Two in three Americans do not plan to follow football's World Cup

ReutersApril 15, 2014, 3:17 am


By Lindsay Dunsmuir

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When the U.S. men's football team lines up in Brazil to play their first game of the football World Cup in June, their home support may be tepid at best.

Two in three Americans do not plan to follow this year's tournament, according to an ongoing Reuters/Ipsos poll. Only 7 percent said they anticipated following it closely.

It's been 20 years since the United States hosted the World Cup, an attempt at the time to bring football to a mass American audience. Two years later, a new professional league - Major League Soccer (MLS) - began. The league has grown from 10 to 19 teams.

The arrival of international stars such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry to play for MLS teams in recent years has boosted the sport's popularity. The owners of successful English Premier League team Manchester City, in partnership with the New York Yankees, are due to debut the New York City Football Club for the 2015 MLS season.

A Beckham-backed Miami team is also in the process of being established in order to join the league.

But football still has a long way to go before its marquee event can stake a claim alongside football's Super Bowl, the National Basketball Association finals, and baseball's World Series in American minds, the poll shows.

Eighty-six percent of Americans said they either know nothing or only a little bit about the World Cup, and more than two-thirds did not know Brazil is the 2014 host nation.

Jose Vargas, 48, does plan on watching the World Cup in Houston, where he has lived since coming to the United States in 2003. But he will be supporting his birth nation: Colombia.

And while he says that football is popular among his Hispanic friends, he does not think a diversity of Americans is that enthused. "Soccer is really a sport that's followed in Latin America and Europe," he said.

ABC/ESPN paid $100 million in 2005 for the broadcast rights in English to FIFA events from 2007 to 2014, including this year's World Cup, while Univision paid $325 million for the Spanish-language rights.

The poll does show that one-third of Hispanic Americans will be following the tournament or some teams closely, double the percentage for respondents overall.

Hispanics comprised 16 percent of the total U.S. population in 2010, according to census data.

Kelli Cousineau, 33, and her family will not be watching the World Cup at home near Phoenix despite her having played football in junior high.

She switched to volleyball for a chance at a college scholarship and says that football still isn't taken as seriously. "It's just not a sport that has a lot of following," she said. "The other sports like basketball, baseball and football are considered all-American."

The results were taken from an ongoing Reuters/Ipsos online poll and include the responses of 1,416 adult Americans from April 7-11. The credibility interval, a measure of precision, is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
(Reporting By Lindsay Dunsmuir and Maurice Tamman; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

https://nz.sports.yahoo.com/football/a-league/news/article/-/22646067/two-in-three-americans-do-not-plan-to-follow-footballs-world-cup/

That's cool, if one in three Americans follows it that's still over 80 million people.

For us, their problems...

Exactly what I was going to say. If 30% of Australians follow the World Cup it'll be a good thing.

2 in 3 Americans couldn't find Brazil on a map.

lol, the same figure don't believe in natural evolution, either.

USA! USA! USA!

TBH this is just one of those many great things that just carry on fine without americas involvement.

2 in 3 Americans couldn't find the US on a map.

Both correct :lol:

And I'd say 90% of Americans would think Africa is a country

Meanwhile, the MLS is doing better than the A-League...

But if you compare the population of America to Australia then it's no wonder the MLS is doing better

And if you compare the population of America to Australia then you'll realise that 80 million people following the World Cup is damn impressive.

Love the anti-Americans, always good for a laugh. Like the idiots during the 2000 Olympics who said they wanted Spain to beat the Yanks in the football semifinal because they were cheering for the underdog.

I'm not saying it isn't, just that there's going to be more money floating around for soccer in America with the population size so of course the league will be better.

And i am a little Anti American, mainly because my dad's Canadian and I've been to American many times and their a bunch of rude idiots, much like Australia i guess but with a lot more guns :lol:

Look, everyone is entitled to their own prejudices, noone's perfect. But I can tell you that far from being rude, some if the friendliest people I've ever met in my travels have been Americans.

Why would they watch the World Cup when they can watch the World Series?

There are friendly people everywhere I guess it just depends what part of certain countries you travel to. I will say though from a lot of personal experience, generally speaking Canadians are friendlier/ more welcoming then Americans. Heck I even found people in Tanzania are just as friendly as Canadians.

But I guess people have different ideas about what they consider polite/ rude etc.

Disagree, I think politeness and rudeness are universal qualities. Haven't spent time in Canada so can't compare but the ones I've met have been nice too.

I've generally found Europeans to be far less friendly than (North) Americans.

What a ridiculous poll/article.

1/3 of the US watched the Super Bowl (in other words, you could say that 2/3 didnt care about it.......) 4% (15m) of America watched the World Series on average. I guess no one cares about baseball.

22m watched the US-Ghana game. 25m watched the World Cup final, and remember these are numbers with a timezone that doesn't suit the US. The United States will pay a BILLION dollars for 2018/2022. No one cares!

The interest in the World Cup in the States is going to be the highest ever, as every new World Cup is. Ridiculous article. Total click bait.

Agreed there, think that's pretty much a universal truth.



