Soccer is the most popular sport in the world with billions of devoted fans across the globe, but why doesn’t it make the headlines in the U.S.? While the rest of the globe loves the “beautiful game,” Americans continue to favor football, basketball, and baseball. Many Americans can’t name a single Major League Soccer team. Some people don’t even know the MLS exists. What’s holding it back from its potential? From cultural traditions to profit, the reasons are more complicated than the game itself.
In the U.S. there is a huge sports culture with sports like football, baseball, basketball, and more. All of these sports were invented in the U.S., which could explain why Americans tend to favor these sports. Soccer was invented in England in 1863 and quickly spread across Europe and around the rest of the globe. Although many Americans do love soccer, it is not as intense as the rest of the world feels. Think about a college football game in the South and the thousands of devoted fans going all out for the game against the rival team. That’s a normal Sunday soccer game for the rest of the world. Football culture in America, which is the most popular sport, does not compare to soccer’s popularity in other countries. Once you choose the team you support, you’ll die supporting that team no matter how badly they play. Soccer isn’t just a game you watch, it’s a feeling that people in the U.S. just don’t understand. Soccer can’t compete with these already well-established traditions.
Soccer in the U.S. is less accessible than it is around the world. Many people growing up in America have played soccer at one point or another in their youth. What makes playing soccer here while growing up different from kids playing soccer in other countries is that to play soccer here, you need to pay to play. In many countries all over the world, many people just gather their friends and play with a ball in the street. My father grew up in Portugal playing like that. No one ever had to pay to play and it’s the same in many countries all over the world. That’s how many of the professional players began playing. This can make gaining popularity for soccer in America difficult. Playing is less accessible to lower-income families here because they must pay to play. This can deter people from encouraging their kids to play, then lessening the popularity of the sport.
The media also plays a huge role in the popularity of sports in America. With sports leagues such as the NFL, MLB, and NBA, they are making a ton of profit and have large TV contracts. This makes more people watch the sport because it’s on more channels. Many other sports in America also have sponsorships from large corporations which can increase viewership. Sports such as football, baseball, and basketball also have many breaks throughout the game for commercials, which play ads for the companies that pay for it. Soccer continuously runs for 45 minutes until half-time, then for another 45 minutes. This makes it so there are barely any ads and companies are not making money. If companies aren’t making money, channels are less likely to broadcast soccer games on TV. That means fewer people are tuned into watching the games because there are fewer places to watch them. Although this feels like it shouldn’t be a reason, it unfortunately is. People can also get bored easily by watching soccer because of the lack of breaks and the fewer opportunities for scoring as compared to other popular American sports.
Although soccer in recent years has been slowly gaining popularity, especially due to players like Lionel Messi joining the MLS, soccer is still nowhere near as popular in America as it is in Europe and South America. No American sports rivalry will ever compare with the rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the greatest of all time! With the rise of Major League Soccer and events like the FIFA World Cup bringing global attention, soccer’s popularity in American culture is steadily growing. While it may never dethrone football or basketball, the growth of soccer in the U.S. suggests that it’s no longer a question of if the sport will thrive, but when.