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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Jun 20, 2018 21:32:06 GMT
Americans like American sports. It’s that simple. What they don’t do in comparison to other cultures is give “non native” sports a genuine chance. The overwhelming majority summarily dismiss them as inferior without even having watched the at all, let alone tried to understand the nuances. I personally believe this happens solely because Americans are institutionalised into believing that American = good/best/superior and Foreign = bad/weak/inferior regardless of the actual truth.I think that's true for some people but it's not the norm. In the 80's Australian Rules Football became popular (relatively, it wasn't like the NFL). Why, ESPN started showing matches. It was live sports at a non-peak viewing time. People went from just "did you see that weird game on ESPN last night?" to knowing the rules to buying team shirts. Then ESPN stopped showing it and it vanished. Soccer had a brief flowering in the 70's when the NASL and the NY Cosmos were talked about and on TV. That's when I got to be a fan of the game. NASL folds, then game hibernated here until the WC in 1994. Flip side, no one, including be, knows diddly-shit about Gaelic Football, Hurling, team handball, bandy etc. Never seen them on TV. We like what we are exposed to. And we don't like what we don't understand. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 23:25:03 GMT
Because it's stupid.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 23:49:44 GMT
And so is every other single sport in the world if you actually think about it. |
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Post by weststigersbob on Jun 21, 2018 0:36:13 GMT
Americans like American sports. It’s that simple. What they don’t do in comparison to other cultures is give “non native” sports a genuine chance. The overwhelming majority summarily dismiss them as inferior without even having watched the at all, let alone tried to understand the nuances. I personally believe this happens solely because Americans are institutionalised into believing that American = good/best/superior and Foreign = bad/weak/inferior regardless of the actual truth. You’re missing part of the reason. No American kid dreams of being Ronaldo or Messi etc., they grow up wanting to be LeBron and Tom Brady and JJ Watt and Mike Trout and Sidney Crosby, mainly because they are so readily available to watch on tv and, related to that, that’s where the money is. Most (not all but most) Americans view soccer as a bit elitist and definitely white - probably almost as much as lacrosse and maybe hockey. I don’t imagine that many inner city or underprivileged American youths play soccer or see it as a way out. And the best white American athletes aren’t going to play soccer professionally either. Why would they? There’s no money in it here. The first part of your argument doesn’t correlate with second part. American kids don’t play soccer because they don’t see it on TV, yet at the same time they see soccer as elitist and “white” but not as a way as getting “money”. However, the truth is soccer is truly global (and more multiracial than 3 of the 4 Big US sports. Don’t see too many Asian NBA or NFL players) and soccer “Stars” are just as famous and well played as any American athlete on a GLOBAL scale. If it’s “elitist” more people would want to join the elite would they not ? And if sports are a way of “getting out” - wouldn’t an elitist sport where it’s best practitioners earn bucket of cash be the way to go just as much as Any of the Big 4 US sports ? The truth is a lot of American kids mostly don’t play soccer because they see it as Un-American. And a lot of American adults refuse to watch it for the exact same reason. The reason I know this to be true is the Motorsport experience. Americans go nuts over NASCAR - but virtually identical racing from overseas is dismissed as crap. Why ? It isn’t NASCAR. |
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Post by FrankSobotka1514 on Jun 21, 2018 2:00:11 GMT
You’re missing part of the reason. No American kid dreams of being Ronaldo or Messi etc., they grow up wanting to be LeBron and Tom Brady and JJ Watt and Mike Trout and Sidney Crosby, mainly because they are so readily available to watch on tv and, related to that, that’s where the money is. Most (not all but most) Americans view soccer as a bit elitist and definitely white - probably almost as much as lacrosse and maybe hockey. I don’t imagine that many inner city or underprivileged American youths play soccer or see it as a way out. And the best white American athletes aren’t going to play soccer professionally either. Why would they? There’s no money in it here. The first part of your argument doesn’t correlate with second part. American kids don’t play soccer because they don’t see it on TV, yet at the same time they see soccer as elitist and “white” but not as a way as getting “money”. However, the truth is soccer is truly global (and more multiracial than 3 of the 4 Big US sports. Don’t see too many Asian NBA or NFL players) and soccer “Stars” are just as famous and well played as any American athlete on a GLOBAL scale. If it’s “elitist” more people would want to join the elite would they not ? And if sports are a way of “getting out” - wouldn’t an elitist sport where it’s best practitioners earn bucket of cash be the way to go just as much as Any of the Big 4 US sports ? The truth is a lot of American kids mostly don’t play soccer because they see it as Un-American. And a lot of American adults refuse to watch it for the exact same reason. The reason I know this to be true is the Motorsport experience. Americans go nuts over NASCAR - but virtually identical racing from overseas is dismissed as crap. Why ? It isn’t NASCAR. There’s not one single American kid who doesn’t like soccer because it’s “un-American”. That is ridiculous. It’s just not big here. It’s not on tv. Simple as that. |
