Published by Robert Scoble
I give you a front-row seat on the future. Focusing most of my efforts now on next-generation augmented reality and artificial intelligence, AKA "mixed reality."
SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER: http://clevermoe.com/scobleizer-news/
BUY OUR NEW BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Transformation-Robert-Scoble/dp/1539894444 "The Fourth Transformation: How augmented reality and artificial intelligence will change everything."
WATCH MY LATEST SPEECHES:
State of VR with Philip Rosedale (done in VR itself, very cool): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zAA1EVGUZU
At GEOINT, June 2017: http://trajectorymagazine.com/glimpse-new-world/
Augmented World Expo, June 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4xHILvLD8E
At Leade.rs, April 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI
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BIO:
Scoble gives you a front-row seat on the future.
Literally. He had the first ride in the first Tesla. Siri was launched in his house. He's been the first to share all sorts of technologies and companies with you, from Flipboard to Pandora to Instagram.
Today he's focusing on mixed reality, AKA "next-generation augmented reality" which will include a new user interface for EVERYTHING in your life (IoT, Smart Cities, driverless cars, robots, drones, etc).
That's based on his view thanks to his past experience as futurist at Rackspace.
Best place to find Scoble? On his Facebook profile at https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble
He has been a technology blogger since 2000, was one of five people who built Microsoft's Channel 9 video blog/community, worked at Fast Company Magazine running its TV efforts, and has been part of technology media businesses since 1993.
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SPEAKER PITCH:
Apple and Facebook now have revealed their Augmented Reality strategies, which means your business needs one too. Rely on Robert Scoble, the world's top authority on AR, to bring to your conference what businesses should do next.
SPEECH ABSTRACT #1:
TITLE: The Fourth Transformation: What's next in mixed reality (AR and AI) and the future of technology?
Here's an example of this talk at Leade.rs in Paris in April, 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI
Why "the Fourth Transformation?"
Soon we will have phones and glasses that do full on augmented reality. Everything you look at will potentially be augmented. This world is coming in late 2017 with a new iPhone from Apple, amongst other products. Microsoft is betting everything on its HoloLens glasses that do mixed reality and the industry is spending many billions of dollars in R&D and funding new companies like Magic Leap.
This future will be the user interface for IoT, Smart Cities, autonomous cars, robots, drones, and your TV.
This is a big deal and Robert will take you through what mixed reality is and how it will change every business.
Learn more about Robert's speaking style and contact his agent at http://odemanagement.com/robert-scoble/Robert-Scoble.html
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SPEECH ABSTRACT #2:
"The Next Two Clicks of Moore's Law."
Over the next four years, or two clicks of Moore's Law, a ton about our technology world will change. Scoble will bring you the best from his travels visiting R&D labs, startups, and innovators around the world.
He views the world through his rose-colored-mixed-reality glasses, which will be the new user interface for self driving cars, Smart Cities, IoT, and many other things in our world.
He'll send you off with some lessons for companies both large and small.
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SPEECH ABSTRACT #3:
"Personalized Meaning: What is Augmented Reality For?"
As we enter a far more technological world where even cars drive themselves, I predict we'll see a blowback toward the analog, more authentic world.
What role does augmented reality play in both worlds?
Get Scoble's insight into where augmented reality is going, see tons of real-world demos, and understand what he means by 'personalized meaning.'
CONTACT:
If you are looking to contact me, email is best: scobleizer@gmail.com.
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ENDORSEMENTS:
IZEA Top 25 Tech Influencers: https://izea.com/2017/07/07/25-top-tech-influencers/
Time: One of the top 140 Twitterers!
FT: One of the five most influential Twitterers!
Inc. Top 5 on list of Tech Power Players You Need to Know: http://www.inc.com/john-rampton/30-power-players-in-tech-you-need-to-know.html
Next Reality: #4 on top 50 AR influencer list: https://next.reality.news/news/nr50-next-realitys-50-people-watch-augmented-mixed-reality-0177454/
View all posts by Robert Scoble
It’s an idiotic theory. Football isn’t popular because we simply don’t get it, we don’t enjoy it and we aren’t good at it: we don’t get that battling for control of a field is just as exciting as a goal… that defense is as important as offense, etc…
HDTV doesn’t change that. And do you really want more advertising? The beauty of football is that it’s not impaired by crap advertising. Claiming there’s space for ads with HD after you just said you get to see more of the field is foolish.
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It’s an idiotic theory. Football isn’t popular because we simply don’t get it, we don’t enjoy it and we aren’t good at it: we don’t get that battling for control of a field is just as exciting as a goal… that defense is as important as offense, etc…
HDTV doesn’t change that. And do you really want more advertising? The beauty of football is that it’s not impaired by crap advertising. Claiming there’s space for ads with HD after you just said you get to see more of the field is foolish.
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For Soccer to become more popular in America one of the other sports will have to be shoved out. The best chance Soccer has is maybe displacing the NHL since that league has pretty much tied its own noose around its neck with the strike last year.
But I’d be amazed if Soccer ever stood a chance at nudging by the NFL, MLB, or even the NBA.
You’re big on attention Scoble, and non-World Cup soccer just isn’t good enough yet to grab people’s limited attention when they can watch football, baseball, or basketball. HD or not.
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For Soccer to become more popular in America one of the other sports will have to be shoved out. The best chance Soccer has is maybe displacing the NHL since that league has pretty much tied its own noose around its neck with the strike last year.
But I’d be amazed if Soccer ever stood a chance at nudging by the NFL, MLB, or even the NBA.
You’re big on attention Scoble, and non-World Cup soccer just isn’t good enough yet to grab people’s limited attention when they can watch football, baseball, or basketball. HD or not.
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We have the NFL, MLB, and the NBA.
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We have the NFL, MLB, and the NBA.
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Bull. It’s not popular in the U.S. because you can’t actually watch it except on Mexican stations. Yeah, the World Cup was on ABC but how many games were on during the four years between World Cups? Oh, yeah. None. Their excuse is that the ratings suck, which they do because there’s never been attempt to build the sport in this country as entertainment. Which is probably just fine since TV timeouts have ruined actually going to a football or basketball game.
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Bull. It’s not popular in the U.S. because you can’t actually watch it except on Mexican stations. Yeah, the World Cup was on ABC but how many games were on during the four years between World Cups? Oh, yeah. None. Their excuse is that the ratings suck, which they do because there’s never been attempt to build the sport in this country as entertainment. Which is probably just fine since TV timeouts have ruined actually going to a football or basketball game.
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They’ve said this about the NHL for years. I’m still waiting. Then again, I’ve been cursed with being a fan of the Chicago Blackhawks, a team that still doesn’t put it’s home games on TV. Ugh.
What about videocasting on HDTV, Robert?
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They’ve said this about the NHL for years. I’m still waiting. Then again, I’ve been cursed with being a fan of the Chicago Blackhawks, a team that still doesn’t put it’s home games on TV. Ugh.
What about videocasting on HDTV, Robert?
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Let’s be clear about a few things:
1. HD fundamentally improves all sports, even those not visually intensive like baseball and golf. HD does not favor one sport. As broadcasts improve, sports do not become more popular; they just look better.
2. There have already been several waves of improvement in broadcasting and televisions over the last 50 years (not just color and picture size but also image quality). Prior to this, there was radio. Prior to this, newspapers. Football was extremely popular in Brazil and Argentina (and these countries excelled at the game) before the invention of radio. Improving media does not encourage one country or another to become more interested in a particular sport. (One could just as easily say Opera will have a big boost in popularity because it will look and sound better in HD.)
i.e. This is yet another patently absurd theory on Scoble’s part.
Byron, every game of the Cup was on ESPN except some of the later matches on the weekends. But, yes, it’s still better on Univision even if you don’t know Spanish because the American commentators are unenthused idiots.
Larry, I agree that for one to gain in popularity another must fall. But it’s foolish to presume that because NHL is declining, those fans will become Football fans. Hockey fans are fans because of geography, enjoying skating or the speed, the contact, the fighting, etc… There are some affinities between the two but not enough to show any correlation in support from fans.
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Let’s be clear about a few things:
1. HD fundamentally improves all sports, even those not visually intensive like baseball and golf. HD does not favor one sport. As broadcasts improve, sports do not become more popular; they just look better.
2. There have already been several waves of improvement in broadcasting and televisions over the last 50 years (not just color and picture size but also image quality). Prior to this, there was radio. Prior to this, newspapers. Football was extremely popular in Brazil and Argentina (and these countries excelled at the game) before the invention of radio. Improving media does not encourage one country or another to become more interested in a particular sport. (One could just as easily say Opera will have a big boost in popularity because it will look and sound better in HD.)
i.e. This is yet another patently absurd theory on Scoble’s part.
Byron, every game of the Cup was on ESPN except some of the later matches on the weekends. But, yes, it’s still better on Univision even if you don’t know Spanish because the American commentators are unenthused idiots.
Larry, I agree that for one to gain in popularity another must fall. But it’s foolish to presume that because NHL is declining, those fans will become Football fans. Hockey fans are fans because of geography, enjoying skating or the speed, the contact, the fighting, etc… There are some affinities between the two but not enough to show any correlation in support from fans.
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Byron, also, MLS is on cable all the time. The problem with Football is there is no stoppage duting the 45 minute periods = no advertising. Or… you can cut away at random intervals and possibly miss the key moments of the game.
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Byron, also, MLS is on cable all the time. The problem with Football is there is no stoppage duting the 45 minute periods = no advertising. Or… you can cut away at random intervals and possibly miss the key moments of the game.
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Goebbels: hmmm, seems there are SOME people in the US who want to watch it, though. There are reports that the FIFA Web site in the US received more hits than the Major League Baseball one. http://www.paidcontent.org/football-world-cup-some-online-numbers
The problem is that hockey and baseball and football are also more enjoyable to watch in HD. So, if this is a zero sum game soccer won’t do anybetter.
Regarding videocasting on HD. That’s certainly coming. You really must look at what the Xbox team is doing. They are gonna bring HD videocasts into everyone’s home that has an Xbox. I’m sure Sony will do the same.
Why are the cable companies pushing so hard for getting rid of Net Neutrality? Easy: they see the video game consoles as encroaching on their business and they want to keep them out.
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Goebbels: hmmm, seems there are SOME people in the US who want to watch it, though. There are reports that the FIFA Web site in the US received more hits than the Major League Baseball one. http://www.paidcontent.org/football-world-cup-some-online-numbers
The problem is that hockey and baseball and football are also more enjoyable to watch in HD. So, if this is a zero sum game soccer won’t do anybetter.
Regarding videocasting on HD. That’s certainly coming. You really must look at what the Xbox team is doing. They are gonna bring HD videocasts into everyone’s home that has an Xbox. I’m sure Sony will do the same.
Why are the cable companies pushing so hard for getting rid of Net Neutrality? Easy: they see the video game consoles as encroaching on their business and they want to keep them out.
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Hint: I don’t think it’s a zero sum game. Also, HD doesn’t help baseball and football as MUCH as it helps Soccer be more enjoyable to watch.
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Hint: I don’t think it’s a zero sum game. Also, HD doesn’t help baseball and football as MUCH as it helps Soccer be more enjoyable to watch.
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smaller fields, no ties, and time outs (if someone is going to flop around like a dying fish every so often to get a break any way just give them the dang time outs) will make soccoer more pallatable to americans.
HD might make it easier to give it a chance, but there would still be plenty that would turn people away.
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smaller fields, no ties, and time outs (if someone is going to flop around like a dying fish every so often to get a break any way just give them the dang time outs) will make soccoer more pallatable to americans.
