Before anyone gets carried away with any "s" word giddiness, looking at the replay of USA vs. the MS-13 All-Stars, one couldn't help but notice at just how overwhelmingly "Salvadorian blue" the crowd was in a stadium located in Baltimore, Maryland. "Yanqui Go Home!" - lol. Nice game by Donovan, Johnson and co. though. Hundreds of folks tuned in? Literally. The game drew a weak 1.2 rating (i.e. only 1.2% of TVs were tuned into the game) and the previous USA-Cuba game garnered a 'robust' 0.6 in the Nielsen ratings of the top 56 markets.
I'll be seeing two Italian giants Milan and Inter along with Chelski and Valencia. Too bad I'll miss Mehico and Cote D'Ivore on August 14th. I might have actually gone if I was still going to be back east.
TNT's average ratings for the NBA is only 1.4 and ESPN 1.2. http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2013/04/24/big-tv-viewer-drops-for-turner-espn-abc/ for MLB, ESPN averaged a 1.2 for Sunday Night baseball and Fox 1.7 last season. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2012/10/09/Media/MLB-reg-season.aspx it may be weak, but no weaker than more popular sports, so hardly an indictment of interest in soccer. and that match was the equivalent of a regular season basketball game. USA vs England in the last World Cup (which would be a playoff equivalent match) had a higher rating (7.3 average) than every 2013 NBA playoff game before the Finals (7.1 was the highest rating of any non-Finals playoff game -- Game 7 Heat/Pacers). http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2013/06/2013-nba-playoffs-wrap-tv-ratings-for-every-game/ http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2010/06/strong_marks_for_tv_ratings_fo.html
crowd 95,446. liverpool 2-0 , not unexpected, the locals played a young side, had a few chances , will be happy with result as the second goal came in 93min
Those are one of a million reg season games, we would compare those ratings to MLS(or the WNBA). This tournament is supposed to be special(at least that is the way espn is trying to cram it down our throats so some people pay attention and in turn tune in to more soccer on espn). and that USA/Eng;and match counts Univision or some other nonsense like that. Compare the ABC/ESPN #s for both and it wouldn't be close even though, again, it was a reg playoff game that happens every year vs. the WC which happens every 4.
Thx for the numbers JetBlue; eye-opening figures. Just playing devils's advocate here: World Cup generally-speaking is not an annual event, involves a national (vs. regional/municipal) entity and in the case of USA-England an even more unique, rarer event especially given the historical 'ties' between the two countries. A USA-England match is something that I (not a soccer devotee per se) would flip the dial to catch. The NY Red Bulls versus the Omaha Fat Girl Bangers? Not a chance. And when you get away from the larger cities, I'd think the interest level would further drop like a stone. In a more immediate sense (referring to the game against El Salvador and what I was addressing in the 1st part of my previous post), I was struck at the overwhelming majority of fans dressed in "visitor blue" on an American pitch and this involving El Salvador, a small country, i.e. we're not talking Mexico or Argentina, etc. And THAT seems to be the general rule whenever a south-of-the-border country is playing the USA on the USA's "home turf" and what lead to my comments regarding junc's sarcastic "I was wrong" inferrence that soccer is on the threashold of becoming mainstream popular. I mean, what other "popular" sport subjects the US national team to "visitor" status in it's own backyard, and in the case of Los Angeles, to actual abuse? jm2cents-regards.
The Gold Cup is special in the same way the FIBA Basketball World Cup is special (which is to say it's not). Except the Gold Cup draws far more viewers in the quarterfinals then the FIBA World Cup draws in the finals.
doesn't this tourney have some sort of impact on the WC? and in basketball people have just watched for an entire season w/ regards to the NBA and CBB, w/ soccer no one watches MLS so it makes these tournaments more unique and more appealing and yet still no one watches.
This post just illustrates how very little you know about the topic you discuss so much. First of all the Gold Cup has no impact on the World Cup, it is a regional tournament. Secondly the participants in the Gold Cup represent their country, not a league team, and players can come from any league in the world or no league at all for that matter. So the MLS comment makes no sense whatsoever. Finally, tournaments are constantly underway in the world of Soccer, it's not a unique concept at all in soccer. Champions League, Domestic Cups, Regional tournaments, Carling Cup, World Cup Qualifiers.... all of them underway right now or the early stages kick off in the next 2 weeks. And Yankee Stadium is still selling out for soccer exhibition games....
uh, you know half the team is on the DL, right? they have a little hobby w/ a soccer team. They didn't invest big dollars into it. I thankfully don't know much about that sport. I was talking about in this Country not across the globe. The Yankees were GIVING AWAY TICKETS to that game a month or so ago, they couldn't sell out. I don't know what the final attendance #s were but it sure wasn't a paid sellout.
Panama beat Mexico so the US will play Panama in the finals. Didn't see that coming, then again Panama brought their A team and Mexico brought their C+ team
Sunday, July 28 (Soldier Field; Chicago, Ill.) United States vs. Panama, 4 p.m. ET (TV: Fox) Should be fun!! :metal:
Liverpool fans, what can Napoli expect out of Reina? Was his form slipping or was it more a situation where Mignolet's upside warranted moving on despite solid form. And sorry Arsenal, but Gonzalo works for us! What a kick right in Arsene's balls.
