The Future of Soccer on American TV

Great read Tim!

It really is impressive how far the US has come in its coverage and the amount of interest the sport has gained in a short amount of time. I think the country is finally starting to realize that soccer is the most popular sport in the world for a reason. I'm a relatively recent convert myself after I started following the league and Fulham about 4 years ago. In just those short 4 years, it's amazing to see the difference in coverage. It's so much easier to keep up with the latest news and catch all the major matchups. ESPN is even regularly showing European results on their ticker!

With the internet and the growth of social media, the world is becoming more and more globalized and soccer is definitely included in that. Can't wait to see how big it becomes by the end of the decade.

 

I remember the days when you could only see United on any real sort of weekly basis. You had to hunt for a bar that had Sentanta Sports or the back then Fox Soccer World. There would be the occasional mid-week match on ESPN, but you guessed it, United v someone. Now ith Foxsoccer.tv or those "other" feeds there really isn't a Premier League match you can't see. While I don't watch much Serie A, League One, or La Liga you can certainly find those games later in the day on FSC/FSP/Internet.

This last Gold Cup/World Cup in my opinion had a lot to do with any of the "extra" coverage soccer gets now. There was such a serge in US support. Lucky for the sport a few of them actually wanted to see what soccer was about and not just jump on the USA Stars and Stripes bandwagon. A local chain bar downtown was hyping it up as they were the "place to be for all the US Matches". A buddy of mine and I went down and was actually shocked. Yes, you had all the ex-pats for England, but wow there were people there to support the USA. While the losses did probably send some back to Baseball, a few really started to understand our passion.

I know the 04 World Cup was what brought me to Fulham via Brian McBride. Hopefully Clint Dempsey will do the same for more.

 

Good stuff Tim :greetings-clapyellow:

I hope that Fox puts in the effort and resources they do for pregame, postgame, and studio for the NFL. The Champions League studio they use looks like it's from 1995. The ratings are trending up, the revenue is trending up, and it's going to continue even if the majority of the mass media (sports talk radio, print media, etc) attempt to stop the progress.

 

Great post

The Fox affiliate here in Raleigh tape delayed that match due to religious programing already in that time slot :evil: . Fox 50 has stated that they will show the ManU/Chelsea match live. However if they go back on that promise, then it sets a precedent that the future of soccer on TV may have some hang-ups if it interferes with religious time slots. If you would to have try to show a match last week, it would not have been shown due to a 700 Club telethon. The only reason I'm bringing this up is this is the stuff Fox may have to deal with in 2018 and 2022 where matches are held in different timezones compared to the U.S. I'm not saying I will be able to watch all of the matches, but when they are suppose to be there, they should be there.