So I roll out of bed today, and I realize...

[Doomsday101]

There are many cities in the US where the Daytona 500 would be blown away by the WC. LA, SF, SD, Seattle, NYC.

National ratings I don't think so. 2006 11.3 rating nation wide.

Fox's telecast of Sunday's Daytona 500 not only matched the 2002 Daytona 500 as the highest-rated race in NASCAR history, it further exemplified NASCAR's reach beyond its Southeastern roots.
The ratings for Sunday's race in eight of the nation's top-10 TV markets showed double-digit increases compared with the ratings for last year's race.

The rating in New York (5.5) improved 17%, Detroit (11.6) 47%, San Francisco (5.8) 32%, Atlanta (20.4) 28%, Dallas (9.5) 23%, Washington (11.9) 19%, Philadelphia (10.4) 11% and Chicago (9.0) 10%.

Overall, the 10.9 rating (percentage of the USA's 109.6 million TV homes) for Sunday's race topped the 10.6 rating for last year's Daytona 500 on NBC by 3%.

Sunday's race featured a hotly contested 10-lap dash to the finish during which the lead bounced among Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the eventual winner, Jeff Gordon. Defending Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch finished second.

 

[AbeBeta]

National ratings I don't think so. 2006 11.3 rating nation wide.

Fox's telecast of Sunday's Daytona 500 not only matched the 2002 Daytona 500 as the highest-rated race in NASCAR history, it further exemplified NASCAR's reach beyond its Southeastern roots.
The ratings for Sunday's race in eight of the nation's top-10 TV markets showed double-digit increases compared with the ratings for last year's race.

The rating in New York (5.5) improved 17%, Detroit (11.6) 47%, San Francisco (5.8) 32%, Atlanta (20.4) 28%, Dallas (9.5) 23%, Washington (11.9) 19%, Philadelphia (10.4) 11% and Chicago (9.0) 10%.

Overall, the 10.9 rating (percentage of the USA's 109.6 million TV homes) for Sunday's race topped the 10.6 rating for last year's Daytona 500 on NBC by 3%.

Sunday's race featured a hotly contested 10-lap dash to the finish during which the lead bounced among Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the eventual winner, Jeff Gordon. Defending Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch finished second.

Well let's see how those NY and SF #s compare to the WC final.

BTW A 5.5 NYC rating for the 500 is nice -- But early round World cup action managed a 3.0 share 2 weeks ago in the NYC market. Despite the early morning start.

And if you want to talk "improvement" data -- this year's WC is coming in at about twice the overall ratings of the 2002 cup. Another interesting measure is the # of people following on the Internet. ESPN is reporting numbers as high as 9 million visits to their soccer page during each game. Seems that a ton of folks at work are following online.

 

[Doomsday101]

Well let's see how those NY and SF #s compare to the WC final.

BTW A 5.5 NYC rating for the 500 is nice -- But early round World cup action managed a 3.0 share 2 weeks ago in the NYC market. Despite the early morning start.

And if you want to talk "improvement" data -- this year's WC is coming in at about twice the overall ratings of the 2002 cup. Another interesting measure is the # of people following on the Internet. ESPN is reporting numbers as high as 9 million visits to their soccer page during each game. Seems that a ton of folks at work are following online.

WC is the biggest stage in soccer and it is not getting overly great rating in the US sorry if you can't see that. I have nothing aginst it but in the US it is not that big of a deal.

 

[Da Hammer]

WC is the biggest stage in soccer and it is not getting overly great rating in the US sorry if you can't see that. I have nothing aginst it but in the US it is not that big of a deal.

i think he's trying to say that its becoming a bigger deal and it will probably continue to become even bigger in the future. I don't expect it to reach the level of the 3 major sports here thats just not realistic but it should continue to rise in popularity

 

[WV Cowboy]

Did they have a game in the WC last night that ended in a 0-0 tie, and then decided the match with a penalty kickoff ?

0-0 ? They need to make some changes in soccer.

Decide the match with penalty kicks ? They need to make some changes in soccer.

Penalty kicks have nothing to do with how the game is played. What an empty way to decide the outcome of a contest.