Can't agree there. I'd find that almost laughable. The aura of general ignorance of so much of the world doesn't really help though. Of course that's not everybody and I'd never say that. Not really a fan of stereotypes either, but sadly that one seems to be true in the most cases that I've talked to Americans.. And geez, those are the ones that have actually ventured overseas :lol:

Of course it depends where you are. Everybody in NYC was like an absolute cunt while when I was in Minnesota I had the time of my life because the people were so much nicer. Even when I went up to Narrabri (lol) in Northern NSW I saw a difference between how much nicer the people were than in the city.

Not talking about Canadians there, either.

Edited by Draupnir: 29/4/2014 04:40:19 AM

NYC thing is not necessarily limited to it, or America either (Though I've never been to the US, I'm sure there are cultural particularities, as we're introduced via film and TV, like Seinfeld etc). I think it's the scale of the city, and being one of those globally bigger megalopolis' of the world - some of it's characteristics and that of it's citizens, are surely shared with the ilk of some in LA (Or certain parts of the LA sprawl), London and Londoners (Their rep notorious too at times), Paris, probably the big East Asian cities etc...?

The more built up and busy, the faster the cut and thrust and even degree of 'survival of the fittest' in a way. Getting in the devil in the detail I'm sure some maybe be slighter meaner according to some kind of surveyed 'mean' result or something - probably relating to the culture of the citizenry, but again, many characters can be shared due to the big city environs and the stresses, issues, cosmopolitanism, social cut and thrust, dynamic environs, socio-economics and demography etc...

As you guys touched on, that can work in wider ways too - not even the megacities, but just generally the city folk v country folk stereotype. Though against that stereotype grain - it's ofcourse case-by-case, but sometimes proper city folk (not middle-outer suburbs) can at times be more inclusive and accepting of differences/diversity, through nature of the cosmopolitanism and diversity they're familiar with, compared to some more homogeneous and even closed country communities where the levels of fear, distrust of the outsider - be they city folk, immigrants, different persuasions of all sorts, politics, religion, higher education/class etc... can still be a factor some places. Though thankfully, probably not as great as it was in the past with the greater interconnectedness in the world etc... And flipside again, some country folk may not be as 'backward' as old stereotypes suggested, given increasing globalisation, the net/broadband and so catching onto news, trends etc... much sooner.



Actually, depends according to which parameters - because it's the Olympics, the US Men's football team is actually apart of the wider US Olympic team. And there they are always amongst the constant favourites/contenders to top the Gold and overall medal tally. So, in wider terms, the US are favourites overall and so the less of their competitors achieving a medal, the better for rivals and chances for others to get such medals who may not have anywhere near as many. Like Spain, who won the Gold that year, with 'lil ole' Cameroon gaining Silver! US have enough medals, especially that Olympics (Though Marion Jones was retrospectively stripped of hers) - so that is one tourny where I'm glad the US don't overachieve too far. :p We on the other hand, if only we could just qualify for it starters, let alone leave the group stage as we last did in '04.

But, nevermind, I get your angle. ;) :p

Edited by GloryPerth: 29/4/2014 06:04:11 AM

The MLS has been around for 18 or 19 years id fully expect it to be better.
I've been to the US three times 1994,2000, 2010. Most americans I encountered were very nice. We took a trip to Florida in 2000 and I couldn't possibly recommend it. I found most of the people there to be quite arrogant and I got tired of people thinking I was British. Most of my enjoyment came from the west coast.

Everyone has their own experience but I found the absolutely friendliest people I've met (during my travels) to be New Yorkers. White ones, Italian ones, Jewish ones, all super friendly. The black guys are super friendly too. The only ones whom we found a bit rude were the black chicks. Too much 'tude. It's probably just a front though in most cases.

Like I said before I think Politeness and rudeness are subjective and open for interpretation. There have been a number of different views about the same countries in the last couple of posts.

Some people are offended by the F word, personally I am not.

I guess it can take only one bad or good experience with a person in a country to make someone's mind ip about the country as a whole.

1 in 3 Americans that say they plan to watch the WC is well over 100 million people.

"Tepid support at best"?

not in TV ratings they are not. If anything the MLS comparably would kill for the ratings the A-League is getting by parity.

I just hope the MLS stops at 24 teams max and build up the lower divisions.

Unless USA make it to the quarter final or higher you won't see a big spike.

I think the MLS model, like ours, is to establish a presence in as many places as possible. Naturally with the size of the place the number of cities to cover is massive.

I think for football's development over there it's far better to go the way of multiple conferences and no promo/rel than establish top down.

As opposed to Australians who'll all be on the edge of their seat lmao

1 out of 3 people? That's actually pretty impressive. I find it hilarious that some people in this thread are actually offended that the number isn't 2 out of 3, or dare I say it, 3 out of 3 :lol: Fukn uncultured, uneducated buffoons those Americans are :lol: HOW DARE THEY NOT CARE ABOUT THE GR8TEST SPORT ON EEARTH:lol:

Not everyone is interested in soccer, guys :lol: Deal with it

Unfortunately, the US is a very inward looking country.

They are often very friendly to visitors if one travels there, but are often unaware of what occurs beyond US borders.

100 million who may watch the WC is not too bad either.

