Nielsen Says Most Rabid College Football Fans in Northeast Are in CNY and Western PA | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

Nielsen Says Most Rabid College Football Fans in Northeast Are in CNY and Western PA

FWIW, that college football fan map is why the incessant bleating about one conference or another "owning NYC" is absolutely silly.
 
bnoro said:
The 18-25 demographic doesn't care about baseball and loves soccer. That's a huge red flag for the future.
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Yeah, that's more than a bit overstated. There are absolutely red flags for baseball, but i don't think people comprehend the margin that currently exists between baseball and soccer "popularity". Ratings, attendance, merchandise sales, etc.

I'm not slagging on soccer, but, again, math.
 
Scooch said:
Interest in soccer had grown a ton in the U.S. since the '96 World Cup, and it will continue to grow in the coming years. That being said, it won't surpass interest in baseball by any objective measure for a long, long, long time. If ever. That's not a value judgement, it's just math.
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I think soccer was always popular. When I was a kid of early sports playing age (some 35 years ago) every single kid played soccer. From ages 6 to 12. Continued on middle school and high school teams. Never a shortage of kids interested. But the same applied to baseball.

I don't have a dog in the fight, because I like both sports, but soccer people love attacking baseball as the sport they will surpass. I guess baseball people attack soccer too? I usually hear it from football people.

Soccer just isn't passing baseball here anytime soon. Certainly not in 10 years. People said it 20 years ago (1996), 10 years ago.
 
The problem with soccer is that MLS will never be the best league in the world. If they were the NBA or NHL, then IMO soccer could pass all but the NFL. But that will never happen. Even if MLS got out of the way and stopped being a socialist enterprise. Under the current financial setup at best it will be the equal of the Eredivisie. The Chinese and Russians can and will throw money at players. The top Euro clubs can pay just as much and can offer Champions. Soccer can't pass baseball if your favorite team plays in Europe and you can never see a game in person.
 
bnoro said:
10 years from now and soccer will be miles ahead of baseball. Because true Americans realize that soccer is a great sport.
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Soccers issues to growth in this country is that to play in the best leagues, you have to leave, and how we train our field players inhibits their ability to compete at the highest levels
 
Chip said:
I think soccer was always popular. When I was a kid of early sports playing age (some 35 years ago) every single kid played soccer. From ages 6 to 12. Continued on middle school and high school teams. Never a shortage of kids interested. But the same applied to baseball.

I don't have a dog in the fight, because I like both sports, but soccer people love attacking baseball as the sport they will surpass. I guess baseball people attack soccer too? I usually hear it from football people.

Soccer just isn't passing baseball here anytime soon. Certainly not in 10 years. People said it 20 years ago (1996), 10 years ago.
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I'm a fan of baseball as well. There's a big difference due to streaming and media consumption that is helping the sport of soccer (not just MLS) grow in this country like never before.
 
bnoro said:
The 18-25 demographic doesn't care about baseball and loves soccer. That's a huge red flag for the future.
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Not sure the 18-25 year old baseball demographic is what you care about. I love football/basketball but when I was 18-25 I loved TnA and beer a whole lot more. It was around 25 when I started really following my sports teams even more closely. I was rabid by the time I was 30. This isn't to dispute the things you are saying, i just know televised sports were the least of my worries back then.
 
bnoro said:
I'm a fan of baseball as well. There's a big difference due to streaming and media consumption that is helping the sport of soccer (not just MLS) grow in this country like never before.
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This is the thing that has helped soccer the most in terms of youth interest...

2908224-fifa.jpg
 
MSOrange said:
This is how much I trust you. I looked and saw the NASCAR info on page 19 and thought to myself, well if Tom says it's there, I'll assume he's right and I'm losing it.

That being said, well done Central New York. Doesn't look like leaving all those tvs on is helping our friends in New Jersey too much.
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How can you lose something you never had
teasing-with-poking-tongue-out-smiley-emoticon.gif
 
bnoro said:
10 years from now and soccer will be miles ahead of baseball. Because true Americans realize that soccer is a great sport.
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I'm a soccer fan (Well, a European Soccer fan anyway) and that's an overstatement on your part.

Baseball, especially in certain areas will never come close to being displaced by Soccer.

There are a lot of factors for this. It's not a game to American tastes and it will always be dominated by the rest of the world.

The US is small potatoes when it comes to world-wide sports viewership.
 