 

[Doomsday101]

i think he's trying to say that its becoming a bigger deal and it will probably continue to become even bigger in the future. I don't expect it to reach the level of the 3 major sports here thats just not realistic but it should continue to rise in popularity

I have stated soccer in the US due to jr sports that it will get more popular down the road but in the US it has a long, long way to go before it comes close to the current American sports and the popularity these sports have in the US.

 

[AbeBeta]

WC is the biggest stage in soccer and it is not getting overly great rating in the US sorry if you can't see that. I have nothing aginst it but in the US it is not that big of a deal.

And I'm sorry you keep ignoring the information and the context that I'm presenting -- you bust out that sort of rating for 7 am in the morning on the West Coast and that is a solid showing.

 

[AbeBeta]

Did they have a game in the WC last night that ended in a 0-0 tie, and then decided the match with a penalty kickoff ?

0-0 ? They need to make some changes in soccer.

Decide the match with penalty kicks ? They need to make some changes in soccer.

Penalty kicks have nothing to do with how the game is played. What an empty way to decide the outcome of a contest.

Actually after 2 full hours of play PKs make some sense

Soccer will never need to make "changes" to pander to audiences. Twice as many people in the US are viewing this world cup than the last. Seems like without any real changes in the game interest is growing.

 

[MC KAos]

i dont think anyone here is arguing that soccer is more popular in the us that the others, the only thing we are all saying is that soccer is growing in popularity and that soccer players are "superior" athletes. By "superiour" we dont mean "superior" to football players or other american sports, we mean superior as in, they are GREAT athletes.

 

[AtlCB]

I'm proud to be a "celebrate diversity" person and I can honestly say that exposing myself to what the rest of the world enjoys is truly enriching. That goes far beyond soccer.

Frankly, I see much of this as sour grapes among US fans - after the US hosted the cup in 1994 there was a surge of soccer appreciation that resulted in the founding of the country's first legit professional soccer league since the 70's (that indoor crap doesn't count). Then in the next world cup the US gets their butts handed to them and has an early exit. Bye bye fan base.

Waaaaa. We can't dominate a sport. We aren't going to watch anymore

I think this is a very unfair assessment of American sports fans. The biggest problem with soccer in this country is that the average fan doesn't understand the game - myself included. When I was growing up, nobody played soccer. Football and baseball were the biggest sports followed by basketball. The soccer leagues (included FIFA and MLS) have failed to do a good job of marketing or introducing the game to this country. While watching NFL games, the analysts will explain certain aspects of the game. Certain plays will be explained. While watching a few matches in the world cup, the analysts didn't properly explain to their audience.

I also was unaware that the world cup was even being played until after the USA - Czec Republic game had already been played. I watched the T&T/Sweden game and was completely lost. I watched the USA-Italy game and the officiating was terrible. I did not watch the Ghana-USA game. I will probably only watch one or two more matches.

The other problem with world cup soccer is that most fans don't have anyone to root for after the US is defeated. I have lived in England and Germany, so I still have a couple of teams to follow.

As far as not watching because the US stinks at the sport, the winter olympics still get decent ratings in this country and we stink at many of the winter sports. Tennis is always popular even when Americans are not dominating the tournaments.

 

[bbgun]

People waiting for soccer to hit it big in the US are like Linus in the pumpkin patch, waiting (in vain) for the Great Pumpkin. Soccer will be a club sport here and that's it.

 

[peplaw06]

And I'm sorry you keep ignoring the information and the context that I'm presenting -- you bust out that sort of rating for 7 am in the morning on the West Coast and that is a solid showing.

Well, you also have to account for the fact that those major metropolitan cities on the West Coast have a huge number of immigrants (legal and illegal) who only care about Soccer. I wouldn't be surprised to find out the WC in LA draws more viewers than NASCAR.

 

[AbeBeta]

Well, you also have to account for the fact that those major metropolitan cities on the West Coast have a huge number of immigrants (legal and illegal) who only care about Soccer. I wouldn't be surprised to find out the WC in LA draws more viewers than NASCAR.

I may have noted this before -- at least on the West, most of those immigrants are spanish speakers -- they aren't watching the ESPN feed -- they are watching the Univision feed -- ESPN had about 3 times more viewers than Uni. that's saying that this isn't just an immigrant phenomenon.