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Jun 21, 2018 11:57:29 GMT
You’re missing part of the reason. No American kid dreams of being Ronaldo or Messi etc., they grow up wanting to be LeBron and Tom Brady and JJ Watt and Mike Trout and Sidney Crosby, mainly because they are so readily available to watch on tv and, related to that, that’s where the money is. Most (not all but most) Americans view soccer as a bit elitist and definitely white - probably almost as much as lacrosse and maybe hockey. I don’t imagine that many inner city or underprivileged American youths play soccer or see it as a way out. And the best white American athletes aren’t going to play soccer professionally either. Why would they? There’s no money in it here. The first part of your argument doesn’t correlate with second part. American kids don’t play soccer because they don’t see it on TV, yet at the same time they see soccer as elitist and “white” but not as a way as getting “money”. However, the truth is soccer is truly global (and more multiracial than 3 of the 4 Big US sports. Don’t see too many Asian NBA or NFL players) and soccer “Stars” are just as famous and well played as any American athlete on a GLOBAL scale. If it’s “elitist” more people would want to join the elite would they not ? And if sports are a way of “getting out” - wouldn’t an elitist sport where it’s best practitioners earn bucket of cash be the way to go just as much as Any of the Big 4 US sports ? The truth is a lot of American kids mostly don’t play soccer because they see it as Un-American. And a lot of American adults refuse to watch it for the exact same reason. The reason I know this to be true is the Motorsport experience. Americans go nuts over NASCAR - but virtually identical racing from overseas is dismissed as crap. Why ? It isn’t NASCAR. Maybe NASCAR already filled the racing niche in their life? Maybe football, baseball, basketball and hockey already dominate US sporting interests? Frank is right, it would be bigger if there were more opportunity. Americans don't hate soccer. Our women's team is one of the world's elite programs. Why? Because women in our country don't have as many options to pursue as professional athletes. So again, Americans don't hate soccer, they just don't like it as much as other sports that have already become ingrained in our culture. The MLS continues to expand so it's clear interest in the sport is growing, but right now there's still a gap between the big four and soccer; and it has nothing to do with xenophobia. |
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jun 21, 2018 12:29:42 GMT
If it’s “elitist” more people would want to join the elite would they not ? And if sports are a way of “getting out” - wouldn’t an elitist sport where it’s best practitioners earn bucket of cash be the way to go just as much as Any of the Big 4 US sports ? The truth is a lot of American kids mostly don’t play soccer because they see it as Un-American. And a lot of American adults refuse to watch it for the exact same reason. The reason I know this to be true is the Motorsport experience. Americans go nuts over NASCAR - but virtually identical racing from overseas is dismissed as crap. Why ? It isn’t NASCAR. To the first point, no, you're missing his point. An elitist sport is considered inaccessible. Tennis and golf are the same here. The prohibitive cost of playing such games keeps a lot of lower class families from their kids ever getting playing them, and the appearance of snobbery keeps them from watching them. On the second point, you're wrong that American kids don't grow up playing soccer. That's just not true. Youth soccer is huge in America, partly because it's not an inaccessible or expensive game, as opposed to one of our other big spectator sport, hockey, which is very expensive for kids to play. The difference is that here kids don't stick with soccer. A much larger percentage of kids play soccer from age 6-12 than from 12-17. When they start getting more serious about what sport to pursue, most kids choose to dedicate themselves to those that they see regularly on TV. I think part of that is that here our major sports each have an on and off season and they dominate your year. You can't play American football and soccer at the highs school level, and a lot of kids don't play football until high school. And those that stick with it would not be those low income kids that look to athletics as a way out of their circumstances. Sure, if you're thinking logically, then being a world class soccer star is every bit a lucrative and realistic, but we don't see that over here. We don't have the exposure to the game as it's celebrated around the world, so kids don't grow up idolizing world athletes. They look to the stars of our domestic sports leagues. You could say the same about motor sports. I don't personally know any fans of auto racing at all, but since Nascar is regularly on TV here and F1 or whatever other car racing you may be referring to is not on TV regularly, it would stand to reason that Americans would grow to follow what they've actually been exposed to. |
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