HD might make it easier to give it a chance, but there would still be plenty that would turn people away.
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Scoble, who said no one is interested? I’ve been a huge fan for years and know many others. My point is: people are absurd when they talk about changing the game or other foolish methods of encouraging people, who are presently not disposed to enjoy it, to enjoy it. Those that will will. Sans gimmicks.
If you think American Football doesn’t benefit from HD as much, you’re on crack. Every single camera shot in a football game excludes 50%-80% of the action in a play. Everything occurs in more confined spaces with more people acting at the point of attention.
(Stangely, everything you claimed you can’t see in Soccer — offsides, foot work… I can see without HD. Maybe since you are jsut a neophyte getting into the game over the last few Cups, you simply don’t know how to watch the game yet. …By the way, will you be wathing the Copa America? Which of the Euro Leagues is your favorite? What is your favorite team? Are you a Boca fan or a River Plate fan? What.. can’t answer those questions? But didn’t you watch the Cup in HD?)
Brad, in the Cup, there are no ties, and smaller fields and time outs would be like watching a bunch of 10 year olds at the neighborhood field. I’d rather keep the game as it is than attract some silly Americans who cannot appreciate the game.
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Scoble, who said no one is interested? I’ve been a huge fan for years and know many others. My point is: people are absurd when they talk about changing the game or other foolish methods of encouraging people, who are presently not disposed to enjoy it, to enjoy it. Those that will will. Sans gimmicks.
If you think American Football doesn’t benefit from HD as much, you’re on crack. Every single camera shot in a football game excludes 50%-80% of the action in a play. Everything occurs in more confined spaces with more people acting at the point of attention.
(Stangely, everything you claimed you can’t see in Soccer — offsides, foot work… I can see without HD. Maybe since you are jsut a neophyte getting into the game over the last few Cups, you simply don’t know how to watch the game yet. …By the way, will you be wathing the Copa America? Which of the Euro Leagues is your favorite? What is your favorite team? Are you a Boca fan or a River Plate fan? What.. can’t answer those questions? But didn’t you watch the Cup in HD?)
Brad, in the Cup, there are no ties, and smaller fields and time outs would be like watching a bunch of 10 year olds at the neighborhood field. I’d rather keep the game as it is than attract some silly Americans who cannot appreciate the game.
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“Why are the cable companies pushing so hard for getting rid of Net Neutrality? Easy: they see the video game consoles as encroaching on their business and they want to keep them out.”
Another patently absurd theory. It’s not that easy and there are certainly many, more substantial reasons.
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“Why are the cable companies pushing so hard for getting rid of Net Neutrality? Easy: they see the video game consoles as encroaching on their business and they want to keep them out.”
Another patently absurd theory. It’s not that easy and there are certainly many, more substantial reasons.
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This is certainly an interesting theory. But I think it ultimately fails because there’s too much invested in other sports here – entire towns follow American football. It’s on Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the fall. Likewise, there are huge audiences for lower-level basketball and baseball teams (high school and college). I don’t see soccer gaining that kind of footing any time in the near future.
And frankly, watching the shootout at the end of the game today made me appreciate soccer even less. There’s absolutely no challenge in the shootout, and thus it’s a terrible way to end a championship game. Even NHL shootouts give the goalkeeper a fighting chance. The soccer shootout is just an opportunity to humiliate the keeper. It’s a guessing game, not a battle of skills.
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This is certainly an interesting theory. But I think it ultimately fails because there’s too much invested in other sports here – entire towns follow American football. It’s on Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the fall. Likewise, there are huge audiences for lower-level basketball and baseball teams (high school and college). I don’t see soccer gaining that kind of footing any time in the near future.
And frankly, watching the shootout at the end of the game today made me appreciate soccer even less. There’s absolutely no challenge in the shootout, and thus it’s a terrible way to end a championship game. Even NHL shootouts give the goalkeeper a fighting chance. The soccer shootout is just an opportunity to humiliate the keeper. It’s a guessing game, not a battle of skills.
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Goebbels: well, let’s have the reasons now that you brought them up.
I’m a Bayern fan. http://www.football.co.uk/bayern_munich/index.shtml
Goebbels: well, you might have seen it, but I switched back and forth between HD and HD did a lot better job at showing those things.
Oh well, we’ll just have to disagree on this one.
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Goebbels: well, let’s have the reasons now that you brought them up.
I’m a Bayern fan. http://www.football.co.uk/bayern_munich/index.shtml
Goebbels: well, you might have seen it, but I switched back and forth between HD and HD did a lot better job at showing those things.
Oh well, we’ll just have to disagree on this one.
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Soccer is already deplacing baseball and hockey among teenagers. so in 5-10 years, when the current teenagers become money earning consumers, corporate America will catch up eventually-of course HDTV might help a bit too.
Why soccer wasn’t popular among the adults right now? because of the red card/yellow cards periods, American Adults prefer bleedy voilence to regulations/rules/ gentlemenship.
I believe the headbutt of Zidane could won around of applause in the red states:)
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Soccer is already deplacing baseball and hockey among teenagers. so in 5-10 years, when the current teenagers become money earning consumers, corporate America will catch up eventually-of course HDTV might help a bit too.
Why soccer wasn’t popular among the adults right now? because of the red card/yellow cards periods, American Adults prefer bleedy voilence to regulations/rules/ gentlemenship.
I believe the headbutt of Zidane could won around of applause in the red states:)
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Scobles, let me clarify by saying that I don’t think it’s a zero-sum scenario either… maybe Soccer does benefit most. But I think the impact, even if greatest for Soccer, is minimal. There are numerous and more significant factors. Factors which truly impede, rather than foster, the development you suggest.
Sure, I’ll list a few of those factors:
1. Resources. We do not lack wealth and resources, meaning a sport that only requires a ball is not the primary source of sport. In fact, our abundance of resources “proactively” distract us from Soccer. (This is why Soccer is popular in colonial countries: Latin and South America, the Middle East, Africa.) In many nations, it’s what you play all the time… with yourself, with one other person, with more.
2. Historical. The game has existed for centuries. It has quickly become popular where and when it’s introduced. It has never been extremely popular here, and declined significantly once we developed our own sports. Historically, there is now reason to believe any change to that based on an increased quality of broadcast media when the most significant changes in media have largely occurred: print, film, radio, tv, internet without improvement.
3. Practical. Americans are not attracted to an hour and a half game without interruption that results in a low score. “Seasons” conflict with existing sports (How many hours of sport is the avg. American husband allowed to watch and be engaged with?)
4. Pro Athletics. American Pro Sports is structured like no other countries. The League/Club systems are almost uniformly the same the world over fostering the game as player and spectator at all levels, levels of skill from youth and the lowest skill to adults and pro skill as well as level of locale, from your neighborhood to your nation. Here, it is one system for each sport at the highest level only… (yes, yes, we have farm leagues and youth sports, etc… it’s just not the same.)
I’ll give you 3 more tomorrow.
Bryan, I agree: it’s sad to see the Final (or any game) end on Penalty Kicks. Ties are better. The Final should result in a second game if tied.
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Scobles, let me clarify by saying that I don’t think it’s a zero-sum scenario either… maybe Soccer does benefit most. But I think the impact, even if greatest for Soccer, is minimal. There are numerous and more significant factors. Factors which truly impede, rather than foster, the development you suggest.
Sure, I’ll list a few of those factors:
1. Resources. We do not lack wealth and resources, meaning a sport that only requires a ball is not the primary source of sport. In fact, our abundance of resources “proactively” distract us from Soccer. (This is why Soccer is popular in colonial countries: Latin and South America, the Middle East, Africa.) In many nations, it’s what you play all the time… with yourself, with one other person, with more.
2. Historical. The game has existed for centuries. It has quickly become popular where and when it’s introduced. It has never been extremely popular here, and declined significantly once we developed our own sports. Historically, there is now reason to believe any change to that based on an increased quality of broadcast media when the most significant changes in media have largely occurred: print, film, radio, tv, internet without improvement.
3. Practical. Americans are not attracted to an hour and a half game without interruption that results in a low score. “Seasons” conflict with existing sports (How many hours of sport is the avg. American husband allowed to watch and be engaged with?)
4. Pro Athletics. American Pro Sports is structured like no other countries. The League/Club systems are almost uniformly the same the world over fostering the game as player and spectator at all levels, levels of skill from youth and the lowest skill to adults and pro skill as well as level of locale, from your neighborhood to your nation. Here, it is one system for each sport at the highest level only… (yes, yes, we have farm leagues and youth sports, etc… it’s just not the same.)
I’ll give you 3 more tomorrow.
Bryan, I agree: it’s sad to see the Final (or any game) end on Penalty Kicks. Ties are better. The Final should result in a second game if tied.
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I just bought a new sony 60″ wega hdtv about 2 months ago and luckily I was able to spend alot of time this month watching about 80% of the coverage between the two ESPNHD stations (no local HD in my area yet 😦 ).
The picture quality blew me away, but there were a few things that I noticed in the coverage, which I think have an effect on trying to draw americans attention to world cup soccer (other than the terrible soccer coverage in this county outside of the world cup)
1. For all the ABC games I couldn’t get in HD, I watched on the spanish stations. Why? Because even if you don’t speak spanish, their passion and excitement for the action of the game is contagious. The ABC announcers were BORING as all hell and other than explaining the simple basic of play to the audience they had NOTHING to add in commentary to the matches (ESPN was slightly better at this though).
2. Whoever directed the camera coverage for ABC should be banned from ever directing another tournament for them. I thought the quality of camera coverage was terrible! Univision directors know the game and just are more in tune with the coverage the fans want. I noticed much less reliance on replays for action that was missed on the pitch from the Univision crews.
As a huge fan of fooball here in america, I pray for the day our commentary and coverage approaches even a small percentage closer in quality to coverage in europe and latin america. The HD was great, but the coverage is where I think the real difference can be made. Maybe next time I’ll just have to mute the volume on the tv and crank up a live audio feed from england.
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I just bought a new sony 60″ wega hdtv about 2 months ago and luckily I was able to spend alot of time this month watching about 80% of the coverage between the two ESPNHD stations (no local HD in my area yet 😦 ).
The picture quality blew me away, but there were a few things that I noticed in the coverage, which I think have an effect on trying to draw americans attention to world cup soccer (other than the terrible soccer coverage in this county outside of the world cup)
1. For all the ABC games I couldn’t get in HD, I watched on the spanish stations. Why? Because even if you don’t speak spanish, their passion and excitement for the action of the game is contagious. The ABC announcers were BORING as all hell and other than explaining the simple basic of play to the audience they had NOTHING to add in commentary to the matches (ESPN was slightly better at this though).
2. Whoever directed the camera coverage for ABC should be banned from ever directing another tournament for them. I thought the quality of camera coverage was terrible! Univision directors know the game and just are more in tune with the coverage the fans want. I noticed much less reliance on replays for action that was missed on the pitch from the Univision crews.
As a huge fan of fooball here in america, I pray for the day our commentary and coverage approaches even a small percentage closer in quality to coverage in europe and latin america. The HD was great, but the coverage is where I think the real difference can be made. Maybe next time I’ll just have to mute the volume on the tv and crank up a live audio feed from england.
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Personally, I think it’s a game of economics, and I think advertising opportunities are a big part of that, as I wrote about last week.
http://slashstar.com/blogs/tim/archive/2006/07/03/Why_hasnt_the_World_Cup_caught_on_in_the_United_States.aspx
“Unlike an NFL or NBA game, however, a [soccer] match doesn’t have stoppage in play. This translates to less advertising time and makes it less likely that a major network will pay hefty sums to carry MLS games. With a smaller audience, less Americans see soccer games and actually know how exciting the games can be. The smaller audience feeds the lack of advertising, which feeds the lack of substantial salary as an incentive for our best athletes to turn towards soccer.”
