Here we go again...FIFA's view of US Fans

[FC Uptown]

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060604/1/737a.html

Actually a pretty good article, and I loved the quote from the university professor in Missouri - it's towards the bottom - probably something I would have said.

[tbgh]

Well, at least some of us were representing well.

[footbrawl]

Almost half of the respondents indicated that they could not name a single player from the American squad.

It would be interesting to see if the "casual" NFL fan could name the defensive line of their city's pro football team.

[blacksun]

It would be interesting to see if the "casual" NFL fan could name the defensive line of their city's pro football team.
I'm not sure what your point is. While a casual fan probably couldn't name the whole team, they would be able to name a few players (QB, RB, etc), whereas half the people couldn't name any nats players.

[DaniCrew]

One thing i found interesting is the bias due to the method used to administer the "survey": EMAIL... the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world where soccer is a white collar sport... so the survey going out via email automatically catered toward a segment of the population that has more of a chance of being white collar (and, therefore, more likely to have some interest or knowledge of soccer)... i would argue that the survey results would be different if they could have somehow included the 40% of the U.S. population who does not own a PC in their sample (the last data i found was from the 2003 census which stated 38% of U.S. households did not have a PC)... unfortunately, there are entirely too many people in the U.S. who remain in the dark about a lot of things much more important than the World Cup... a lot of these people still believe that the world ends at the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans... i would argue that these people are also very much unaware that an event as important as the World Cup is even about to begin...

[VBSoccerFan]

I'm not sure what your point is. While a casual fan probably couldn't name the whole team, they would be able to name a few players (QB, RB, etc), whereas half the people couldn't name any nats players.

Yeah, but one third could name EVERY player, and two thirds said that they CARE. These are the vital tidbits nobody here has mentioned yet.

You can't read too much into these results, but they do tend to refute any thesis that "nobody cares." Clearly, a lot of people do care, and a fair number of them care quite intensely.

[delo_pata]

One thing i found interesting is the bias due to the method used to administer the "survey": EMAIL... the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world where soccer is a white collar sport... so the survey going out via email automatically catered toward a segment of the population that has more of a chance of being white collar (and, therefore, more likely to have some interest or knowledge of soccer)... i would argue that the survey results would be different if they could have somehow included the 40% of the U.S. population who does not own a PC in their sample (the last data i found was from the 2003 census which stated 38% of U.S. households did not have a PC)... unfortunately, there are entirely too many people in the U.S. who remain in the dark about a lot of things much more important than the World Cup... a lot of these people still believe that the world ends at the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans... i would argue that these people are also very much unaware that an event as important as the World Cup is even about to begin...

That's certainly true. This is in no way a scientifically valid survey (though the number of PCs has gone up quite dramatically since the 03 census). However, it is really heartening to know that among the selected sample that the awareness is even that good.

[Shibb]

My favorite quote:

A respondent who grew up in Arizona but now lives in Washington, DC, named two players, Reyna and "that Donovan guy".


We should use this for Landon's new nickname.

[bigredfutbol]

The concluding paragraph:

--------------

It would, of course, be a mistake to try to take too much from all this, but it does seem safe to assume that awareness of the tournament is very common and there are at least some isolated pockets of intense following in the States.

---------------

That seems right on the money. This is a pretty decent article.

[gaijin]

My favorite quote:



We should use this for Landon's new nickname.

I'm that's a typo in the last word....

















:D

[Space Ghost]

A larger bias than the makeup of people owning computers would be the response rate to e-mail surveys. If you or I got an e-mail titled "FIFA world cup survey", we'd respond. The Average Joe delets it. Therefore you get an overwhelming bias from the people that would even take the survey in the first place.

[footbrawl]

I'm not sure what your point is. While a casual fan probably couldn't name the whole team, they would be able to name a few players (QB, RB, etc), whereas half the people couldn't name any nats players.

You named offensive positions; and that's part of my point. For example, I'm a casual NFL fan -- I tune in when the Chargers are doing well. But I can't name one player on the defensive line. I know we have LT at running back, and we lost Drew Brees -- but those are both offensive players and I'm not even 100% sure LT is still on the team.

So my point is, why would you expect the casual soccer fan to know USMNT players -- let alone MLS players in their own city.

It's just not fair question to gauge the popularity of the sport in the USA. Based on this question, and if you asked me about NFL (and lots of people like me), you could assume that NFL is not very popular in USA.