Soccer, the other football

Soccer it seems is on the up and up in the land of made-for-TV sports. I mean, I like watching American football and all - but the game is usually about 9 minutes long but takes 2 and 1/2 hours to play. Something is wrong there.

Soccer is 90 (usually 94 total actually) minutes long.. and takes about 20 mins more than that to play. There are sometimes longish periods without goals, but rarely are there long periods of nothing going on - especially at the highest level. It always surprises me that this is American's number one complaint about soccer, when baseball can go for hours with nothing more exciting than a close call on a strike.

Regardless, it seems that attendance at MLS is now higher than the NHL, and the ABC/ESPN ratings for this world cup are much higher than the last few (though I think '94 was still higher).

A number of commentators are talking about this as the rise of America actually caring about soccer. And to a degree I think that is true. My generation grew up playing soccer - it for a few decades now has been the most popular sport for kids.

But there is something else not really mentioned as often as it should be - the US is growing increasingly more interested in soccer at the same time the US is growing increasingly more hispanic. When I lived in Salt Lake City, the MLS team was very popular - Real Salt Lake (thats ree ahl Salt Lake, as in Real Madrid - not "real"), but not with the white mormon folks - the main fans and supporters came from the hispanic population.

So I am really glad about the fact that the US is starting to care more about soccer, but I think commentators often fail to connect the dots between demographics and changes in attitudes.

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