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Personally, I think it’s a game of economics, and I think advertising opportunities are a big part of that, as I wrote about last week.
http://slashstar.com/blogs/tim/archive/2006/07/03/Why_hasnt_the_World_Cup_caught_on_in_the_United_States.aspx
“Unlike an NFL or NBA game, however, a [soccer] match doesn’t have stoppage in play. This translates to less advertising time and makes it less likely that a major network will pay hefty sums to carry MLS games. With a smaller audience, less Americans see soccer games and actually know how exciting the games can be. The smaller audience feeds the lack of advertising, which feeds the lack of substantial salary as an incentive for our best athletes to turn towards soccer.”
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Scoble:
Bayern Munchen! ahh, the man-u of the bundesliga…
1. FC Kaiserslautern forever!!! [even if they are relegated!]
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Scoble:
Bayern Munchen! ahh, the man-u of the bundesliga…
1. FC Kaiserslautern forever!!! [even if they are relegated!]
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Football (soccer) isn’t popular with Americans becuase Americans largely suck at soccer and with good cause. Americans are taught to pass too often while Europeans are taught to shoot. There has been mucho said about this very thing and it’s true. Soccer also was not invented in the US, and alot of stupid Americans have a problem with this as well. America will never do well in the World Cup because the Americans need to realize that it’s more than just a game to the Europeans and Latinos — it’s a way of life. Soccer is the de-facto religion in some countries. The US will never dominate at soccer unless the team is made up of almost all Europeans and Latinos.
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Football (soccer) isn’t popular with Americans becuase Americans largely suck at soccer and with good cause. Americans are taught to pass too often while Europeans are taught to shoot. There has been mucho said about this very thing and it’s true. Soccer also was not invented in the US, and alot of stupid Americans have a problem with this as well. America will never do well in the World Cup because the Americans need to realize that it’s more than just a game to the Europeans and Latinos — it’s a way of life. Soccer is the de-facto religion in some countries. The US will never dominate at soccer unless the team is made up of almost all Europeans and Latinos.
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Football doesn’t need HDTV. What it needs to be popular in USA is for USA to recognize that the word “World” refers to countries all over the “World”. Having “World Series” games where teams from only one country (read USA) take part is the problem.
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Football doesn’t need HDTV. What it needs to be popular in USA is for USA to recognize that the word “World” refers to countries all over the “World”. Having “World Series” games where teams from only one country (read USA) take part is the problem.
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Soccer is the hairball of modern sports.
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Soccer is the hairball of modern sports.
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Another part of the problem is Americans are an impatient lot. If you don’t score several times in a short period we tend to lose interest. I myself am a fan of the game and love the footwork of these players but most Americans want the scoring type of action or they complain that it is boring and overlook such skills as footwork. Ahh unfortunately that is the way it is in a society where fast indulgences or instant gratifcation is king.
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Another part of the problem is Americans are an impatient lot. If you don’t score several times in a short period we tend to lose interest. I myself am a fan of the game and love the footwork of these players but most Americans want the scoring type of action or they complain that it is boring and overlook such skills as footwork. Ahh unfortunately that is the way it is in a society where fast indulgences or instant gratifcation is king.
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hdtv…..
….and better commentators than the ones on abc this year…
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hdtv…..
….and better commentators than the ones on abc this year…
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Soccer will never be popular in the US so its a moot point.
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Soccer will never be popular in the US so its a moot point.
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I had sort of drifted away from football for a bit. Its never been my favorite sport, but I liked it. This time, I got a chance to see a bunch of games in Europe (in Holland and France). Just that experience got me into this world cup like none before.
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I had sort of drifted away from football for a bit. Its never been my favorite sport, but I liked it. This time, I got a chance to see a bunch of games in Europe (in Holland and France). Just that experience got me into this world cup like none before.
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Well, this train wreck is over. Nothing more to see here. This proves your are absolutely cluesless, Scoble. You’ve said some idiotic things in the past, but this is by far the most idiotic theory of all. HDTV will NOT be the saviour of football in America.
The reason the World Cup gets watched more in the US each time is because there are more and more immigrants each time around. I would LOVE to see the demographics of those that actually tuned in to the matches. How many were born and raised in the US vs how many immigrated? That would tell you a lot about how many stides football has made in the US.
Football is not a sport made for TV. It’s BORING to watch on TV. Much like baseball. It will take generations before football becomes as popular as other sports in the US. It’s not that American’s don’t get it, unlike what many of our arrogant European and Latin American friends may think. We get it. We also get that it’s boring and there is no money to be made in the US playing football, compared with other sports. (Which makes me wonder why those that like football have to deride those that don’t Hey, just enjoy your sport. Who cares if the US doesn’t get it. The rest of the world doesn’t get American Football. I don’t think we in the US really care if they don’t) Add to that, it’s not heaped in tradition here like it is in outside of the US. Baseball is to the US what football is to the rest of the world. Heaped in tradtion.
FIFA will also have to clean up the officiating. When Americans see players taking dives when they are barely touched and it seems players are TAUGHT to do this to deke the ref, Americans view this behavior as not much different than the WWE. When I ask soccer nerds why there can’t be more refs on the field, I get told, “it’s tradition” (we hear the same things here when people want to change baseball. Well, the game as gotten faster, the atheletes faster and stronger. The refs can’t keep up. There needs to be change.
Finally, PK’s to determine the World Champion? How stupid is that? I can only imagine that if FIFA ran MLB they would have a home run contest to determine the winner of a baseball game was tied after nine innings. Play until someone wins. Sheesh. Seems that these two teams were playing for PK’s. If they knew they had to play until someone scored, or they dropped dead from exhaustion, you can bet we would have seen more scoring. I mean, hell, why even play the OT if you know you are going to go to PK’s at the end?
I don’t think it’s the amount of scoring. Americans will tolerated a good 2-1, 1-0 baseball game if it’s played well. The will tolerate a low scoring American Football game that is played well and not plagued with penalties and players pretending to be fouled.
(Admittedly I did fall asleep right before half time. That’s how exciting it was for me.) The problem is it’s rare for a team to come back and win when down 1-0. In this World Cup out of the 111 matches played, only 8 teams overcame 1 goal to win. So you can pretty much bet the if a team gets down 1 nil, you can pretty much bet they will either end up losing or tie. Why should I bother watching after a team goes ahead 1-0? BORING.
I now soccer nerds don’t want to have anything to so with ideas about improving the sport, but if you REALLY what the US to care (and again, I’m confused as to why it matters to the rest of the world if the US doesn’t like soccer as much as everyone else) there are things that should be done
1. Widen the goal.
2. Eliminate offsides
3. Eliminate the PK’s
Oh, and don’t act like you just solved world peace when you scores a goal (I have the same problem with TD celebrations in the NFL). And don’t act like you just lost your best friend when you miss. You’re supposed to score, right? Just keep playing. Like Chris Rock would say “Whaddya want? A cookie?”
I also love the halftime coverage of soccer matches in Europe. I get to see highlights of players ALMOST succeeding. Wow!
Well, congrats to Italy. Now go back to your league games and keep hand picking those refs. Gotta love the “purity” of soccer!!!
HDTV will save soccer in the US? Classic!!!
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Well, this train wreck is over. Nothing more to see here. This proves your are absolutely cluesless, Scoble. You’ve said some idiotic things in the past, but this is by far the most idiotic theory of all. HDTV will NOT be the saviour of football in America.
The reason the World Cup gets watched more in the US each time is because there are more and more immigrants each time around. I would LOVE to see the demographics of those that actually tuned in to the matches. How many were born and raised in the US vs how many immigrated? That would tell you a lot about how many stides football has made in the US.
Football is not a sport made for TV. It’s BORING to watch on TV. Much like baseball. It will take generations before football becomes as popular as other sports in the US. It’s not that American’s don’t get it, unlike what many of our arrogant European and Latin American friends may think. We get it. We also get that it’s boring and there is no money to be made in the US playing football, compared with other sports. (Which makes me wonder why those that like football have to deride those that don’t Hey, just enjoy your sport. Who cares if the US doesn’t get it. The rest of the world doesn’t get American Football. I don’t think we in the US really care if they don’t) Add to that, it’s not heaped in tradition here like it is in outside of the US. Baseball is to the US what football is to the rest of the world. Heaped in tradtion.
FIFA will also have to clean up the officiating. When Americans see players taking dives when they are barely touched and it seems players are TAUGHT to do this to deke the ref, Americans view this behavior as not much different than the WWE. When I ask soccer nerds why there can’t be more refs on the field, I get told, “it’s tradition” (we hear the same things here when people want to change baseball. Well, the game as gotten faster, the atheletes faster and stronger. The refs can’t keep up. There needs to be change.
Finally, PK’s to determine the World Champion? How stupid is that? I can only imagine that if FIFA ran MLB they would have a home run contest to determine the winner of a baseball game was tied after nine innings. Play until someone wins. Sheesh. Seems that these two teams were playing for PK’s. If they knew they had to play until someone scored, or they dropped dead from exhaustion, you can bet we would have seen more scoring. I mean, hell, why even play the OT if you know you are going to go to PK’s at the end?
I don’t think it’s the amount of scoring. Americans will tolerated a good 2-1, 1-0 baseball game if it’s played well. The will tolerate a low scoring American Football game that is played well and not plagued with penalties and players pretending to be fouled.
(Admittedly I did fall asleep right before half time. That’s how exciting it was for me.) The problem is it’s rare for a team to come back and win when down 1-0. In this World Cup out of the 111 matches played, only 8 teams overcame 1 goal to win. So you can pretty much bet the if a team gets down 1 nil, you can pretty much bet they will either end up losing or tie. Why should I bother watching after a team goes ahead 1-0? BORING.
I now soccer nerds don’t want to have anything to so with ideas about improving the sport, but if you REALLY what the US to care (and again, I’m confused as to why it matters to the rest of the world if the US doesn’t like soccer as much as everyone else) there are things that should be done
1. Widen the goal.
2. Eliminate offsides
3. Eliminate the PK’s
Oh, and don’t act like you just solved world peace when you scores a goal (I have the same problem with TD celebrations in the NFL). And don’t act like you just lost your best friend when you miss. You’re supposed to score, right? Just keep playing. Like Chris Rock would say “Whaddya want? A cookie?”
I also love the halftime coverage of soccer matches in Europe. I get to see highlights of players ALMOST succeeding. Wow!
Well, congrats to Italy. Now go back to your league games and keep hand picking those refs. Gotta love the “purity” of soccer!!!
HDTV will save soccer in the US? Classic!!!
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dmad: “Football is not a sport made for TV. It’s BORING to watch on TV.”
Well, 1.3 billion world-wide viewers of the final game seem to disagree with you. Those numbers make it the most watched event _ever_.
The cup has totalled over 30 billion viewers over all the games.
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dmad: “Football is not a sport made for TV. It’s BORING to watch on TV.”
Well, 1.3 billion world-wide viewers of the final game seem to disagree with you. Those numbers make it the most watched event _ever_.
The cup has totalled over 30 billion viewers over all the games.
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Wait, did your HDTV signal go out just as France were preparing to do their second penalty kick? The same thing happened to us. By the time the game ended it was back, but I don’t know exactly when it came back since we switched back to regular cable to see the rest of the kicks (didn’t want to miss anything futzing with the TV).
