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Soccer. ..F*** No. Why not many in N.A. give much of a sh**
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Robben, being from Argentina watching him playing scared me a lot.
Santiago Martí
http://www.robotrojo.com.ar
Red One M-X, Red Epic X waiting for Dragon update, Red Pro Primes, Adobe CC, Assimilate Scratch -
I thought the video clip would be enough to show that my tongue was in my cheek 😉
Best
Paddy
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You’re right, super speed. Nice goal!
Good competition
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FWIW, the nation that’s bought the most tickets besides the Brazilians is the good ol’ US of A. I think because, unlike Europeans, it’s really easy to get to Brazil from the US. The timezone is only an hour ahead of the east coast, too.
While the day-to-day interest in soccer is obviously not that high among mainstream Anglo culture, the fact is that World Cup ratings have always been fine. and this year, even better than “just fine.”
The World Cup opening match was #2 cable show for the week, just behind Game of Thrones. During the week on a daily basis, it has been #1. That’ll do.
Ratings overall were up over 2010, with the first-round US game up 37% over the first-round game in 2010. And again, higher ratings in 2014 vs. 2010 even before the US played a game.
For that matter, “North America” includes Mexico, a country whose World Cup bona fides are unimpeachable.
North America also includes Canada, where the World Cup is bigger than the Stanley Cup — and that’s with a team that hasn’t been especially competitive.
But read that again: the World Cup is bigger in Canada than hockey.
Or curling.
For streaming, Akamai reports that the online viewership for the Canada vs. Netherlands match was almost exactly equal to the previous record for online sports viewing, the Olympics semifinal hockey game between Canada and the US.
Not to put too fine a point on it, depending on the neighborhood you live in, the idea that “America” doesn’t care about the World Cup is nonsense. There’s more to America than the mainstream, and, as the ratings are indicating, there’s a lot more to World Cup fandom than immigrant communities of color.
And in addition to better-than-okay ratings in the US, recalling that North America does in fact include other countries, where no sports get higher ratings than world cup — sorry man, for the World Cup, this isn’t even close to true, even in the good ol’ US of A.
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[Tim Wilson] “North America also includes Canada, where the World Cup is bigger than the Stanley Cup — and that’s with a team that hasn’t been especially competitive.
But read that again: the World Cup is bigger in Canada than hockey.
Or curling.”
Clearly, Timothy, you’ve been doing bad things to your brain. Bigger in Canada than hockey? That’s hilarious. Bigger than curling, well maybe, but doubtful, and if so, only because those from the rest of the world outnumber those from Scotland.
[Tim Wilson] “For streaming, Akamai reports that the online viewership for the Canada vs. Netherlands match was almost exactly equal to the previous record for online sports viewing, the Olympics semifinal hockey game between Canada and the US.”
A couple of things: a) online streaming just isn’t that big here. b) you’d have to be desperate to watch a huge hockey match on a phone. c) Canada didn’t play the Netherlands because Canada has a pitiable soccer team that didn’t come close to making the World Cup. Portugal, however played the Netherlands and as there are maybe 300,000 Portugese living in Toronto, and most of them work hard for a living, maybe they’re the ones who were watching the match in droves at work on their cell phones. Akamai doesn’t breakdown streaming by ethnicity. It’s probably illegal.
David
https://AllinOneFilms.com -
[David Cherniack] “Bigger in Canada than hockey? That’s hilarious.”
I was speaking strictly in terms of RATINGS, for the Stanley Cup vs. the World Cup, and the answer is, it’s not even close.
For individual games, close, yes. But to take Game 1 of the World Cup, 2.8 million viewers. The FINAL game of the Stanley cup was only 500,000 people more than that — and Canada hasn’t been in the World Cup since 1986!
Taking the first seven games of the World Cup vs. the Stanley Cup, World Cup comes out ahead.
And the World Cup still has a long way to go, so the viewership of the World Cup will DWARF the Stanley Cup, even without a Canadian team.
Incidentally, World Cup ratings in Canada are up 60% over 2010.
