thelesterlee
We’re talking strictly in the US here – anyone with a brain knows that soccer is the more globally popular sport. It’s played everywhere and has massive followings across South America and Europe while American Football is largely cared about by…well…Americans.
Football is one of the core American sports you learn about as you grow up, alongside basketball and maybe baseball. Soccer was pretty much nowhere to be seen, until fairly recently. MLS matches have been getting more attention than ever thanks to Lionel Messi, but is his fame enough to sustain a big change for the future?
Maybe…well…who knows?! The US public has never had such attention on its soccer scene so maybe having the best player to ever grace a soccer field flying the flag for the league can be the catalyst this sport needs. When you actually sit and compare the sport to American Football, it’s even harder to understand why it’s never taken off.
So, let’s take a look at the state of things and see if soccer can truly ever rival American Football.
The Contrast Between NFL & MLS Viewership
We’ll kick things off (no pun intended) with some bad news for the soccer hopefuls. If this sport is to reach the heights of American Football, then there needs to be a massive shift somewhere.
Looking at the viewership figures from the two top US leagues it’s not even close. The NFL averaged 14.8 million viewers per match while the MLS only managed 343,000. Fair enough, these stats were before Messi joined, so maybe the MLS figure is a bit higher now.
Still, it’s looking pretty bleak – how on earth does soccer make up millions of views per match?!
The change has to start from the ground up. In this regard, there are reasons to be hopeful as soccer and American football aren’t too dissimilar in how they appeal to younger people. If anything, soccer has the potential to reach more kids and encourage them to take up the sport from a young age.
Comparing Grass Roots Soccer & American Football
Why is American Football so popular in the US? The clue is in the name – it was literally founded in this country and has become one of the main national sports. Kids go to school and play football – they’re taught about it and it’s a rich part of US culture.
More than that, the barriers to entry are pretty low. Any kid can pick up a football and play catch with their parents or friends in the yard or a park. You can have pick-up games that don’t involve physical contact too – and then you have to consider the wealth of positions within football itself.
It’s very much a game for all sizes. Smaller and nippier children find their calling as running backs while the bulkier kids make an excellent defense. Kids with a fantastic throwing arm are perfect for the quarterback role while even those with limited skill but a great kicking boot have a place on a team.
That’s what makes this such a popular sport – it’s for everyone and any child can get involved from a very young age.
Funnily enough, the same can be said for soccer!
If anything, it’s an even better sport for young children. There’s far less of a physical threat – American Football has been battling concussions for years, and soccer players don’t have to run around fully guarded by all sorts of protective equipment.
This should make soccer more appealing to a universal audience, but there’s more. Getting involved in soccer is super easy for anyone. Parents can buy their children a soccer ball size 4 when they’re growing up, so they have a small ball to practice with. All they need is some grass to practice their skills, or a wall to kick the ball against. As they get older, they can graduate to a bigger ball to refine their talents. Again, you can still have pick-up games in the park with friends too – all you need is a ball and some jumpers for goalposts.
The accessibility is crazy, but why do so many kids and teenagers pursue American Football instead?!
The College Football Effect
Part of the reasoning behind American Football’s dominance over soccer is the impact of college football. People who aren’t from the US can’t understand how big this scene is. College football attracts more viewers than basketball and baseball when the season is happening. Some college teams have stadiums with nearly 100,000 seats – and they fill them regularly.
It’s, quite frankly, astounding.
College football has been a core part of US culture for over 150 years, which is why American Football is so popular. Kids literally grow up and go to college, becoming consumed by football. It’s considered a huge goal for aspiring athletes to snag a college football scholarship. This is a one-way ticket to the NFL for some!
On the other hand, college soccer is fairly inconspicuous. It won’t get the same turnout or attention as college football – or even college basketball. If soccer were to become a more popular sport in the US, maybe it needs to start with the college scene. Create a culture where soccer is a big sport in colleges and it could slowly rise closer to the top. If college kids are interested, more sponsors and money will be pumped in. From here, it makes the MLS a bigger league as well, so the viewership and attendance slowly creeps up.
It won’t happen overnight – or even over a couple of years – this is a long process, but it starts with a change to college soccer.
Bigger Stars Needed In The MLS
You saw the impact Messi had on soccer the moment he arrived. Attendances for Inter Miami shot through the roof – and the same can be said for any team they played against. Some people think this is farcical, but think about what it does for the revenue of these teams.
Imagine if more stars were in the league, driving more fans to games, and putting more attention on the sport. We’ve seen some “stars” before – David Beckham is credited with coming to LA Galaxy and creating a male soccer boom in the US. There have also been the likes of Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, and Gareth Bale.
However, most of these stars came at the end of their careers, or at different times. There’s never been a moment where the MLS is stacked full of global soccer megastars all at once. You need only look at Saudi Arabia to know that it is genuinely possible to pull some of the world’s biggest soccer talents to a small league.
All you need is money.
And therein lies soccer’s biggest problem in America. It will never pull in the same level of investment as other sports – but are there ways to change this?
How Soccer Can Draw In More Investments To Compete With American Football
We already mentioned grassroots soccer and how improving popularity from the ground up is the right way to go about things. Well, that’s how you start encouraging more investments. If more kids take up soccer and the demand for local soccer clubs increases, people will take note. The sport will get bigger and bigger, which leads to more investments from sponsors, etc.
Another thing to consider is the rise of celebrity endorsements. David Beckham owns a team – but he’s not the only celeb to do so. You’ve all probably heard of Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mclhenny and their journey with Welsh soccer team Wrexham. They’ve done wonders for this small town and drawn so much attention to lower-league British soccer from inside the US.
So, why don’t more celebs invest in American soccer teams? It’s like influencer marketing on a much bigger scale; fans of these celebs become interested in the teams and it drives viewership and match attendance up. If the MLS can find ways of getting celebrities to endorse teams or invest money, it could be what catapults the sport to the next level.
Will Soccer Ever Reach The Heights Of American Football?
It’s hard to say. On the one hand, you look at how things are now and see it as an impossible dream. On the other, you see how much potential soccer has to grow. It’s massive in other countries, so why can’t it be similarly big here?
It’s an easy sport for kids to get into and it’s not as physically risky as American Football. Maybe parents will look at this and decide to push their kids toward a sport that’s unlikely to land them with long-term brain problems.
Only time will tell if soccer can compete with the big boys, but a lot depends on the next few years and if the MLS can capitalize on Messi fever. Make the right decisions now and it could spell years of success for this sport. Let the fire burn out quickly and it’ll be yet another missed opportunity for a soccer boom in the US.