I agree the HDTV image is a huge improvement (the grass in particular looks so much better) but I don’t know if the slight extra width you get on the sides really makes a dramatic difference in making the sport enjoyable.
– adam
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Wait, did your HDTV signal go out just as France were preparing to do their second penalty kick? The same thing happened to us. By the time the game ended it was back, but I don’t know exactly when it came back since we switched back to regular cable to see the rest of the kicks (didn’t want to miss anything futzing with the TV).
I agree the HDTV image is a huge improvement (the grass in particular looks so much better) but I don’t know if the slight extra width you get on the sides really makes a dramatic difference in making the sport enjoyable.
– adam
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@28. We were talking about popularity in the US, not the rest of the world. Moreover, the World Cup is a bit of an exception. Of course 30B people are going to watch it because most of them are too poor to show up to Germany (and Germany couldn’t handle it). Scoble idiotically said HDTV would make soccer more popular in the US? The sport itself is not made or TV (unlike American Football). You cannot use these numbers to PROVE soccer is a sport that will resonate with the sports viewing US market. Nice try, though!
(BTW, do people in Italy not have TV in their homes? Why does everyone go to the town square to watch the game?)
Much like people in the US will watch the WS, even though baseball is boring to watch on TV, the rest of the world will watch the World Cup on TV every 4 years. That doesn’t mean HDTV will make it more popular with the US viewing public. And again I would REALLY love to see the demographic breakdown of the viewership of the World Cup in the US market. How many watching were born here, or even better, weren’t raised watching soccer or are children of parents raised here not watching soccer? That would tell us a lot!
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@28. We were talking about popularity in the US, not the rest of the world. Moreover, the World Cup is a bit of an exception. Of course 30B people are going to watch it because most of them are too poor to show up to Germany (and Germany couldn’t handle it). Scoble idiotically said HDTV would make soccer more popular in the US? The sport itself is not made or TV (unlike American Football). You cannot use these numbers to PROVE soccer is a sport that will resonate with the sports viewing US market. Nice try, though!
(BTW, do people in Italy not have TV in their homes? Why does everyone go to the town square to watch the game?)
Much like people in the US will watch the WS, even though baseball is boring to watch on TV, the rest of the world will watch the World Cup on TV every 4 years. That doesn’t mean HDTV will make it more popular with the US viewing public. And again I would REALLY love to see the demographic breakdown of the viewership of the World Cup in the US market. How many watching were born here, or even better, weren’t raised watching soccer or are children of parents raised here not watching soccer? That would tell us a lot!
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HDTV will cure cancer, heal the sick, raise the dead, wash the dishes, vacuum the carpet and mow the lawn with tweezers even, yessirree.
Soccer could work in America, sure, all you need to do is put every player behind the wheel of a 110 octane leaded engine, and make the ball bigger, much much bigger.
But now that the World Cup-of-Soup is over, just one win for the Cubbies in real onlyonethatmatters worldwide event, the World Series.
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HDTV will cure cancer, heal the sick, raise the dead, wash the dishes, vacuum the carpet and mow the lawn with tweezers even, yessirree.
Soccer could work in America, sure, all you need to do is put every player behind the wheel of a 110 octane leaded engine, and make the ball bigger, much much bigger.
But now that the World Cup-of-Soup is over, just one win for the Cubbies in real onlyonethatmatters worldwide event, the World Series.
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What I find interesting is that the US has several ‘world series’ championships in WHICH NO OTHER COUNTRIES PARTICIPATE. So whatever team wins, the US always wins! Win-win, baby.
ps. I didn’t really see Doc talking about how the US doesn’t ‘get’ soccer, but James points were:
1) not enough instant replay (WTF?)
2) the scores aren’t high enough (double WTF?)
I think Americans just don’t like ‘world series’ in which other countries participate, imagine getting beat by the Italians 😉
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What I find interesting is that the US has several ‘world series’ championships in WHICH NO OTHER COUNTRIES PARTICIPATE. So whatever team wins, the US always wins! Win-win, baby.
ps. I didn’t really see Doc talking about how the US doesn’t ‘get’ soccer, but James points were:
1) not enough instant replay (WTF?)
2) the scores aren’t high enough (double WTF?)
I think Americans just don’t like ‘world series’ in which other countries participate, imagine getting beat by the Italians 😉
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If you guys don’t get football/soccer – how about cricket or rugby?1
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If you guys don’t get football/soccer – how about cricket or rugby?1
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I’m not a huge football fan, but anyone who thinks that the game could be made better by widening the goal, or can’t understand why people would go to the ‘town square’ to watch a game, just totally doesn’t get football or its cultural impact in the rest of the world.
(That widening the goal comment *has* to be an ironic pandering to US stereotypes…doesn’t it? Surely..?)
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I’m not a huge football fan, but anyone who thinks that the game could be made better by widening the goal, or can’t understand why people would go to the ‘town square’ to watch a game, just totally doesn’t get football or its cultural impact in the rest of the world.
(That widening the goal comment *has* to be an ironic pandering to US stereotypes…doesn’t it? Surely..?)
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HDTV? 40-50-60 inch screens? Do you realize how out of touch you guys are? Hmm…average salary for a family of 4 in the US is $42,000. Very few software people make that low of a coin. Let’s rewrite Scoble’s post with a bit more realism:
Food simply makes the game much more enjoyable for a few reasons.
1) The interesting part of soccer is the strategy off of the ball but who cares about that if your stomach is growling and your kids don’t have lunch money.
2) For me I remember watching Pele as a kid (he visited the San Jose Earthquakes). What impressed me about him was that he didnt look hungry at all and likely could pay cash for an HDTV without having to go to a rent-to-own place.
3) The sound. I don’t know why, but it’s better during or after a meal with the family. Feels like you’re there.
4) The advertising. On regular TV this form of advertising just isn’t as good and interfers [sic] with your enjoyment of the game – too many ads for burgers, bad credit car loans, and companies that want to separate me from my money. In fact, what sucked about most of the advertising? It helped contribute to the our nationally almost non-existent savings rate and increase the amount of purchases of consumer goods made on credit!! Lame.
Robert: you’re hopeless. Use your newly found public relations capital to make a difference – not to convince the mass majority of your readers who statistically cant afford to pay cash for an HDTV system to go out and buy one simply because it will make the “seeing the footwork nicer”
Booger
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HDTV? 40-50-60 inch screens? Do you realize how out of touch you guys are? Hmm…average salary for a family of 4 in the US is $42,000. Very few software people make that low of a coin. Let’s rewrite Scoble’s post with a bit more realism:
Food simply makes the game much more enjoyable for a few reasons.
1) The interesting part of soccer is the strategy off of the ball but who cares about that if your stomach is growling and your kids don’t have lunch money.
2) For me I remember watching Pele as a kid (he visited the San Jose Earthquakes). What impressed me about him was that he didnt look hungry at all and likely could pay cash for an HDTV without having to go to a rent-to-own place.
3) The sound. I don’t know why, but it’s better during or after a meal with the family. Feels like you’re there.
4) The advertising. On regular TV this form of advertising just isn’t as good and interfers [sic] with your enjoyment of the game – too many ads for burgers, bad credit car loans, and companies that want to separate me from my money. In fact, what sucked about most of the advertising? It helped contribute to the our nationally almost non-existent savings rate and increase the amount of purchases of consumer goods made on credit!! Lame.
Robert: you’re hopeless. Use your newly found public relations capital to make a difference – not to convince the mass majority of your readers who statistically cant afford to pay cash for an HDTV system to go out and buy one simply because it will make the “seeing the footwork nicer”
Booger
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As a european I am happy I don’t need to pretend to like the absurdly boring and pointless game of soccer.
It is _not_ a sign of cultural refinement and intelligence to like soccer! OK!
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As a european I am happy I don’t need to pretend to like the absurdly boring and pointless game of soccer.
It is _not_ a sign of cultural refinement and intelligence to like soccer! OK!
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Robert,
Anything and everything looks better on HDTV. Just wait till you see Monday Night Football, or NBA games Live.
NFL and NBA are more enjoyable than #$%^& soccer games, IMO.
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Robert,
Anything and everything looks better on HDTV. Just wait till you see Monday Night Football, or NBA games Live.
NFL and NBA are more enjoyable than #$%^& soccer games, IMO.
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Whenever i see a hdtv screen i keep thinking of Farhenheit 451 (book, and film but not mike moore film) and ‘the family’
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Whenever i see a hdtv screen i keep thinking of Farhenheit 451 (book, and film but not mike moore film) and ‘the family’
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NFL is wonderful in HDTV 🙂
And just to play devil’s advocate:
“Football doesn’t need HDTV. What it needs to be popular in USA is for USA to recognize that the word “World” refers to countries all over the “World”. Having “World Series” games where teams from only one country (read USA) take part is the problem.”
Yes, but the difference is that better “your football, our soccer” is played elsewhere. In the US, NFL and MLB are probably the best in their respective sports because 1) there aren’t really major professional leagues elsewhere and 2) because they’re the best, most of the best from the rest of the world will come here to play.
Why? Probably has something to do with all that money 🙂
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NFL is wonderful in HDTV 🙂
And just to play devil’s advocate:
“Football doesn’t need HDTV. What it needs to be popular in USA is for USA to recognize that the word “World” refers to countries all over the “World”. Having “World Series” games where teams from only one country (read USA) take part is the problem.”
Yes, but the difference is that better “your football, our soccer” is played elsewhere. In the US, NFL and MLB are probably the best in their respective sports because 1) there aren’t really major professional leagues elsewhere and 2) because they’re the best, most of the best from the rest of the world will come here to play.
Why? Probably has something to do with all that money 🙂
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If the US were to allow other baseball teams from others countries into the world series, we’s be torn aprt by the Cubans, the Domincans, and possibly the Japanese. Americans think they are the best at everything. It’s a crappy attitude. The more I live in the US the more I wished I lived elsewhere, and I’m a “born here” American.
I’ve been on vacation in Europe and listened to other Americans talk about the locals like they are trash. No wonder everyone thinks the US is full of themselves. Americans are loud, brash, ignorant and obnoxious. The average American kid graduates high school and speaks only English, and that poorly. The average European speaks several languages by the same time. Americans are an insular bunch caught up in Hollywood and ugly capitalism.
If I had the money, I’d be in Europe tomorrow.
The US needs to rename the World Series
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If the US were to allow other baseball teams from others countries into the world series, we’s be torn aprt by the Cubans, the Domincans, and possibly the Japanese. Americans think they are the best at everything. It’s a crappy attitude. The more I live in the US the more I wished I lived elsewhere, and I’m a “born here” American.
I’ve been on vacation in Europe and listened to other Americans talk about the locals like they are trash. No wonder everyone thinks the US is full of themselves. Americans are loud, brash, ignorant and obnoxious. The average American kid graduates high school and speaks only English, and that poorly. The average European speaks several languages by the same time. Americans are an insular bunch caught up in Hollywood and ugly capitalism.
If I had the money, I’d be in Europe tomorrow.
The US needs to rename the World Series
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I love my HDTV. I just bought a 40″ Sony LCD – beautiful. I don’t know if it will convert USA to watching football but I know that I will be watching more TV. Mainly movies but the sports are awesome too.
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I love my HDTV. I just bought a 40″ Sony LCD – beautiful. I don’t know if it will convert USA to watching football but I know that I will be watching more TV. Mainly movies but the sports are awesome too.
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Deke – And Europeans are smelly, poorly groomed and snobby with bad teeth. Aren’t stereotypes great?
