It's very interesting to me to see the enormous popularity that football has over soccer here. This was on full display in the past week when the college soccer championships were being played and on TV.
I'm in Northern Virginia, where one would expect the University of Virginia to be pretty big in terms of draw at say, sports bars. But, as the semi-final match between Virginia and the Maryland from Baltimore campus was being played, live, and on ESPN I think it was, I noticed several things:
1. In Buffalo Wild Wings, with a zillion TVs, only one small TV off in the corner had the game on at ALL. AND THERE WASN'T ANYTHING ELSE ON! No football, NOTHING. Every other TV was on talking heads, or *baseball* (Major League Baseball channel showing blah), or NFL channel or some such. I had to ask for the soccer game to be put on one of the big screens "since nothing else was on"!
2. Nobody was even aware there was a soccer game for a semi-local team for a college CHAMPIONSHIP run being played!
3. The stands at the game itself were almost completely EMPTY.
Boggle, it just blew me away. This is about how it REALLY IS when it comes to Americans (by and large) and the supposed growing love for soccer. At least at the college level. World Cup come and gone? Then who cares any more, right?
Anyway, to me it was an astonishing realization of the disparity in popularity between the two sports. Wow.