TBH, it's most likely similar here. Not only for the FIFA World Cup, but dare I say it even for most sports including cricket.

People are going on like 100% of people follow some sport, and Americans are insular because 2 in 3 people have no interest in the WC, but there'd be a fair few people who have no interest in sport whatsoever.

In that context, 1 in 3 is even more impressive.

I think generally speaking we need to be pretty carefully pointing fingers as we live in a glass house.

Your average Aussie knows about England and the US, though only superficial and in ways that tends to affect us as Australians. Our understanding of Asia is mostly confined to Bali and Phuket, though after that Telstra ad we all know about the Great Wall of China and we're fairly certain it wasn't built to keep the rabbits out though most aren't sure why it was built.

South Americans are swarthy fellows who they see cleaning their offices while all East Europeans speak like Russians, possibly while goose stepping and drinking vodka. Not for them the subtlety of appreciating the cultural differences between the Czechs and the Poles.

People in glass houses and all that...

Who knew, Americans aren't all that interested in 'soccer'.

80 million people say otherwise.

But Americans genuinely believe they are the centre of the universe and they are the best at everything and have the power to do what they want. How many invasions have they led in recent memory for example.

And as a country they put the right to have an AK-47 under their pillow over the safety of the greater community. Idiots

Well it would be higher in European countries, and btw, not all of those 80mil will be supporting the US. The Mexican national team is the most popular NT in the country when it comes to ratings and attendances.

Not saying Mexican/Americans aren't American (though it's kinda annoying like how Simunic 'feels' more Croatian), but the number would be significantly lower if New Zealand beat Mexico.

If they are in America at the time of believing this, they are correct.

Ratings in the US are down for last season from an average over 300k to 220k, but compared to the A-League's average closer to 70k that's half bad.

We spoke of insularity and on that score your average Aussie will give your average Yank a run for his money. Re guns- I agree, though far from all Americans feel that way.

Like often discussed in many fields - a fraction of Americans being interested/doing it still equals a 'relatively large market'! It's all relative ofcourse, but as a number of you have discussed, if 1/3 of Americans are showing 'atleast' a modicum of interest in the World Cup then that's nothing to sneeze at. Ofcourse the number will refine even further, when broken down to levels of engagement, interest, within that number - and again those numbers are reasonable. It's ofcourse not the majority sport and the major sports DO draw alot more interest, relatively, no doubt - but it also shows the strong minority market the US has and the incremental impact, establishment, of the MLS and the code over there, perhaps. The growth of the MLS has been spectacular recent seasons - now 19 teams, including 2 in Canada, expanding further to 21 next season and ever more SE expansion to Atlanta and Beckham's Miami, two seasons later. Ever more national coverage, footprint, more of the large minority markets gaining access to an MLS franchise within their local region. The mainstream having ever closer access too. The impacts, kind of like here, will be felt a bit medium-longer term, as the teams settle and evolve within their communities.

Our view of boat people is like their view of guns. We can't throw stones.

But boat people don't go on shooting rampages

Good news on that front: Guns don't go on shooting rampages either.

Yes but when I'm feeling a little angry or mentally unstable I can't just pop down to my local K mart and purchase an automatic weapon with extended clips.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't even know where to buy a gun around here

First of all you have to actually have the required funds to purchase said weapon. The weapon used in many of the recent shootings (Bushman rifle) sets you back around $1200, plus ammunition. Second of all you know that going on a shooting rampage isn't even remotely in the realms of normal reaction to a bad day, these people had mental disorders and long medical histories with psychological problems. Third of all, many states require background checks before purchasing high powered weapons, many have banned them all together - just because it's not a federal mandate doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

Pro tip: Don't run your mouth on something you don't have any idea about.

First point, why do mentally unstable people have access to guns?

Second, I just did a quick check on wiki and it showed that only 7 states have "assault weapons" laws or require a license/ background check to own a gun.

Coming back to the original article. I live in the States at the moment, and I would actually estimate that it is more likely 4 out of 5 Americans do not plan to follow the World Cup.

I thought the World Champions are decided by which team wins the MLS?

You know, like the baseball and basketball World Champions.

Well if you understood how the political process goes in America, atm unfortunately all the money is coming from all the gun lobbyists to tell politicians not to change any gun laws which has made gun control basically impossible to pass federally.

Queensland would be the redneck state of Australia with the same gun laws if we didn't pass gun control federally.

I was in the States during the last world cup and had a blast. It was the first time the general populace sort of got behind it.

As for being an insular country, it all comes back to president monroe and his monroe doctrine which basically said Europe you stay out of our business and we will stay out of yours.

Also Soccer was pretty big in the USA before the depression. Many scottish irish and english immigrants played the game for teams run by the factories they worked for. Once the depression started the teams unfortunately folded.

However soccer in the USA is starting its renaissance with a younger generation coming thru and a huge latino population.

massive upside for Soccer in US, and the money that offers is staggering....

So that leaves a scant 60 Million following the World Cup in the US, roughly the entire population of the UK.

It's our constitutional right to own one?

A boat person? Cool.

I'll have a Swedish one called Inga with big bazoomas.