And that computer you’re using? Thank ugly capitalism for its invention. Though, when you do get to Europe…Do drop us a line and tell us your thoughts when you realize they’re capitalists too.
So America doesn’t like ‘football’ to the degree the rest of the world does. Big deal…We aren’t all that fanatical about F1 either. Yet somehow we survive to live another day. Amazing isn’t it?
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Deke – And Europeans are smelly, poorly groomed and snobby with bad teeth. Aren’t stereotypes great?
And that computer you’re using? Thank ugly capitalism for its invention. Though, when you do get to Europe…Do drop us a line and tell us your thoughts when you realize they’re capitalists too.
So America doesn’t like ‘football’ to the degree the rest of the world does. Big deal…We aren’t all that fanatical about F1 either. Yet somehow we survive to live another day. Amazing isn’t it?
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again, why the hell do you all care if the US “gets” soccer or not? Why can’t you just enjoy your silly little game? Again, I’m sure the rest of you don’t “get” baseball or American football. We don’t really care, nor do we make fun of you because don’t. Which is why we have our “World Series”. See? We don’t care what the rest of the world thinks about our sports. Why does the rest of the world care about what the US thinks about soccer? Are you all that insecure about your game?
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again, why the hell do you all care if the US “gets” soccer or not? Why can’t you just enjoy your silly little game? Again, I’m sure the rest of you don’t “get” baseball or American football. We don’t really care, nor do we make fun of you because don’t. Which is why we have our “World Series”. See? We don’t care what the rest of the world thinks about our sports. Why does the rest of the world care about what the US thinks about soccer? Are you all that insecure about your game?
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HDTV doesn’t matter. Popular US sports involve scoring. Soccer doesn’t have high scores. Nice try but HDTV has nothing to do with it.
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HDTV doesn’t matter. Popular US sports involve scoring. Soccer doesn’t have high scores. Nice try but HDTV has nothing to do with it.
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@34. The point is soccer bigots seem to not want to entertain possible changes to their game to possibly make it more entertaining. It’s confusing. For some reason whenever the topic comes up about Americans not “getting” soccer their solution to the problem is to call Americans stupid, ill-informed, and arrogant. Whenever someone suggests things that could possibly make the sport more palatable to the American audience (and that won’t be more games on HDTV…I’m still amazed at what a moronic theory that is), soccer nerds say: “Can’t do it…tradition prohibits it”. On the other hand Americans are always looking for ways to improve their sports to make the games more entertaining, competitive, and fun to watch.
Sure maybe widening the goal might be a silly suggestion. The point is, soccer bigots won’t even entertain ANY suggestinos about improving their game. Their solution to making the game more entertaining for Americans to to call us stupid…and… “appreciate the footwork”. Look! If I wanted to see great footwork, I’d watch professional dancers.
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@34. The point is soccer bigots seem to not want to entertain possible changes to their game to possibly make it more entertaining. It’s confusing. For some reason whenever the topic comes up about Americans not “getting” soccer their solution to the problem is to call Americans stupid, ill-informed, and arrogant. Whenever someone suggests things that could possibly make the sport more palatable to the American audience (and that won’t be more games on HDTV…I’m still amazed at what a moronic theory that is), soccer nerds say: “Can’t do it…tradition prohibits it”. On the other hand Americans are always looking for ways to improve their sports to make the games more entertaining, competitive, and fun to watch.
Sure maybe widening the goal might be a silly suggestion. The point is, soccer bigots won’t even entertain ANY suggestinos about improving their game. Their solution to making the game more entertaining for Americans to to call us stupid…and… “appreciate the footwork”. Look! If I wanted to see great footwork, I’d watch professional dancers.
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I think you’re right that HDTV will make a difference.
But there is still the problem of paying for the broadcasts. Soccer (or, if you prefer, football) runs in 45-minute periods, with no time outs, “official” (as they have in basketball) or otherwise. That means no time for ads. This makes TV networks, accustomed to the many breaks in baseball, basketball and football, reluctant to show the sport. Hence, less exposure. And less interest driven by exposure.
Of course, they can delay the broadcast by 15 minutes, and insert advertising over the course of the game. Or make it a subscription-only thing. Or both. But they haven’t yet.
In any case, my point was an economic one, quite aside from all the other points that are made and debated on this thread.
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I think you’re right that HDTV will make a difference.
But there is still the problem of paying for the broadcasts. Soccer (or, if you prefer, football) runs in 45-minute periods, with no time outs, “official” (as they have in basketball) or otherwise. That means no time for ads. This makes TV networks, accustomed to the many breaks in baseball, basketball and football, reluctant to show the sport. Hence, less exposure. And less interest driven by exposure.
Of course, they can delay the broadcast by 15 minutes, and insert advertising over the course of the game. Or make it a subscription-only thing. Or both. But they haven’t yet.
In any case, my point was an economic one, quite aside from all the other points that are made and debated on this thread.
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Tie games are for toddlers. Real men win and lose.
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Tie games are for toddlers. Real men win and lose.
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Football/Soccer is fine as it is… and I would rather Americans doen’t try to get involved. It doesn’t need changes to make it more popular.
FIFA have attempted to make changes over the years to make it more popular/friendly etc.. but just end up making it worse… Offside rule in point… players diving because the game is becoming a non contact sport!
Dmad – shut up, you’re coming across as an ignorant bigot yourself. You are doing everything you’ve moaned at other people for.
People like to watch football on big screens, because like everything, sometimes being with others is a great way to enjoy!
Scoble – the interesting part of football is… where the ball is and where it is going. Not what other people are doing on the pitch. There is no strategy in offside, you just step up before the ball is kicked forward.
We don’t want advertising… that’s the perfect way to stop people watching.
If there is problems with picture and sound then I suspect that is a “carrier” problem. I have watched football on TV since I was a lad and can’t say that picture/sound quality really makes that much difference other than crowd and commentators… who wants to hear the ball kicked?
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Football/Soccer is fine as it is… and I would rather Americans doen’t try to get involved. It doesn’t need changes to make it more popular.
FIFA have attempted to make changes over the years to make it more popular/friendly etc.. but just end up making it worse… Offside rule in point… players diving because the game is becoming a non contact sport!
Dmad – shut up, you’re coming across as an ignorant bigot yourself. You are doing everything you’ve moaned at other people for.
People like to watch football on big screens, because like everything, sometimes being with others is a great way to enjoy!
Scoble – the interesting part of football is… where the ball is and where it is going. Not what other people are doing on the pitch. There is no strategy in offside, you just step up before the ball is kicked forward.
We don’t want advertising… that’s the perfect way to stop people watching.
If there is problems with picture and sound then I suspect that is a “carrier” problem. I have watched football on TV since I was a lad and can’t say that picture/sound quality really makes that much difference other than crowd and commentators… who wants to hear the ball kicked?
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The sports thing is more down to culture than anything else. You could run ads in HDTV, fix all the games so the US team won and still I think the audience would be small. The history isn’t there. Say Joe Montana to most Brits and I’d be surprised if they knew who he was. In the same way I could say Dixie Dean and half the people commenting here will have to go to Wikipedia to find out who he was.
On the subject of the ‘World Series’ Dmad
“Which is why we have our “World Series”. See? We don’t care what the rest of the world thinks about our sports.”
Well forgive me but I think that means that the US cares deeply what the rest of the world thinks about its sports. What other reason would you choose world as a title? The desire to claim a world wide champion for sports that are contested entirely by US teams in the US is odd whatever way you look at it.
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The sports thing is more down to culture than anything else. You could run ads in HDTV, fix all the games so the US team won and still I think the audience would be small. The history isn’t there. Say Joe Montana to most Brits and I’d be surprised if they knew who he was. In the same way I could say Dixie Dean and half the people commenting here will have to go to Wikipedia to find out who he was.
On the subject of the ‘World Series’ Dmad
“Which is why we have our “World Series”. See? We don’t care what the rest of the world thinks about our sports.”
Well forgive me but I think that means that the US cares deeply what the rest of the world thinks about its sports. What other reason would you choose world as a title? The desire to claim a world wide champion for sports that are contested entirely by US teams in the US is odd whatever way you look at it.
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Bullshit. The cameras are a 4×3 ratio anyway, if they were 2.5×1 or anything else, there would be those black lines across our tvs like on the widescreen dvds. Soccer isn’t popular except for on the spanish channels because it does not generate the advertising of other sports, especially since they dont interupt a game like they do in american football. (Which, frankly, I think is fucking pathetic!!!) And we have a small league, which means our kids who do love soccer will have a small chance of making it professionally.
I think the reason its so unpopular is because of the lack of scandal found in hockey, amercan football, and baseball.
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Bullshit. The cameras are a 4×3 ratio anyway, if they were 2.5×1 or anything else, there would be those black lines across our tvs like on the widescreen dvds. Soccer isn’t popular except for on the spanish channels because it does not generate the advertising of other sports, especially since they dont interupt a game like they do in american football. (Which, frankly, I think is fucking pathetic!!!) And we have a small league, which means our kids who do love soccer will have a small chance of making it professionally.
I think the reason its so unpopular is because of the lack of scandal found in hockey, amercan football, and baseball.
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I enjoyed watching the world diving championships very much
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I enjoyed watching the world diving championships very much
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@51. Again, why do you care what we call the World Series? BTW, MLB did sponsor a “World Series” in which the US finished third. Happy now?
@52. Yea, soccer replaces breaks for advertising with uniforms logo’d up to the hilt, pitches with billboards surrounding it. Baseball lends itself to advertising breaks due to between inning and pitching changes. The NBA and the NFL could to a lot better in managing the “TV timeouts”, that’s for sure. It didn’t used to be that way years and years ago. A lot of people in the US find it annoying. It makes watching the game in person a bit more boring. The fact that soccer doesn’t have time outs and breaks for advertising is a good thing, IMHO. However, that doesn’t make the game more exciting to watch.
Look, the overall question was why isn’t soccer as popular in the US as the rest of the world. I gave some reasons why. But the soccer nerds think the solution to making it more popular in the US to call us idiots for not appreciating it. FIFA obviously doesn’t care, otherwise they would be open to changes. But, they’d rather the game be played the same way it was when England invented it. Much like baseballs purists in the US.
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@51. Again, why do you care what we call the World Series? BTW, MLB did sponsor a “World Series” in which the US finished third. Happy now?
@52. Yea, soccer replaces breaks for advertising with uniforms logo’d up to the hilt, pitches with billboards surrounding it. Baseball lends itself to advertising breaks due to between inning and pitching changes. The NBA and the NFL could to a lot better in managing the “TV timeouts”, that’s for sure. It didn’t used to be that way years and years ago. A lot of people in the US find it annoying. It makes watching the game in person a bit more boring. The fact that soccer doesn’t have time outs and breaks for advertising is a good thing, IMHO. However, that doesn’t make the game more exciting to watch.
Look, the overall question was why isn’t soccer as popular in the US as the rest of the world. I gave some reasons why. But the soccer nerds think the solution to making it more popular in the US to call us idiots for not appreciating it. FIFA obviously doesn’t care, otherwise they would be open to changes. But, they’d rather the game be played the same way it was when England invented it. Much like baseballs purists in the US.
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I posted a few comments during the semi-finals as to why soccer fails in the US.
1. Boring
2. We aren’t good
3. Marketing
More discussion and content here:
http://thelaggard.com/blog/?p=55
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I posted a few comments during the semi-finals as to why soccer fails in the US.
