Why did soccer never catch on in America likvin Europe ?

because it sucks?

No idea. But probably not a big draw for television because soccer doesn’t have natural breaks allowing for commercial interruption. OTOH, with Tivo and DVRs increasing in popularity, that’s becoming much less of a reason.

Hi against_me. Welcome to Fluther. We actually discussed this question in detail in this thread asked a month ago – http://www.fluther.com/disc/16214/why-is-soccer-not-as-big-in-the-us-as-it/

Hope you enjoy your stay :)

I love that band.

people say its boring (but then why is baseball popular) and can’t Understand the rules such as penalty kicks. There is a lack of interest in youth which has failed to produce a native “star.” Beckham, like Pele before him, is trying to bring popularity to the sport but sadly the attention is being focused solely on the player and not on the sport. I enjoy watching as well as playing soccer (allegdely known as football). However people fail the passion and the artwork displayed during the game because they are too busy complaining about the lack of scoring. US football has roughly the same amount of scoring but goes in a scale of 7 and 3 points, which gives fan the illusion that more action is occuring. Same with the NHL; after the strike thieir rulebook was altered to favor scoring in order to attract more fans, which has helped to improve the fan base. Everybody loves high scoring games, in almost every type of sport there is. However I think we Americans need to first appreciate the minute internal beauties before hastfully giving up on such a sport.

As this article says, soccer is growing in popularity in the U.S.

“The popularity of soccer has grown especially among women since the U.S. women’s soccer team won the World Cup in 1991 and in 1999. In the United States, 35 percent of soccer players are women, one of the highest percentages of female participation in soccer in the world. Female participation in high school soccer has risen by more than 177 percent since 1990.

In 2002 the U.S. men’s soccer team advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in recent history. Major League Soccer (MLS), the United States’ professional soccer league, has expanded from 10 to 14 teams. More then 33 million fans have attended a regular-season MLS game. Soccer is gaining a committed fan base in the United States.”

Is just a matter of time, let me remind u all that The U.S. Feminine National Team is the best in the world (better than Brazil, Argentina, Denmark). It’s in a developing process, 2 or 3 of the richest americans own european soccer teams, which means that they are waiting it to explode in the U.S. in the not so distant future so they will have another gold mine to make millons.The U.S. needs a spark to start the fire, I’m sure that maybe in the next world cup in 2010 (South Africa is having problems, the U.S. is the plan B as the MLS can organize a world cup in less than 6 months) or the 2014 in Brazil (if the world doesn’t end) the U.S. will be the biggest surprise. Good players, a Huge budget and a big fan base are fundamental, so, just be patient…

Summarized: soccer is a lower scoring game that requires large amounts of time. Huge field makes soccer seem slow as well.

@Robmandu – last time I watched a football game it still consisted of two halves with a break in between where advertisements were shown :)

@Marina – I suppose football is in the US is what hockey is in many other countries. In the Netherlands, girls often play hockey because soccer is considered too “dangerous”. I think in the US, American football is considered too dangerous and thus girls play normal football.

By the way, with regards to scoring: I say a missed scoring chance (which happens way more often than a true goal in normal matches) is just as exciting, if not more exciting than a true goal.