But what really doesn't make sense is that hockey continues to have a large US viewership. If you ask most people who are hockey fans, they would tell you that it is by far the most exciting major sport to watch, despite the fact that it just looks like a bunch of guys doing laps on the ice. 1-0 is not an uncommon score in hockey, and that lack of action can keep people glued to their seats in eager anticipation. Perhaps all they need to do to build interest in the world cup is broadcast it on tape delay, to show it in primetime, then maybe replay it 15% faster. I'm sure that the body checks and fighting don't factor into it at all, since admitting that would be admitting that the US is far more concerned with violence than a good competition, and that is just silly.

 

I just don't think that the television polls get enough of the hispanic viewing audience to make a difference in the polls. They also haven't properly calculated people who Tivo any show and I wonder if people in bars count.

US likes scoring and even amongst the sports that Americans do like, they've been modified over the years to create more scoring, because Americans don't like waiting 60 minutes for a goal.

The irony is, is that with such low scoring in soccer, that Americans just don't fathom how significant one goal is in soccer at least until the announcer screams GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL! for an eternity.

 

I was actually going to mention hockey, in terms of it being soccer-like and no longer watched in the US. True, they had a year off with the lock out and financial ruin, and this year's TV contract was a joke, on the Outdoor Life Network, but you know the 7 game stanley cup finals had fewer viewers than just about everything? They were doing less than a million viewers a game, which is even less than the world cup prelim matches got, less than women's college softball, etc.

Theoretically though, hockey seems more suited to American sports tastes, with a much smaller rink keeping the action more concentrated, lots more goals or at least lots more scoring opportunities, and fewer players = more superstars in the action.

The problem for hockey is visuals. It's just too damn hard to see the puck on TV. That and I think the fact that most of the best players now have names like Kalachinkovoz is keeping casual fans from getting or keeping their interest in hockey these days.

 

Seems pretty simple: Americans don't watch soccer because American television doesn't broadcast much soccer, and the reason American television doesn't broadcast much soccer is because there aren't any convenient time-outs to stuff commercials into. (Ironically, the very lack of time-outs is why I can sit through a whole soccer-game, as opposed to the innumerable chances to forget what I was even watching during an intermission...)

 

Well, all the world cup games were on espn or espn2 this time, same as all the major US sports. Of course the world cup games were on at like 5am, which isn't exactly prime time... on the other hand, in that time slot they're competing with traffic reports and situp machine infomercials, so they have all the live viewers to themselves.

Soccer's got good and bad points in the no-breaks style too. It's great to watch in the background, sort of like an aquarium. It's soothing and sort of melodic, and on the off chance that anything actually happens the announcers and the roar of the crowd alert you to look up. I recall enjoying that sopoforic drone quite a few times back in 2000, but I think the games were on late night then, rather than early morning, so the games must have been on at a different time. Wasn't it in Korea last time?

The bad thing about soccer is that my prefered sports viewing technique; recording and fast forwarding, is useless, since you can't skip over commercials and stoppages in play. You could try, and speed things up a bit, but most of the scoring opportunities happen very quickly; a steal, a turn over, a long pass, etc and by the time you saw that and hit play, it would be over and you'd have to rewind, ruining your watching rhythm. Maybe a DVR with 5 or 10 sec advance would work okay?