1. Boring
2. We aren’t good
3. Marketing
More discussion and content here:
http://thelaggard.com/blog/?p=55
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@ Doc Searls…
Sometimes money isn’t/shouldn’t be the motivator. I guarantee you people would watch it if you put it on PBS. 🙂 My daughter watches nothing but commercial-free TV. I refuse to allow her to be marketed to. We watch PBS, Noggin, Sprout, etc.
When I watch TV, I mute the commercials and surf or read until my show comes back on. I’m anti-big business in a major way in terms of being marketed to.
Likewise, I never, ever click on ads on the Internet. Like medicine, the Internet should just be free, and one day, hopefully it will be.
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@ Doc Searls…
Sometimes money isn’t/shouldn’t be the motivator. I guarantee you people would watch it if you put it on PBS. 🙂 My daughter watches nothing but commercial-free TV. I refuse to allow her to be marketed to. We watch PBS, Noggin, Sprout, etc.
When I watch TV, I mute the commercials and surf or read until my show comes back on. I’m anti-big business in a major way in terms of being marketed to.
Likewise, I never, ever click on ads on the Internet. Like medicine, the Internet should just be free, and one day, hopefully it will be.
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DMAD,
You don’t know soccer when you say to eliminate PK’s. Your correlation to homerun derby is incorrect. What do you expect, the teams to continue on and a game decided by attrition (after the three allowed subs have been exhausted)? How does this solve the situation?
A PK is the ultimate test and it comes down to can a team shoot the ball correctly. For no matter the quality of goalkeeper, there is no physical way to stop a correctly placed PK. If the first five all for each team makes the shot then it is a one vs one match through the rest of the lineup. It can test every player on the field as demonstrated in the USL finals where it came down to the goalkeeper taking PK versus goalkeeper. It exposes a team’s weakness if their players can’t shoot the ball correctly. It is the ultimate test of a team’s ability. They can defend admirably, but when it comes down to hit can the strike the ball properly and put it in the back of the net? The goalie can only do so much. A hard shot on the ground to just inside either post is the most difficult shot to defend (law of physics–reaction time for goalie to get down to the ground vs shortest travel distance to the second least reachable part of the goal). The second most difficult shot is the upper V, which is also undefendable (hardest spot for goalie who guesses right to reach, but is longer travel distance and more chance for shot going astray).
Why Americans don’t watch is: (a) Lack of advertising opportunities (game has to be paid by someone to be put on TV), and (b) most adults (35 or older) didn’t play the game growing up. If they can solve the advertising issue, it will grow in popularity since most under 35 have been exposed to the game growing up.
OBTW, as far a cheap game. Select/Premier youth soccer isn’t cheap to play. For top level clubs, the costs can run $3-6K per year for a child playing, depending on number of tournaments, especially tournaments teams have to fly to. Add to this schools limiting access to fields and charging more and more for rental, the costs go up each year. This latter issue effects all sports. Gone is the day when one can go to the neighborhood school during the summer and have a pickup game (football, baseball, etc) with friends.
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DMAD,
You don’t know soccer when you say to eliminate PK’s. Your correlation to homerun derby is incorrect. What do you expect, the teams to continue on and a game decided by attrition (after the three allowed subs have been exhausted)? How does this solve the situation?
A PK is the ultimate test and it comes down to can a team shoot the ball correctly. For no matter the quality of goalkeeper, there is no physical way to stop a correctly placed PK. If the first five all for each team makes the shot then it is a one vs one match through the rest of the lineup. It can test every player on the field as demonstrated in the USL finals where it came down to the goalkeeper taking PK versus goalkeeper. It exposes a team’s weakness if their players can’t shoot the ball correctly. It is the ultimate test of a team’s ability. They can defend admirably, but when it comes down to hit can the strike the ball properly and put it in the back of the net? The goalie can only do so much. A hard shot on the ground to just inside either post is the most difficult shot to defend (law of physics–reaction time for goalie to get down to the ground vs shortest travel distance to the second least reachable part of the goal). The second most difficult shot is the upper V, which is also undefendable (hardest spot for goalie who guesses right to reach, but is longer travel distance and more chance for shot going astray).
Why Americans don’t watch is: (a) Lack of advertising opportunities (game has to be paid by someone to be put on TV), and (b) most adults (35 or older) didn’t play the game growing up. If they can solve the advertising issue, it will grow in popularity since most under 35 have been exposed to the game growing up.
OBTW, as far a cheap game. Select/Premier youth soccer isn’t cheap to play. For top level clubs, the costs can run $3-6K per year for a child playing, depending on number of tournaments, especially tournaments teams have to fly to. Add to this schools limiting access to fields and charging more and more for rental, the costs go up each year. This latter issue effects all sports. Gone is the day when one can go to the neighborhood school during the summer and have a pickup game (football, baseball, etc) with friends.
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Most of this debate is just too infuriating for words, so I’ll limit myself to saying that the final was a pretty awful game while the best game of the tournament by far was Germany v Italy semi-final that was goal-less for 118 of the 120 minutes.
It’s not all about goals – in similar vein the most exciting hockey game I saw was a Stanley Cup game in the 80s that ran through 3 if not 4 whole periods of goal-less overtime.
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Most of this debate is just too infuriating for words, so I’ll limit myself to saying that the final was a pretty awful game while the best game of the tournament by far was Germany v Italy semi-final that was goal-less for 118 of the 120 minutes.
It’s not all about goals – in similar vein the most exciting hockey game I saw was a Stanley Cup game in the 80s that ran through 3 if not 4 whole periods of goal-less overtime.
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Well, it doesn’t look like there’s much reason to add additional reasons, but I’ll give it a shot.
These will be more socialogical and particular reasons:
1. Every half-ass news and sports commentator decides to watch a few crappy American games and some of the Cup and they claim they can fix soccer. Sure, every sport undergoes change, but no, a sport shouldn’t change to appeal to one country’s preferences. Americans do not even know the rules nevermind understand the fundamentals. I’m always blown away when someone suggests replay… for two obvious reasons:
a. Bad calls are a part of the game and can be lived with. You have to overcome bad calls. Possibly the single greatest World Cup game was one because of a hand ball. Yes, fans bitch about it or laugh about it, but they live with it.
b. When I hear this, I ask “When?” “When? What do you mean when? After the call is made.” “No, when do you stop the game, the clock?” “You mean the game doesn’t stop? Well, that complicates things… How would you do replay then?” Yeah, Duh….
2. Similarly, we have proposals to eliminate offsides! This is absurd! Why not eliminate it in hockey, football, and any other game that it’s fundamental to? You think the game will explode because another inch is visible on the screen, meanwhile, people don’t know the offside rule or want to eliminate it completely (fundamentally destroying what the game is) that you so think will propel the sport forward.
Meanwhile, I’ve got to sit and listin to John McLaughlin and other douchebags who don’t know about the game claiming they can “fix” it and “save” it when it remains one of the most popular sports in the world.
3. Americans don’t like what we aren’t good at. For the reasons previously cited and numerous others mentioned by others, we are going to continue to suck. Americans are too self-involved to realize that they are better off following an English Premier team or a Bundisliga team or the Brazilians or Argentina…
Those are a few reasons. I’ll cite 2 other reasons quite specific to your claim.
1. I do not beleive HD adoption is going to be as broad as you claim over the next 5 years. Yes, I see people buying widescreen, flat panels… But I also see them buying the cheap, low-end models which actually have a crappier image than traditional CRTs.
2. What exactly are they going to watch over the next 5 years? Do you think UEFA or the Copa America is suddenly going to get picked up by ABC or ESPN? No. So they’ll have 1 World Cup to appreciate. Otherwise, it’s MLS which is the worst available “professional” soccer to view. The best soccer will only be on foreign tv or the Spanish/Portuguese channels. Anyone with an HD tv will have to sit and wait for 4 years for another cup. Or get a satellite service with foreign channels. How does HD increase popularity when there’s almost zero to watch?
So, in conclusion, there are numerous reasons that soccer is not popular in the States, and even if this was not so, there are several limitations to HD and television coverage of soccer as well.
Any rebuttal, Scobie?
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Well, it doesn’t look like there’s much reason to add additional reasons, but I’ll give it a shot.
These will be more socialogical and particular reasons:
1. Every half-ass news and sports commentator decides to watch a few crappy American games and some of the Cup and they claim they can fix soccer. Sure, every sport undergoes change, but no, a sport shouldn’t change to appeal to one country’s preferences. Americans do not even know the rules nevermind understand the fundamentals. I’m always blown away when someone suggests replay… for two obvious reasons:
a. Bad calls are a part of the game and can be lived with. You have to overcome bad calls. Possibly the single greatest World Cup game was one because of a hand ball. Yes, fans bitch about it or laugh about it, but they live with it.
b. When I hear this, I ask “When?” “When? What do you mean when? After the call is made.” “No, when do you stop the game, the clock?” “You mean the game doesn’t stop? Well, that complicates things… How would you do replay then?” Yeah, Duh….
2. Similarly, we have proposals to eliminate offsides! This is absurd! Why not eliminate it in hockey, football, and any other game that it’s fundamental to? You think the game will explode because another inch is visible on the screen, meanwhile, people don’t know the offside rule or want to eliminate it completely (fundamentally destroying what the game is) that you so think will propel the sport forward.
Meanwhile, I’ve got to sit and listin to John McLaughlin and other douchebags who don’t know about the game claiming they can “fix” it and “save” it when it remains one of the most popular sports in the world.
3. Americans don’t like what we aren’t good at. For the reasons previously cited and numerous others mentioned by others, we are going to continue to suck. Americans are too self-involved to realize that they are better off following an English Premier team or a Bundisliga team or the Brazilians or Argentina…
Those are a few reasons. I’ll cite 2 other reasons quite specific to your claim.
1. I do not beleive HD adoption is going to be as broad as you claim over the next 5 years. Yes, I see people buying widescreen, flat panels… But I also see them buying the cheap, low-end models which actually have a crappier image than traditional CRTs.
2. What exactly are they going to watch over the next 5 years? Do you think UEFA or the Copa America is suddenly going to get picked up by ABC or ESPN? No. So they’ll have 1 World Cup to appreciate. Otherwise, it’s MLS which is the worst available “professional” soccer to view. The best soccer will only be on foreign tv or the Spanish/Portuguese channels. Anyone with an HD tv will have to sit and wait for 4 years for another cup. Or get a satellite service with foreign channels. How does HD increase popularity when there’s almost zero to watch?
So, in conclusion, there are numerous reasons that soccer is not popular in the States, and even if this was not so, there are several limitations to HD and television coverage of soccer as well.
Any rebuttal, Scobie?
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I think it’s all about the money. US has its own sports to protect, the ppl in control are not interested in opening up money making time on TV for a “foreign” sport.
Personally, I hope football never gets popular here in the US! The ESPN and ABC commentaries sucked $h!t! Instead of talking about the game and the players in it, they keep advertising when the US team will be playing and stuff! (Actually, this goes for all world sport events on TV. TV here is way too US centric. It’s much better to watch Canadian TV if you have them, they’ll show the top performers in each sport instead of just showing the US atheletes, even if they suck.) A good example is the final USA game against Ghana. While the rest of the world was watching the Italy Vs. Czech game to see who qualifies, here in my office, everyone is watching the USA Ghana game, including people who didn’t come to break room to watch any other games before this. How stupid is that?! Why would you want the USA to advance, when you don’t know love or know this sport?! None of these people even know the name of their US players!!! (And most of them will probably not see any soccer game, until the next time USA plays in a World Cup match.)
