Soccer, or football in most countries, is the most popular sport in the world. The 2010 world cup received over 26 billion views. However, soccer is by no means the most popular sport in America. Baseball is America’s pastime, but did you ever wonder how soccer in America came to be? Soccer’s popularity went through many ups and downs throughout the 20th century before rooting itself in American culture as it is today. Soccer has been played in the United States since the late 1800’s. However, soccer as we know it today first gained popularity in the 1920’s. The 1920’s marked a time of great financial success in America. When waves of immigrants arrived in the US to work in factories, plants, and mills, they brought soccer with them. In 1921, the country's first pro soccer competition was formed. The American Soccer League included teams from Fall River, Massachusetts and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, …show more content…
This event proved to be a pivotal moment in the popularity of soccer in the US. The cumulative attendance of the tournament was 3,587,538. This turnout broke the previous record by more than 1 million people. The U.S. stadiums were filled to approximately 96 percent capacity during the tournament. The US team advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1930, and this success helped keep American audiences interested and boost ratings. About 11 million Americans tuned in to the USA vs. Brazil round of 16 match on July 4. The tournament produced 50 million dollars that was contributed to the US Soccer Foundation, an organization created to administer the World Cup surplus . This amount was more than double the estimated projections. With these funds, training facilities and stadiums were renovated and upgraded to meet FIFA standards. After the tournament, the MLS (Major League Soccer) was formed, and unlike its predecessors has endured to this
The growing interest and boom in popularity in the sport was obvious, in fact the change was so quick and the colleges, with their old-school style stadiums meant for crowds who, only a few years ago, would have been in much smaller proportions, were run over with the amount of people that came in to watch their games. In 1922, it was estimated that 500,000 people were turned down from buying tickets simply due to the lack of space. The total number of fans themselves was growing rapidly as the number grew, in fact in one year alone the total number of fans went from 10 million in 1924 to 12 million in 1925. Because of this school directors and boards of committees saw the major economic implications ahead of them and decided that in order to maximize profits they should simply build bigger stadiums, which they did. Yale was one of the first to see the coming boom and quickly raised its capacity from 50,000 in 1903 to 78,000 by 1914. With the amount of fans growing unproportionately to the growing sizes of the stadiums growing so rapidly talks of a 165,000
By 1930 the interest in soccer was high enough to ensure the success of the first World Cup. Even though only thirteen Countries entered that was still enough to have the first World Cup. Soccer didn't come to the United States until 1620.
Finally, the bronze medal game crowd reached 100,000 people, and the all-time USA soccer attendance record was set at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena when 101,799 fans watched France defeated Brazil for the gold medal. Soccer was by far the best attended sport in the entire games, with nearly half of all tickets sold. The Olympic competition suddenly made Los Angeles a popular destination for the national team, which had not played in the city since a 1977 friendly game against El Salvador. The USA played friendly games against Columbia and El Salvador in October, winning both matches before large crowds. The USA team later made Torrance a stop on their World Cup schedule, playing two matches there in 1985 and another in 1989.
Most think the U.S. Woman’s National Team does not deserve equal pay. The number one reason for this opinion is due to the fact that people are not as interested in women’s soccer as they are in men’s, however the USWNT has become extremely popular over the past couple of years. In 2015, the Women’s World Cup final match broke the record for the most watched soccer game in United States history between men and women’s soccer. The average number of viewers for the entire match was around 25 million viewers. This number fluctuated over the course of the match and had a peak of 31 million viewers, which almost doubled the amount of viewers than the previous set record. The original record set by the USMNT during the 2014 World Cup at 18 million viewers was completely demolished because of the
However, soccer is not yet on of the major sports in America. However, soccer can become the fifth major sport because of the growing interest, viewership, and international support. This year the world rejoiced as several counties participated in the biggest soccer tournament in the world, the World Cup. More than twenty teams from all around the world traveled to Brazil to participate, all having the dream of taking home the trophy. The international community considers soccer as one of the major sports.
The United States has its own favoritism of sports, and is captivated by football. Soccer, for the rest of the world, is an all time classic. It brings neighborhoods, family, and teams together to participate in a game that seems a little simple. The problem with soccer is that for some it’s too basic, there aren’t enough opportunities to score and the players seem to just run around for ninety minutes. What soccer lacks is the depth of strategy and the ability for players to specialize.
Much associate soccer with English history, but actually it all started in the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty started the roots of the game by filling leather balls with feathers and hair, and in which they had to kick the ball through a small opening. It isn’t as easy as many would think because you aren’t allowed to use your hands, so in other words, you can use everything else. This new game eventually caught on big in England, and even though the game is massively popular, the game was frowned upon at the same time. The players would get so caught up in the game
U.S soccer started when the English settlers came to populate America. The game was originally played across an entire town with two nets at either end. Players tackled each other to get the ball to one end of the town and in a
Soccer is it is the most popular sport. Soccer originated in England, but China claimed to have also played a similar game of passing and kicking the ball into a goal. In America, we call the sport soccer, but originally it was called football and it is still known as football to this day in all other parts of the world.. There are twenty one professional leagues across the world, but some of the main leagues are the MLS, or Major League Soccer, The Premier League, UEFA Champions League, and La Liga. There are nearly sixty stadiums in England alone and most of the largest stadiums in the world are soccer stadiums and have the capacity of over 70,000. When there is a game, the entire city becomes a party before the game, and when the favorite team of that city wins, there is a party after the game that goes on until the team plays again. The fans of soccer are
Soccer is, without a doubt, the best and the most beloved sport in the world, but nobody would think that this astounding sport was hated by the place where it was originated, the America. Soccer is the worldwide sport with a huge majority of subscribers all over the world. Unlike soccer, football is mainly an American sport which only attracts the Americans. But why American peoples hate soccer? There are a lot of debates that goes on regards to football and soccer. Whenever the controversy between two of these competitive sports goes, we still agree that soccer and football are the most anticipated sports with the largest viewer that ever existed. Although these two sports don’t really get along, but they can’t avoid sharing each other
Attention Getter Did you know 46% of the world population is considered a soccer fan? That’s 3.5 billion people out of 7.5 billion currently in the world’s population which is very close to half. Which makes soccer the most popular sport in the world.
The first international soccer match was in 1872. It was played between England and Scotland. After that match the sport started to spread more and more across parts of the world(“The”). In 1885 the first professional soccer players were recognized by the Football Association(“The History”). By the year 1888 the first professional soccer leagues were invented. The players were all distributed from twelve different soccer clubs in England(“The History”). In the 20th Century many Europeans had established their own soccer leagues and they also started playing soccer across the world,
Soccer is a popular sport played all over the world. Even though it has only been popular in the United States for the past 30 years, soccer has been a long time favorite most everywhere else. The sport dates back to the Egyptians, who played games involving the kicking of a ball. Now, the sport has grown to a global pastime, including men’s and women’s teams, and the World Cup (which is played every four years).
The passion around the world when it comes to the game of soccer is immeasurable. Known as football in all other nations except Canada and the United States, it is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world. It is a game played by millions all across the world and in many countries, such as Brazil, soccer contributes to nationalism. Every four years it brings numerous nations together. This coming together, during what is known as the World Cup, is the most viewed sporting event across the globe. Soccer is a sport that has survived many
Sports like basketball, Football, Baseball, and Tennis are all popular here in the U.S, yet, soccer doesn't get as much attention. The U.S international team has qualified for the biggest international tournament, The World Cup, for 32 years in a row. They never won the World cup, but they have been performing really well over the years. If soccer was more popular here in the U.S, they would have more people wanting to play the sport, causing them to improve massively as a team.