Its what you know

I agree with that and another aspect is also the character of the game. American sports definitely have a ‘power’ aspect that soccer doesn’t usually have.

Football, basketball and hockey have a lot of contact and baseball has that ‘fast play’ thing too with ‘power hitters’. Soccer is too slow and too focused on skill rather than power to be an antention grabber.

1) The article Chris references above has the word “hate” in the title - never does it back up that the US “hates” soccer, simply that it is not as popular as the big 3 in Neilsen ratings. Soccer is the most widely participated in sport among pre-18’s in the US - hardly a “hate” relationship.

2) Why soccer is not as popular has much more todo with the media, habit, money and power and much less todo with the actual game speed/power that Nick references IMO.

Agreed. One of the fastest growing sports channels, Fox Sports World, is slowly bringing European Football into the US market. It may only be available in big cities, but it’s a start.

And yes, though we do have Major League Soccer (MLS) the European grade players are few and far between and watching them play is laughable.

The pubs I go to in the states have huge followings for games. One of them even charges $20/head for the important games (big Arsenal fan base — he charges ‘em all… hardely ever does for my Necastle games). And people pay it.

Hate and popular are quite different concepts. Leave it to the media to make conclusions based on …. what?