Then there’s the whole mentality of “they’re not scoring”. They simply don’t get that this game is not only about scoring. It’s about the players!! There’s no time out, the players are on their own for 45 mins at a time, they’re free to do whatever they want but they’ll be no coaches to hold their hands and create plays for them. The strategies, the teamwork, the skills, the burst of speed, the patience, the build-up of momentum… it’s the BEST game in the world, and I’m glad it hasn’t been poluted by the US. Let’s hope it stays that way!
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I think it’s all about the money. US has its own sports to protect, the ppl in control are not interested in opening up money making time on TV for a “foreign” sport.
Personally, I hope football never gets popular here in the US! The ESPN and ABC commentaries sucked $h!t! Instead of talking about the game and the players in it, they keep advertising when the US team will be playing and stuff! (Actually, this goes for all world sport events on TV. TV here is way too US centric. It’s much better to watch Canadian TV if you have them, they’ll show the top performers in each sport instead of just showing the US atheletes, even if they suck.) A good example is the final USA game against Ghana. While the rest of the world was watching the Italy Vs. Czech game to see who qualifies, here in my office, everyone is watching the USA Ghana game, including people who didn’t come to break room to watch any other games before this. How stupid is that?! Why would you want the USA to advance, when you don’t know love or know this sport?! None of these people even know the name of their US players!!! (And most of them will probably not see any soccer game, until the next time USA plays in a World Cup match.)
Then there’s the whole mentality of “they’re not scoring”. They simply don’t get that this game is not only about scoring. It’s about the players!! There’s no time out, the players are on their own for 45 mins at a time, they’re free to do whatever they want but they’ll be no coaches to hold their hands and create plays for them. The strategies, the teamwork, the skills, the burst of speed, the patience, the build-up of momentum… it’s the BEST game in the world, and I’m glad it hasn’t been poluted by the US. Let’s hope it stays that way!
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I thought you were supposed to be an expert at things like Microsoft, and blogging, and now podcasting. If I want a sports, HDTV, or general sports/TV broadcasting opinion, I’ll go to experts in those fields.
There’s a reason why ESPN bloggers don’t talk about wordpress and OPML.
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I thought you were supposed to be an expert at things like Microsoft, and blogging, and now podcasting. If I want a sports, HDTV, or general sports/TV broadcasting opinion, I’ll go to experts in those fields.
There’s a reason why ESPN bloggers don’t talk about wordpress and OPML.
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Skeptic: this is my personal blog. Who said I was expert at anything? This blog is about things that I’m interested in. And I’ve invested $4,000 of my own money in HDTV which makes me just as much an expert as anyone else on the topic.
But, you are right about targeting your expertise to certain audiences. You’ll probably be happier with my professional blog over at PodTech.net when it starts up. I’ll make sure to focus on podcasting and videoblogging and all that stuff there. In the meantime, this still is my personal blog and I still get to write about things I want to write about. And you get to call “hooey” on me too. Which is half the fun, I guess.
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Skeptic: this is my personal blog. Who said I was expert at anything? This blog is about things that I’m interested in. And I’ve invested $4,000 of my own money in HDTV which makes me just as much an expert as anyone else on the topic.
But, you are right about targeting your expertise to certain audiences. You’ll probably be happier with my professional blog over at PodTech.net when it starts up. I’ll make sure to focus on podcasting and videoblogging and all that stuff there. In the meantime, this still is my personal blog and I still get to write about things I want to write about. And you get to call “hooey” on me too. Which is half the fun, I guess.
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@58. Why not sudden death? The way I saw it yesterday those teams were just biding their time to get the OT periods over in order to penalty kicks. You might as well call the OT the cool down period because they were just waiting it out. We just had a 19 inning baseball game yesterday. And don’t tell me it wasn’t tiring. One of the all time best NBA games was a 3 overtime playoff game. If it had been up to FIFA, they would have stopped the game after the first overtime and had a free throw shooting contest.
Hell, why even have an OT? Just go right PK’s then. Your comment that there is no physical way to stop a properly placed penalty kick is exaclty my point for eliminating them. Teams play their guts out for 120 minutes and then it comes down to how badly can we embarrass the goalie. Unlike during the match, the goalie has absolutely no help in defending the shot. Why not let the TEAMS decide, not the goalie? Wrong with sudden death. Last man standing. Why not. If they get tired, they get tired. In the NBA they play until someone wins. (But the NBA has this thing called lead changes, which I’m not sure soccer understands what that is.
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@58. Why not sudden death? The way I saw it yesterday those teams were just biding their time to get the OT periods over in order to penalty kicks. You might as well call the OT the cool down period because they were just waiting it out. We just had a 19 inning baseball game yesterday. And don’t tell me it wasn’t tiring. One of the all time best NBA games was a 3 overtime playoff game. If it had been up to FIFA, they would have stopped the game after the first overtime and had a free throw shooting contest.
Hell, why even have an OT? Just go right PK’s then. Your comment that there is no physical way to stop a properly placed penalty kick is exaclty my point for eliminating them. Teams play their guts out for 120 minutes and then it comes down to how badly can we embarrass the goalie. Unlike during the match, the goalie has absolutely no help in defending the shot. Why not let the TEAMS decide, not the goalie? Wrong with sudden death. Last man standing. Why not. If they get tired, they get tired. In the NBA they play until someone wins. (But the NBA has this thing called lead changes, which I’m not sure soccer understands what that is.
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This is just another reason to be lazy, and not go to the game to see it live!
Seriously though, the reason that Americans hate soccer, is because our sports are so much better.
Who wants to watch a bunch of grown men kick around a ball, and NOT score?
The reason that we in America love baseball, is because it is the most challenging game. The reason we love basketball, is for the high scores, and constant action. The reason we love football, is because American football allows you to actually THROW the ball and SCORE. In American football, there is no need for a goalie. There is an entire defensive team, waiting, ready to clobber the team on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
Americans like action. We are bored far too easily.
A perfect example of why soccer sucks so much, is the fact that the biggest highlight of the game, is the ejection of a player who head-butted another.
Finally, Americans cannot possibly like any sport that can end in a tie!
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This is just another reason to be lazy, and not go to the game to see it live!
Seriously though, the reason that Americans hate soccer, is because our sports are so much better.
Who wants to watch a bunch of grown men kick around a ball, and NOT score?
The reason that we in America love baseball, is because it is the most challenging game. The reason we love basketball, is for the high scores, and constant action. The reason we love football, is because American football allows you to actually THROW the ball and SCORE. In American football, there is no need for a goalie. There is an entire defensive team, waiting, ready to clobber the team on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
Americans like action. We are bored far too easily.
A perfect example of why soccer sucks so much, is the fact that the biggest highlight of the game, is the ejection of a player who head-butted another.
Finally, Americans cannot possibly like any sport that can end in a tie!
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As a big Bayern München fan myself, I am officially inviting you Robert to see a live game in Munich with me if you ever have the chance to come to Germany! The new Allianz Arena is possibly one of the best stadiums in the world right now. I had the opportunity to be at the opening game and I will never forget it. So, when do you want to come? 😉
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As a big Bayern München fan myself, I am officially inviting you Robert to see a live game in Munich with me if you ever have the chance to come to Germany! The new Allianz Arena is possibly one of the best stadiums in the world right now. I had the opportunity to be at the opening game and I will never forget it. So, when do you want to come? 😉
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I see that many people are saying Robert does not have a clue. Rather I have to say Robert you are convincing me to get an HDTV. I live in Europe, but have lived for over 20 years in North America (US and Canada).
Will the US “get” football? It depends on several things.
1) The US has to get with the show with respect to its league. Over the entire world all leagues work with FIFA. Who doesn’t? Yupe you guessed it the US. In fact the US was the only league still playing during the world cup. No other league was active as they all quit playing four weeks before the final.
2) The US needs some role models. It is nice that the MLS exists, but until some American players start playing in the European clubs the skill of the average American player will be horrible. For example there are quite a few immigrant children who are Americans and Canadians that are getting their old citizenships back so that they can be “european players.”
3) The US needs to compete on the world stage more often, including the MLS. I saw in this world cup the US has no idea how to deal with the other countries. The American players lack the skills or techniques that you only learn by playing against other styles and clubs. Sure the US will get its butt kicked for the first five or ten years. But after being butt-whipped for a while the US will learn and become a force at the world stage.
Though I fear the US will not do any of this because it means getting a butt whipping and playing second fiddle. For example Landon Donovan. Donovan is a good player but it seems he does not want to play second fiddle and thus limits himself to the US. Right now the best clubs are European, and if you want to be the best then you play for the European clubs. Donovan rather disappoints me because I thought one very positive attitude about Americans is their never say die attitude.
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I see that many people are saying Robert does not have a clue. Rather I have to say Robert you are convincing me to get an HDTV. I live in Europe, but have lived for over 20 years in North America (US and Canada).
Will the US “get” football? It depends on several things.
1) The US has to get with the show with respect to its league. Over the entire world all leagues work with FIFA. Who doesn’t? Yupe you guessed it the US. In fact the US was the only league still playing during the world cup. No other league was active as they all quit playing four weeks before the final.
2) The US needs some role models. It is nice that the MLS exists, but until some American players start playing in the European clubs the skill of the average American player will be horrible. For example there are quite a few immigrant children who are Americans and Canadians that are getting their old citizenships back so that they can be “european players.”
3) The US needs to compete on the world stage more often, including the MLS. I saw in this world cup the US has no idea how to deal with the other countries. The American players lack the skills or techniques that you only learn by playing against other styles and clubs. Sure the US will get its butt kicked for the first five or ten years. But after being butt-whipped for a while the US will learn and become a force at the world stage.
Though I fear the US will not do any of this because it means getting a butt whipping and playing second fiddle. For example Landon Donovan. Donovan is a good player but it seems he does not want to play second fiddle and thus limits himself to the US. Right now the best clubs are European, and if you want to be the best then you play for the European clubs. Donovan rather disappoints me because I thought one very positive attitude about Americans is their never say die attitude.
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It’s the same thing down here in Australia.
One of the big issues is tv coverage, and development of the game locally.
Our local league has just recently been revamped, and they are hopeful things take off on the back of what’s happened at The World Cup.
Who knows what will happen? Only time will tell.
It all starts with the grassroots level.
I know you emphasise a lot on the grassroots in IT, it’s the same thing with sports as well. What are the kids growing up playing?
Australia and the USA both have quite a crowded sporting arena in which the kids can grow up and participate in. TV plays a hand in all this.
The advantage the Australian squad had, is that a large majority of their players ply their trade in the European leagues. Which is a bonus as they get regular games against the big names around the world.
Even the top Brazilian players end up going to Europe to ply their trade. Perhaps American players need to follow the lead of the Australian players? Head to the European leagues, and have the players “highlighted” on sports shows and so on.
Sure, there will be players that want to stay home. But to be the best, you have to compete with the very best.
Australia seems to be doing things to try to enhance the standings of “The World Game” (aka Soccer/Football) in the eye of the general public. Perhaps the USA needs to follow-suit.
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It’s the same thing down here in Australia.
One of the big issues is tv coverage, and development of the game locally.
Our local league has just recently been revamped, and they are hopeful things take off on the back of what’s happened at The World Cup.
Who knows what will happen? Only time will tell.
It all starts with the grassroots level.
I know you emphasise a lot on the grassroots in IT, it’s the same thing with sports as well. What are the kids growing up playing?
Australia and the USA both have quite a crowded sporting arena in which the kids can grow up and participate in. TV plays a hand in all this.
The advantage the Australian squad had, is that a large majority of their players ply their trade in the European leagues. Which is a bonus as they get regular games against the big names around the world.