Sorry man, the numbers are the numbers.
[David Cherniack] “Canada didn’t play the Netherlands “
Quite so, it was Spain vs. Netherlands.
[David Cherniack] “300,000 Portugese living in Toronto”
Again, the record was set by SPAIN vs. Netherlands. In general, the Portuguese are not particular fans of Spain.
Even if they were, it doesn’t change the basic facts of the thing.
[David Cherniack] “online streaming just isn’t that big here.”
ESPECIALLY irrelevant, because we’re comparing like to like. Canadians watching.
USA vs. Canada in the Olympics should NATURALLY have attracted a big audience. And it did.
So IN CANADA, a WORLD CUP match that doesn’t even feature Canada, very nearly equals the record-setting streams of a very closely watched Olympic hockey game.
And fwiw, it was around 2 million streams. Not close to the 15 million Canadian TV viewers, but streams don’t measure viewers, so you’d need to multiply those streams by some additional number. Numbers of eyeballs, it’s a lot closer than you’d think.
Ethnicity doesn’t matter in any case. Canadians are Canadians. IN CANADA, the ratings for the World Cup are equivalent, when totaling ALL ethnicities, and in some cases, greater than hockey.
Otherwise, I’m mystified how this even matters. Even if you’re saying that ONLY European, African, Caribbean, Asian, etc. communities within Canada are watching World Cup, and that NO Caucasians are watching, and that ONLY Caucasian “native” Canadians watch hockey, it’s STILL irrelevant. More Canadians, as a whole, will watch World Cup games than Stanley Cup games, and even taken on a one-to-one game basis, the ratings are incredibly close.
With Canada’s last appearance in the World Cup 1986!
World Cup ratings are up 60% this time, btw. Stanley Cup ratings have held relatively steady over the past 4 years. If this trend continues, in 2018, World Cup ratings will be fully DOUBLE Stanley Cup ratings.
ERGO, when it comes to the World Cup, it is simply factually WRONG to say that North Americans in general, or Canadians in particular, don’t care about soccer, or care about it less than hockey. Simply wrong.
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Very funny. Almost as good as Tim’s citation-challenged viewership stats for hockey vs soccer in Canada.
Tim,
No need to get into a pissing match over numbers. If you believe that your viewership stats support the fact that there’s interest in the World Cup in North America I can’t disagree. That doesn’t however translate into year round interest in soccer. It’s rather interest in a Big Event. Soon to be supplanted by the next Big Event.There’s lots of reasons why I don’t believe soccer will rise to the level of other products sports in North America anytime soon. But my main argument in this thread has been that it lacks the modern review procedures of referreeing decisions that people here have come to expect… that mostly prevent the blown calls that frequently affect the results of matches. My starting this thread was provoked by precisely that happening in the marquee opening match. On the argument that soccer referreeing is woefully subject to poor calls there’s almost no disagreement. Even Sepp Blather (sic) has recently mused on allowing two video replay challenges per match. It’s gotta happen eventually though we may never live to see it.
Back to making films.
David
https://AllinOneFilms.com -
Utterly baffled. What Tim is quite eloquently saying is that in spite of all the reasons you are giving for futball not being popular in NA, it already is. No, the World Cup isn’t like watching MLS, and on a week to week basis it’s likely that hockey or basketball or NFL is more popular than MLS, but that’s not the title of this thread is it? The World Cup is huge, and aside from the Olympics is the worlds biggest and most watched sporting event.
Also, this World Cup has already seen more goals, more wins and has adopted goal line technology compared with the last one. Futball is adapting, is getting faster and more goals are being scored. Aside from slowing the play down whilst 60,000 people and 2 referees watch a replay 2 times to decide the minute decisions of a game, what else should be done? Rugby has tv replays for big decisions and many pros and fans are getting very tired of them….
Anyway – back to watching. Another great game between Colombia and Ivory Coast just now, a stunning goal from Tim Cahill last night and England are waiting to slip up at the last minute against Uruguay!
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