Soccer is a thoroughly european mindset. Fun for kids to play but not many americans will care about pro soccer unless the bernie sander types take over.
 
AlaskaSU said:
Soccer is a thoroughly european mindset. Fun for kids to play but not many americans will care about pro soccer unless the bernie sander types take over.
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Oy vey.

I'd ask you to explain how soccer-obsessed nations like Brazil and China have "European mindsets" but who cares, really?
 
Townie72 said:
I'm a soccer fan (Well, a European Soccer fan anyway) and that's an overstatement on your part.

Baseball, especially in certain areas will never come close to being displaced by Soccer.

There are a lot of factors for this. It's not a game to American tastes and it will always be dominated by the rest of the world.

The US is small potatoes when it comes to world-wide sports viewership.
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All we need to know is soccer is growing dramatically in the USA. That is a fact. How much it grows over over the next 5-10 years is anyone's guess, but the country-wide demographic shifts definitely will accelerate, not decelerate, that growth.

Soccer and baseball viewership is not a zero sum game. Not sure why these two things ever need to be compared, and this goes for the soccer fans that like to beat their chests and declare impending supremacy over America's past-time. I think there is one thing that could absolutely catapult soccer in the US - to levels inconceivable even just a few years back, and that is the US men making some real noise in the World Cup. I'm talking about a finals run or a finals win. I think we'd go soccer crazy as a nation if that happened, and really big viewership numbers would roll in. We already saw it with the ladies, it would be even greater with the men.

We just can't seem to get out of our own way, however, in terms of cultivating soccer talent. If we could just simply produce one world class bonefide star on the World Stage (whether in Spain or the BPL) - that would also be a game-changer.
 
Lacrosse. Once kids try it they like it. Short time commitment, all the violence of football, the agility of hoops and the speed of baseball (pitches and hits, not the pitcher deciding what pitch to throw). Coaches in the south do what they can to keep kids from playing it. They don't work hard against soccer.
 
And Japan continues to be the strangest country in the world with their top watched sporting event being a college relay marathon. :crazy:
 
MLB is considering expansion, which means a couple of extra MiLB clubs at every level. College baseball and Collegiate Summer League is rapidly growing as well. The money going into new downtown MiLB parks is amazing - $20-$30 million a clip.

Baseball is doing fine and if soccer is growing faster, who cares?
 
Bayside44 said:
I've been hearing that since Pele played for the Cosmos.
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Expansion from. 10 teams in 2000 to 24 in 2020 and cities are literally fighting get a spot. The outlook for mls has changed drastically in just. 15 years
 
HtownOrange said:
Lacrosse. Once kids try it they like it. Short time commitment, all the violence of football, the agility of hoops and the speed of baseball (pitches and hits, not the pitcher deciding what pitch to throw). Coaches in the south do what they can to keep kids from playing it. They don't work hard against soccer.
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It should adopt a shot clock and eliminate face offs.
 
The biggest risk to baseball is t-ball. It sucks and kids know it sucks. They get bored and turned off.
Put them on a soccer field, where they get to run and the rules are relatively simple compared to baseball and, in general, it's over.
I grew up a huge baseball fan. I played all the way from Little League through HS. I played against Mel Hall in an,All Star game. I was gonna play in college, but the school dumped baseball.
Through my kids, I have become a big soccer fan, to the point that I will watch a random soccer game rather than a random baseball game, or even a game with my beloved O's.
 
Capt. Tuttle said:
It should adopt a shot clock and eliminate face offs.
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If a team goes into a stall, the refs can start a 30 second shot clock...and do. Syracuse has been under the shot clock many times this season, too many times. At times during the ACC championship tourney last weekend it appeared as the refs could not wait to the shot clock.

Regardless, lacrosse scores far more often and much faster than soccer. Also, the team concept is much more in play; in soccer one superstar can change everything, in lacrosse, much less so.
 
Soccer has become the obligatory youth sport: low cost, boys and girls can play it, not too violent. But that doesn't translate into adult passion for the game. It's extremely low scoring, for one thing. And for another thing, we didn't invent it.
 
storange said:
Expansion from. 10 teams in 2000 to 24 in 2020 and cities are literally fighting get a spot. The outlook for mls has changed drastically in just. 15 years
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Sure and there is a marketplace for it which is great. DC is hopefully getting a new stadium to complete (and host other events). MLS doesn't have Bryce Harper, Mike Trout type talent, those guys are in Europe.
 

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