Even the top Brazilian players end up going to Europe to ply their trade. Perhaps American players need to follow the lead of the Australian players? Head to the European leagues, and have the players “highlighted” on sports shows and so on.
Sure, there will be players that want to stay home. But to be the best, you have to compete with the very best.
Australia seems to be doing things to try to enhance the standings of “The World Game” (aka Soccer/Football) in the eye of the general public. Perhaps the USA needs to follow-suit.
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OH JESUS. SCORING SCORING SCORING. Is that all people can think about? I hear all the dimwitted sportscasters say that soccer is boring because games are low scoring. These same morons piss in their pants if a baseball game is tied 1 to 1 in the bottom of the 9th*. They can appreciate the idea of a low scoring baseball game being well played because it’s likely been mistake free and hallmarked by great pitching and defense. They don’t really understand the nuances of the game enough to make any substantive comparisons to other sports. It’s just something someone picked out as a difference between futebal and football and decided that a low score makes soccer a boring game. To say that the game lacks “action” is a ridiculous statement.
If the US men’s team did better in intl. soccer, if some of our lads were commanding the kind of money Ballack will get from Chelsea, interest in the game will grow. If we could see on a regular basis people doing the kinds of things Ronaldinho can do with the ball, people will want to watch. Yeah, the Champions’ League is televised on the deuce, but you gotta sneak out of the office to see it (unless you got headphones and sopcast). So, Brent, it isn’t “action” that Americans love, Americans love a winner. But for intl. Soccer, it becomes like the Olympics when we only care three times a decade (give or take a time).
Yes, lots of people at the grassroots level are into soccer. It hasn’t translated into either interest or much intl. success. Our farm system has to improve. We’re finally out of the AYSO everyone gets to play, boys and girls together stuff. Now that we are starting to think of soccer as a sport and not an “activity” US soccer HAS to start recruiting better athletes to play the game. Why are our best players about 5’2″ and a buck forty five soaking wet? If we do get big men, they are slower than the 7 year itch. We’ve had a couple of the best keepers in the world, and they had size, quickness and agility. Keller might have been a decent tight end for a Div 1 school.
Mr Gross is spot on about Donovan and other players not wanting to go overseas (though I wonder if they aren’t convinced not to go rather than deciding to stay here based on ego). Sure, even if you do end up playing with some 1st div club in Northern England, you’ll probably get a better soccer education than you would playing at Real Salt Lake.
Goebbels:
Like I said, Champions league is on ESPN 2. Also, Fox Sports gives Premiership matches late at night, and during prime time if you have digital cable or satellite (which more and more people will have).
It isn’t necessarily HDTV that will make soccer popular, though those same tech advances will give people more opportunities to watch. Other things have to happen to make the game more popular.
*As would I, since I don’t find baseball boring at all.
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OH JESUS. SCORING SCORING SCORING. Is that all people can think about? I hear all the dimwitted sportscasters say that soccer is boring because games are low scoring. These same morons piss in their pants if a baseball game is tied 1 to 1 in the bottom of the 9th*. They can appreciate the idea of a low scoring baseball game being well played because it’s likely been mistake free and hallmarked by great pitching and defense. They don’t really understand the nuances of the game enough to make any substantive comparisons to other sports. It’s just something someone picked out as a difference between futebal and football and decided that a low score makes soccer a boring game. To say that the game lacks “action” is a ridiculous statement.
If the US men’s team did better in intl. soccer, if some of our lads were commanding the kind of money Ballack will get from Chelsea, interest in the game will grow. If we could see on a regular basis people doing the kinds of things Ronaldinho can do with the ball, people will want to watch. Yeah, the Champions’ League is televised on the deuce, but you gotta sneak out of the office to see it (unless you got headphones and sopcast). So, Brent, it isn’t “action” that Americans love, Americans love a winner. But for intl. Soccer, it becomes like the Olympics when we only care three times a decade (give or take a time).
Yes, lots of people at the grassroots level are into soccer. It hasn’t translated into either interest or much intl. success. Our farm system has to improve. We’re finally out of the AYSO everyone gets to play, boys and girls together stuff. Now that we are starting to think of soccer as a sport and not an “activity” US soccer HAS to start recruiting better athletes to play the game. Why are our best players about 5’2″ and a buck forty five soaking wet? If we do get big men, they are slower than the 7 year itch. We’ve had a couple of the best keepers in the world, and they had size, quickness and agility. Keller might have been a decent tight end for a Div 1 school.
Mr Gross is spot on about Donovan and other players not wanting to go overseas (though I wonder if they aren’t convinced not to go rather than deciding to stay here based on ego). Sure, even if you do end up playing with some 1st div club in Northern England, you’ll probably get a better soccer education than you would playing at Real Salt Lake.
Goebbels:
Like I said, Champions league is on ESPN 2. Also, Fox Sports gives Premiership matches late at night, and during prime time if you have digital cable or satellite (which more and more people will have).
It isn’t necessarily HDTV that will make soccer popular, though those same tech advances will give people more opportunities to watch. Other things have to happen to make the game more popular.
*As would I, since I don’t find baseball boring at all.
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Robert,
It is called FOOTBALL around the world, excepting the fact that the US only calls it soccer.
http://www.irin.co.uk
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Robert,
It is called FOOTBALL around the world, excepting the fact that the US only calls it soccer.
http://www.irin.co.uk
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This theory just doesn’t hold any water at all. Soccer has been hugely popular everywhere except the USA, and have you SEEN the televisions people watch soccer on around the world? They watch it on 19″ CRTs mounted on the ceilings in bars. They watch it on even smaller 15-year-old living-room TVs with bad reception. The image quality is often the rough equivalent of watching a 300×200 Internet stream, and it often looks worst than that. On that equipment, they can’t even see half the details you say are so compelling, yet somehow the improved image quality of HDTV is supposed to turn massive amounts of Americans into fans?!?
I don’t think so.
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This theory just doesn’t hold any water at all. Soccer has been hugely popular everywhere except the USA, and have you SEEN the televisions people watch soccer on around the world? They watch it on 19″ CRTs mounted on the ceilings in bars. They watch it on even smaller 15-year-old living-room TVs with bad reception. The image quality is often the rough equivalent of watching a 300×200 Internet stream, and it often looks worst than that. On that equipment, they can’t even see half the details you say are so compelling, yet somehow the improved image quality of HDTV is supposed to turn massive amounts of Americans into fans?!?
I don’t think so.
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Go Cubs Go…
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Go Cubs Go…
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Soccer will take awhile to get popular. I’m sure the NFL is finding some way to not let it happen!
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Soccer will take awhile to get popular. I’m sure the NFL is finding some way to not let it happen!
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DMAD,
First off, they used to play what we would refer to as Sudden Death, although in soccer it was called Golden Goal. The first team to score in OT was the winner. I am not sure why this was changed for this world cup, nor do I understand the rationale for going to set OT periods. To me Golden Goal puts the pressure on both teams from the start of OT. This is one change I would change back and it may satisfy your need for conclusion.
As far as embarrassing the goalie or the goalie deciding the game, if you read my comments, it really is not the goalie deciding the game, but the rest of the players. All the pressure is on the shooter, since if they place the ball correctly, there is no way for the goalie to stop the shot without cheating (i.e., moving prior to the whistle and guessing the right direction). Most of the time when you see a player miss a PK it is because they didn’t hit one of the four unstoppable spots, hit the ball too softly, or missed the goal. If the goalie stops the shot, it is because the shooter didn’t hit the ball with the correct velocity or missed one of the four unstoppable spots.
One other change, I would implement is for OT each team gets an additional substitution. Fresh legs can make all the difference and if teams play to win in regulation, then most likely all substitutions will have been used.
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DMAD,
First off, they used to play what we would refer to as Sudden Death, although in soccer it was called Golden Goal. The first team to score in OT was the winner. I am not sure why this was changed for this world cup, nor do I understand the rationale for going to set OT periods. To me Golden Goal puts the pressure on both teams from the start of OT. This is one change I would change back and it may satisfy your need for conclusion.
As far as embarrassing the goalie or the goalie deciding the game, if you read my comments, it really is not the goalie deciding the game, but the rest of the players. All the pressure is on the shooter, since if they place the ball correctly, there is no way for the goalie to stop the shot without cheating (i.e., moving prior to the whistle and guessing the right direction). Most of the time when you see a player miss a PK it is because they didn’t hit one of the four unstoppable spots, hit the ball too softly, or missed the goal. If the goalie stops the shot, it is because the shooter didn’t hit the ball with the correct velocity or missed one of the four unstoppable spots.
One other change, I would implement is for OT each team gets an additional substitution. Fresh legs can make all the difference and if teams play to win in regulation, then most likely all substitutions will have been used.
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The 3 subs rule always baffled me as well. I understand the “if you go out you’re done” rule, but with 23 players on the club, it seems like a waste of opportunity, particularly in overtime. I appreciate the fact that how you manage your 3 subs factors into the strategy. Absent a more liberal substituion policy I would agree with your additional sub for OT. Similar to how the NBA allows an additional time out for OT’s.
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The 3 subs rule always baffled me as well. I understand the “if you go out you’re done” rule, but with 23 players on the club, it seems like a waste of opportunity, particularly in overtime. I appreciate the fact that how you manage your 3 subs factors into the strategy. Absent a more liberal substituion policy I would agree with your additional sub for OT. Similar to how the NBA allows an additional time out for OT’s.
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i find all sports boring to watch on tv . oh well
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i find all sports boring to watch on tv . oh well
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errr, how about soccer isn’t so popular here because you don’t have players like Zidane:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1488494903422202558
Or maybe because soccer doesn’t lend itself to 15 minute intervals for advertisers.
Karl
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errr, how about soccer isn’t so popular here because you don’t have players like Zidane:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1488494903422202558
Or maybe because soccer doesn’t lend itself to 15 minute intervals for advertisers.
Karl
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@69. Well, yes. It seems even the President of FIFA thinks about scoring, and the lack thereof has him concerned. Well, whaddya know? It feels good to be right.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR2006070601590.html
“Said Sepp: “The football isn’t that bad, but there aren’t enough goals — and when there are too few goals, the public isn’t very enthusiastic,” Blatter told the German news agency DPA. “The essence of the game is goals.” Blatter wants to devise changes that will help attackers break through increasingly sophisticated defenses.”
Let’s repeat again what THE PRESIDENT OF FIFA said: “The essence of the game is goals”. I find this funny given that it seems every soccer nerd that commented here contends just the opposite! That goals and scoring totals have nothing to do with the quality of play.
You soccer nerds need to get on the same page.
I also note Sepp said nothing about looking into how HDTV can improve the game 😉
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@69. Well, yes. It seems even the President of FIFA thinks about scoring, and the lack thereof has him concerned. Well, whaddya know? It feels good to be right.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR2006070601590.html
“Said Sepp: “The football isn’t that bad, but there aren’t enough goals — and when there are too few goals, the public isn’t very enthusiastic,” Blatter told the German news agency DPA. “The essence of the game is goals.” Blatter wants to devise changes that will help attackers break through increasingly sophisticated defenses.”
Let’s repeat again what THE PRESIDENT OF FIFA said: “The essence of the game is goals”. I find this funny given that it seems every soccer nerd that commented here contends just the opposite! That goals and scoring totals have nothing to do with the quality of play.
You soccer nerds need to get on the same page.
I also note Sepp said nothing about looking into how HDTV can improve the game 😉
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#52 – Lack of scandals in soccer/football? Huh?
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/football/07/14/italy.trial/index.html
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#52 – Lack of scandals in soccer/football? Huh?
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/football/07/14/italy.trial/index.html
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