actually knows a lot about soccer. Started getting into the game more, with regard to coaching, playing with my son, and watching more. Then I became the lead coach around the time my son was 9-10 and did that until he was 13; this was rec league, so my main responsibilities were keeping the kids interested and ensuring equal playing time and keeping annoying parents from ruining the games for their kids.
By the time my son stopped playing in 2008, I had also played in a few of the "coaches games" and really enjoyed them, leading mildone to invite me to join their weekly Sunday morning soccer matches in town (Metuchen), featuring 11 v 11 games on a full turf field. I gravitated towards playing keeper (not too different from safety in football - I'm tall, can still jump and catch well, plus I wasn't afraid - and my ball skills suck on the field, so keeper it was) and have been a regular for about 7 years now.
And during those 7 years I've become a much bigger fan of the game - I now regularly watch European league games, some MSL, and I'll even to to an occasional RU game. I now watch soccer more than baseball, hoops or hockey and almost as much as football (if you don't count RU games). Pretty sure I'm not alone in becoming a much bigger soccer fan over the last 10-20 years, partly fueled by my kid's interest.
Bigger capacity stadiums than NHL & NBA plus way fewer games played.
MLS is irrelevant in the country and especially in the NJ/NY area.
Wait....what?
I can see you saying it is irrelevant in the southern states or some other areas but NY/NJ is a hotbed for soccer activity. Youth programs, select programs are all over the place and it is all big business. Just because you and maybe the people you know dont pay attention to it doesn't mean it is irrelevant.
I like Francessa but its circular logic to yell at anyone who calls about soccer that no one calls about soccer. And WE of all people should understand this better than anyone because he does it with our own beloved Knights. Yells at rutgers callers because no one cares about rutgers....when in fact people ARE calling to talk about them he just ignores it himself.
Agree with whoever it was that said it doesn't need to supplant football or baseball or even the NBA of NHL to be successful. even the MLS numbers alone are flawed because every weekend now the EPL is on as well as other foreign leagues. There is also the USMNT and USWNT who draw good crowds and then the foreign club championships such as Champion's league. All on TV. Just because you hate it doesn't make it irrelevant.
Now get off MY lawn.
Keep in mind the MLS has a new TV contract set to kick in and also will be expanding my 6 teams in the next few years. Their tv contract and revenue will continue to grow. Nhl has no growth in sight. If there is anything this board should understand its the power of a TV contract.
Furthermore, soccer in general has 100% passed hockey in terms of interest. Not even close. The numbers EPL, UEFA, EUROPA, Bundesliga, and La Liga put up in addition to MLS DWARFS HOCKEY.