 

[peplaw06]

I may have noted this before -- at least on the West, most of those immigrants are spanish speakers -- they aren't watching the ESPN feed -- they are watching the Univision feed -- ESPN had about 3 times more viewers than Uni. that's saying that this isn't just an immigrant phenomenon.

Yeah obviously the large majority of immigrants are watching Spanish telecasts, but there are also huge populations of English speaking immigrants... primarily from Asia and Europe who are also very interested because a) their country is still in the WC, and b) they grew up watching their country play unlike us. So while Spanish speakers are the majority of immigrants, there are plenty of English speaking ones, who would watch ESPN.

 

[AbeBeta]

Yeah obviously the large majority of immigrants are watching Spanish telecasts, but there are also huge populations of English speaking immigrants... primarily from Asia and Europe who are also very interested because a) their country is still in the WC, and b) they grew up watching their country play unlike us. So while Spanish speakers are the majority of immigrants, there are plenty of English speaking ones, who would watch ESPN.

I posted some large viewing #s earlier for the US - Ghana game

Are Ghananian immigrants similarly impacting viewing?

 

[peplaw06]

I posted some large viewing #s earlier for the US - Ghana game

Are Ghananian immigrants similarly impacting viewing?

Well obviously the ratings will be larger... It's the US!! But I would posit that most US fans don't watch it unless the US is playing.

 

[peplaw06]

Here ya go AC...

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/June Dailies/soccer.htm

World Cup Scores Only Small Audience Only 6% Following Tournament Very Closely
June 23, 2006

Despite a high level of media coverage for the World Cup soccer tournament, three-fourths of Americans (78%) are not following the action very closely if at all. A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults found that just 6% are following the tournament very closely. Nine percent (9%) of men are paying close attention along with 3% of women.


The Super Bowl remains the biggest sport championship in terms of fan appeal. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans say it’s their favorite championship to watch. The World Series is the only other championship to reach double digits—12% of adults say it’s their favorite. One-fourth of all Americans (25%) say they don’t want any sports championships.



Despite the general lack of interest in the World Cup by the US audience, the soccer tournament is more popular than the NBA basketball championship and the NHL’s Stanley Cup hockey title. Both of those events were being held at the same time as the World Cup.


Fourteen percent (14%) of Americans say they played soccer in an organized league at some point in their life.


Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans believe there is a professional soccer league in the United States (and they’re right).


The survey was conducted before the U.S. soccer team was eliminated. However, few were surprised by the lack of success--just 5% of the nation’s adults thought it was very likely the U.S. team would win the tournament.

 

[AbeBeta]

Here ya go AC...

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/June Dailies/soccer.htm

Odd data. First, the WC is every four years -- any comparison vs. yearly championships compares apples and oranges. Also, the #s they present are so without context that they lack meaning.

For example, how can they say that there is a "lack of interest" when the WC comes out better than the NBA and NHL in their surveys? Those data say that the World Cup is pretty damn popular relative to other sports.

Also, it is hard to trust an article with gramatical errors -- "One-fourth of all Americans (25%) say they don’t want any sports championships"

 

[AbeBeta]

Well obviously the ratings will be larger... It's the US!! But I would posit that most US fans don't watch it unless the US is playing.

and I would disagree - the increase in viewing can't be attributable to US success because there has been so little.

 

[peplaw06]

and I would disagree - the increase in viewing can't be attributable to US success because there has been so little.

I didn't say it had to do with "US success." It just has to do with the fact the US is playing. If there's an increase over previous WC's then it's probably because it's marketed a little better.

You know now that I think about it, there was a huge marketing effort for the US team this year. The FIFA rankings came out with the US ranked the #5 team in the world... seems bogus to me, because they definitely didn't play like that... also the Czech Republic was #2... combined the #2 and 5 teams out of the same group, and neither of them made it out of the group, giving way to lower rated Italy and Ghana. I wonder how legit those rankings were. It may have just been a ploy to get the US to have a bigger viewership. I don't have the numbers, but I bet even with our relatively low ratings Nielsen-wise (arguable I know), that we had more televisions tuned in than most coutries in the world.

Another reason this year's WC ratings may be higher than 2002. IN 2002 the WC was played in Korea and Japan. If you thought the ratings were low because the games were played at 7 am West Coast, remember that WC?? Games on at midnight or 3 in the morning in Texas. Not exactly susceptible to comparable numbers with this year's WC.