Magnetic Curses

Holy [expletive] Davis is in there. And that really makes me wish I had gone to a bar yesterday. That was phenomenal. I love watching [expletive] like that. It gives me chills every time. There is absolutely nothing like the sensation of watching a ball or a puck find the back of the net. Soccer and hockey are so special in this way. So much tension released, so much bottled up jubilation set free on the world. Nothing on earth can make the human heart explode or sink like the simple beautiful act of the goal.

You have to use a credit card, that idiot tibor lost the key

What was Harkes doing while Darke was making that call? I figured he'd go all Ron Santo or Rowdy Gaines, but he kept quiet.

The league is pretty cutthroat, I can see a few teams who will be looking to torpedo the bulls

team captains get a yellow for team misconduct. Ah

team captains get a yellow for team misconduct. Ah

Just rewatching the match, what did Yahia do to get that second yellow? From what I can tell, he did nothing at all.

I think he makes a great point. I think this proposal has already set sail, and I don't see this deal getting done. Not true. I dont think they could announce this trade till July 1 cause of the salary cap. Pretty sure thats what was said on RealGm I don't understand, trades happen all the time before, during, and after the draft.

NASCAR gets more exposure too. ESPN spends like an hour interviewing Kurt or Kyle Busch when there isn't even a race for like a month and it sucks. Soccer would be much better.

I would still put hockey above soccer. It gets as much run among sports media outlets as your tier 2 sports.

So I read this and had to look it up. There are MLB players who make more per year than MLS made in television revenue in 2008. Average take per team was Ounder $1 million. The national television contracts TBS and Fox have with MLB are 20 times that per year. ESPN is another 10 or so times the league total per year. How many individual teams have local television deals worth more than that? The Mariners get over $40 million a year for their local television rights, and they're maybe barely in the top 10 in the league Baseball is far and away the second most popular professional sport in the US. I don't see how this is a fair comparison at all -- no one is comparing soccer to baseball in popularity. Someone totally was. I assume you mean me? I explicitly stated a qualifier that the World Cup to World Series is apples-to-oranges because of the four-year cycle. That comparison, if you must, was also soccer to baseball, not MLS to MLB. That makes a huge difference. Nevertheless, just to be clear, baseball is far and away a more popular spectator sport in the US than soccer. Jeez, I wasn't talking about you. We got tier guy over there talking about God knows what and all you can think about is that I'm talking about you.

How do those tiers work again?

Who would we be looking at taking with the #8 pick? Maybe we'd turn around and use it in a sign and trade?

So I read this and had to look it up. There are MLB players who make more per year than MLS made in television revenue in 2008. Average take per team was under $1 million. The national television contracts TBS and Fox have with MLB are 20 times that per year. ESPN is another 10 or so times the league total per year. How many individual teams have local television deals worth more than that? The Mariners get over $40 million a year for their local television rights, and they're maybe barely in the top 10 in the league Baseball is far and away the second most popular professional sport in the US. I don't see how this is a fair comparison at all -- no one is comparing soccer to baseball in popularity. Someone totally was.

I believe the 2006 World Cup Final drew a bigger television audience in the States than the NBA and NHL finals that year, and ostensibly equaled the World Series and Final Four/National Championship game. A bit apples-to-oranges because of the four-year cycle, but pretty compelling stuff for the popularity of soccer. So, basically, what I'm saying is this: when Frank Zappa outsells the Stones or Zeppelin, then maybe soccer is the Zappa of sports.* *Frank Zappa is pretty damned good, heady stuff, by the way. Well, Phish outdraws a lot pop stars so maybe it's the phish of sports.

He was the guy who disagreed with tipper. I thought that was Al. No, he disagreed with the environment

He was the guy who disagreed with tipper.

I was hoping he'd go farther than what he did.

Well, if soccer isn't measuring up on the Sulleymon Index, I guess all those other points I made are meaningless. So you disagree? With which part? That specific post? How many games of any sport you personally went to is pretty irrelevant to the discussion, though I don't specifically disagree with you. I'm sure you have a pretty good grasp on how many games you went to. On your assessment of the size of soccer's fanbase in the U.S.? Yes. You are underestimating it by quite a bit. You disagree with the idea that soccer is the frank zappa of sports.

Then you're ignoring what's right in front of you. What, people watching soccer? It's the [expletive] World Cup and the American team isn't bad. What do you expect? A lot of you were turding it up over curling some months ago. Yes, that soccer's popularity has increased from four years ago. The US television rights to this World Cup went for $425 million, compared to $40 million for 2002 only after the MLS paid so the games weren't only on Spanish language channels (sorry, haven't found 2006 numbers). US, our poster, talked about the increase in MLS attendance. The send-away game for the US drew 55,000 fans (wish I could find the same number for 2006, I'm certain it would be much less). As a nation we purchased more tickets for this World Cup than any country besides South Africa. The Champions League final was televised on broadcast television (Fox) on Saturday afternoon -- bumping the Yankees-Mets game (though the ratings were disappointing -- club soccer has a long way to go here). In 2004, you had to pay-per-view to watch the Euros, in 2008 every game was on ESPN/ABC. The popularity of the sport has empirically increased, and I don't think it's my rose-colored glasses that feels the increase is palpable too. What was the proportion of tickets purchased to population? And why on earth would joe sports fan watch the champions league final?

Well, if soccer isn't measuring up on the Sulleymon Index, I guess all those other points I made are meaningless. So you disagree?

Soccer has a small but solid base of dedicated fans. I am a huge football fan but I went to 1 bears game last season. The average fire fan went to a much higher percentage than that. Same goes for me and baseball and basketball too.

The U.S. qualifiers and the European leagues on cable both got solid ratings well before this World Cup came around. There is a solid fan base here, no doubt. It will never be what its fans want it to be though. We will never embrace it for the reasons that have been mentioned.

Soccer in this country is like Rap in that old people, ignorant people or to be more kind, "traditionalists" either can't or don't want to understand it's influence and importance. They'd rather listen to the Beatles, Miles Davis or whatever and snobbishly dismiss Jay Z as a thug who just talks over obnoxious beats. My attitude is the same towards both attitudes. You're missing out and you sound stupid. That's on you. While I agree with your thesis, the bolded is some pretty damn good ish. It doesn't take snobbishness to like either; just taste. Right. No one is saying to abandon baseball because soccer exists. And Sulley is half right. The fact that 1) The best soccer isn't played in America and 2) The best soccer is spread over several leagues is a definite barrier to the all-out superfandom you see in places like, well, here for other sports. The problem is that isn't a fundamental flaw with the sport, or some proof that soccer is boring or for foreigners or whatever cliched comparisons people like to make. Soccer's popularity and background in America is much different than that of any other sport. So the fact that soccer is accepted on different terms than sports that were INVENTED here is not something worthy of mocking derision, but merely acceptance of what it is. It's not going to be the NFL, but it's more than the Olympics. 1) I just get a little itchy when the Beatles are dissed in any way (though I don't believe that was wolf's intent). 2) You absolutely right. The fact that we don't have the best league -- and the fact that their isn't one unquestionable "best" league -- will always be a drag on popularity here. Why couldn't you have just said I was right?

Then you're ignoring what's right in front of you. What, people watching soccer? It's the [expletive] World Cup and the American team isn't bad. What do you expect? A lot of you were turding it up over curling some months ago.