Quote:
Originally Posted by SPATCH
I just enjoy watching the old guard sports fans continue to say things like, "it will never happen in America" or "I've been hearing the same thing for 30 years."
Meanwhile, the sport continues to grow right under their nose. They're oblivious.
Maybe it's a generational thing. After all, the demographic in which soccer is gaining the most popularity is young people.
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For the moment "young people" like it.
In my anecdotal experience, my age group of people in the mid 20s, a possible half of the people I know might go out of their way to watch the USMNT but aren't big on MLS or EPL/Seria A/BL soccer.
I'd stake my reputation that this is also the case for many social circles in my age range.
Thing is, even for people like me and the few who will go out of our way to watch the World Cup, we still are bigger supporters of pro or college football.. Followed by baseball (mostly a casual fandom) or basketball. Eventually, my generation will start (deliberately) having children and they will
probably continue to consume these sports and will expose these younglings to those sports more so than soccer.
People who are huge soccer acolytes (to the point it's their only sport preference) my age seem to be self-serving hipster douches who think themselves more worldly (or something) as well as people who grew up playing the sport from YMCA to high school or even college.
And again, I'd also stake my rep on saying that my generation -even from bum**** rural Missouri- has been exposed to soccer from a young age in terms of recreational playing and we
still gravitate towards the American-born sports moreso than soccer.
The MLS will grow, sure. And the USMNT will grow stronger as more "athletes" find their niche in the game more than they have in the past..
But American culture is predicated on football, basketball or baseball in terms of prevalence... and until there's a "Tuesday Night Soccer" available to 90% of household televisions and watched regularly by tens of millions of those TVs (or tablets / smartphones what have you) then I'm going to doubt the sport will ever supplant basketball in terms of popularity.
It may supplant football.. if the sport becomes watered down due to injury concerns.