Neither of those statements are true. the NHL is a 2.6 billion dollar league. Detroit Redwings have as many fans as nearly the entire MLS. I love when people just can't see the reality because NHL is not on ESPN anymore.
Sports Nation has a soccer poll going on right now. On the left had side towards the bottom under sports tab click on ESPN RISE. the question is... What is your favorite soccer league?
-- NINE MONTHS LATER -- Just a note that it appears the order has been shifted again. Soccer is back on the far right of the list.
Yeah, I always suspected this move was just pandering to get the EPL TV rights. Now that they've got them, all is back to being right in the world.
Anyone have an idea how many MMA games are televised per year and what the average TV ratings for the sport is? Also, how many games are held in total and what the average attendance is like? Any info or link would be appreciated.
So I guess you haven't watched any of the numerous shows debating the rise of MMA and the fall of boxing, have you?
UFC alone makes $250 million in revenue per year (Most of that in pay per view TV). About 75% more revenue than MLS. Yahoo has it ranked about right. In comparison WWE makes about $500 million in revenue per year. UFC is still a fledgling sport but have much faster growth than MLS.
That does not answer any of the questions I've asked. Bill Gates alone can watch 5 Polo games on pay-per-view paying 100 mil per game, earning the sport about 500 mil in revenues. Wouldn't necessarily make Polo a popular sport. Besides, I'm not trying to compare MLS (which is only one and small part of soccer) to MMA. Thanks for trying though.
that show on Spike recently got between 4-6 million viewers. and ussually gets 2-3 mil weekly... UFC 100 got 1.5 million PPV buys...while most UFC events are under 1 million but have dramatically improved the last few years. MMA is pretty big now.
Yeah, how did you like that shunning of a World Cup Qualifier V. Honduras no less which had rediculous implications by that good old network "espn" ha ha ha! YEAH they love the sport especially the U.S.MNT.! Oh not to mention unable to resist giving us news about tackle ball at half time!>? what!? I thought I was watching football and suddenly I get news about some throwballers, it's like giving me a cheeseburger at a chinese food restaurant!? never mind i've actually seen that only that it was with mexican food?! espn sucks, they have a long way to go to get my respect and they may dwarf FSC but thats because FSC does'nt cover bass fishing or log jamming or rock throwing or rubics cubbing!
Uh.... what exactly are you on about? Perhaps you need a hollywood director to slip you some qualudes. too soon?
Wait, ESPN had 2 announcers at the game, 2 pre-game hosts at the game, another 2 hosts in the studio, and followed the WCQ up with a MLS game where they sent another 2 announcers, all in HD, and you're trying to claim ESPN hates soccer? Moronic (And really, complaining about football highlights at halftime? I suppose nowhere else in the world they show highlights of other sports at halftime?)
Thanks for the info. Please don't hold back if you know anything more. While the numbers look good (the way the 17 mil for world cup final does) I still want to know how many of these games are held/televised per year and the average attendance there. I've asked in few forums without getting a clear answer. If someone asks me about soccer I can say, MLS has approximately 240 games per year including playoffs. On a typical week there are games in 7-8 cities, getting a total of around 100,000 in attendance and X number of total viewers on local TV and around 275,000 in average national TV ratings on ESPN2 and TeleFutura. With all the international club, national team games/friendlies the total number of high-level soccer games held in the US probably push around 300 per year (or 25 per month) and the average attendance is probably more than 18,000 with an average ticket price of more than $25. There are 64 men's world cup games on TV every 4 years drawing an average of approximately 4 mil viewers (2.2 mil on ESPN networks and 1.8 on Univision). Thirty two European cup games in 2008 were watched by an average of 1.5 mil viewers on ESPN. In total, about 440 games are televised on ESPN networks and NBC Universal (olympic soccer) alone every 4 year cycle which comes out to about 110 per year or 9 per month. The average viewership for these games are a little less than 700,000. Then there are close to 100 games on the Spanish-language networks (Mexican league and national team games draw good to great ratings) and hundreds more on the two dedicated soccer channels. I don't have an estimate for the ratings on these networks except that the FSC and GolTV numbers are very low. I'd appreciate if an MMA fan (I'm sure there are few here) breaks down the MMA numbers like that. I've been fascinated by the sudden rise of the sport and wanted to know more about it although I realize this is probably the wrong forum to ask so many questions.
Comparing ESPN to FSC is pretty silly. ESPN is a SPORTS network, sometimes that means that your favorite sport isn't shown on that network. Whereas on FSC all they show is soccer, which is awesome if that's all you want to see, but its pretty boring if you like watching other things.
ESPN/ABC was giving updates about US/Honduras during the Iowa/Michigan game on ABC...how dare they mix soccer and football!
