January 23, 201511 yr I'm surprised. ...I certainly don't see a need to go starting a College Soccer forum here on BGP any time soon. Soccer passes college hoops' popularity in U.S. Fervor for college basketball in Louisville has perhaps never been bigger with Kentucky and Louisville both ranked in the top 10 and the Louisville market consistently leading ESPN's TV ratings. Across the country, though, the sport remains at an all-time low in popularity since 1985, according to results of the Harris Poll published this week. The survey conducted in December measures what sport the general population considers its favorite, and for the third year in a row, college hoops claimed 3 percent of the result. Dating back to the Harris Poll's beginning, it's down 3 percentage points. Notably, men's soccer for the first time jumped past college basketball in the United States with 6 percent of respondents selecting it. That's up 3 percent since 1985.
January 23, 201511 yr Bit of a misread. It's just "men's soccer"; that encompasses pro soccer as well.
January 23, 201511 yr The thread title is wrong. It says college soccer is more popular. Not what the sotry reads?
January 23, 201511 yr Author Bit of a misread. It's just "men's soccer"; that encompasses pro soccer as well. The thread title is wrong. It says college soccer is more popular. Not what the sotry reads? Right you are. That's my mistake. Can one of the Mods change the title to read "Soccer Is More Popular Than College Hoops In The U.S."?
January 23, 201511 yr So if you read the article, folks that say their favorite sport is mens basketball is 9% versus 6% of folks that named mens soccer?
January 23, 201511 yr Author So if you read the article, folks that say their favorite sport is mens basketball is 9% versus 6% of folks that named men's soccer? That's how it reads to me, yes. I wonder how much impact the influx of Hispanics in the US since 1985 has to do with Soccer's increase in popularity.
January 23, 201511 yr That's how it reads to me, yes. I wonder how much impact the influx of Hispanics in the US since 1985 has to do with Soccer's increase in popularity. A lot, I'd imagine. It's also just really starting to find itself. League attendance across the whole country has ballooned in recent years for MLS and for lower leagues. TV is still way down but a lot of that has to do with affordability and availability of tickets: if you want to see a soccer game in your city, you can get a ticket and probably for pretty cheap. I'm also a believer in the idea that the success of the US national team over the last 20 years (which was basically nil before then), has had at least something to do with it. We're not really seeing that direct crossover from World Cup viewing numbers into pro soccer viewing numbers, but given the way things have grown so quickly since the MLS formed in 1996, I can't imagine it hasn't played a role.
January 26, 201511 yr While I agree that soccer is on the upswing in the US (and college hoops is not as the best players go pro so soon), there is no way that soccer is more popular than college hoops now in the USA. If the poll asked you to rank your sports in order of popularity, I am fairly certain that college hoops would come in ahead of soccer. There is a significant niche of soccer fans who LOVE the sport (the 6% who listed it #1). Most college hoops fans would not list it #1 (maybe the NFL, MLB or NBA would be 1 on their list). If soccer was in fact more popular than college hoops, you would not see college hoops (a gazillion games) on the tube every night and March Madness would not be the biggest spectacle of the year in US sports (outside the Super Bowl).
January 26, 201511 yr While I agree that soccer is on the upswing in the US (and college hoops is not as the best players go pro so soon), there is no way that soccer is more popular than college hoops now in the USA. If the poll asked you to rank your sports in order of popularity, I am fairly certain that college hoops would come in ahead of soccer. There is a significant niche of soccer fans who LOVE the sport (the 6% who listed it #1). Most college hoops fans would not list it #1 (maybe the NFL, MLB or NBA would be 1 on their list). If soccer was in fact more popular than college hoops, you would not see college hoops (a gazillion games) on the tube every night and March Madness would not be the biggest spectacle of the year in US sports (outside the Super Bowl). Well said! Great point!
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