Soccer draws most fans at 2008 Olympics

[dsirias]

http://www.socceramerica.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=28039&Nid=46482&p=


Which makes me ponder the international calendar /FIFA/IOC dispute

So you know the Olympic people don't want soccer to go away. Frankly I think FIFA doesn't mind soccer in the Olympics, and then there's the arbitration ruling, that pretty much means that FIFA has the IOC over the barrel. The IOC is going to have to move the Olympics( at least the soccer games) into the FIFA calendar window. In exchange FIFA will demand that the overage rule be eliminated.

I think that is best for all. The Olympic games will become what they should be-- a true U-23 tournament that will now be taken seriously and feature plenty of young stars.

The only problem I see is that there are other continental championships during Olympic years. There may be a burnout factor for a selected few players.

[Jwaksman]

FIFA cannot make IOC move the olympics. The IOC is bigger than FIFA, and the olympics draw a far bigger worldwide audience than the world cup.

It's possible that FIFA and IOC will come to some sort of an agreement over things like players to be used, but to say that "FIFA has the IOC over the barrel" is ridiculous.

[geego]

Interesting that the worst attendances happen at the european countries and the best abroad from Europe. What could be the reason? Tiredness of local audiences, who already watch top soccer during the rest of the year? :confused:

[OrlandoEngelaar]

Interesting that the worst attendances happen at the european countries and the best abroad from Europe. What could be the reason? Tiredness of local audiences, who already watch top soccer during the rest of the year? :confused:

Ronaldinho and Messi played or maybe people were forced to attend so it can look like a sellout.

[greenlion]

Ronaldinho and Messi played or maybe people were forced to attend so it can look like a sellout.

Chinese people love football, a ticket for group stage is about 1000 to 2000 Yuan here (about 150 to 300 USD) which is very expensive in China IMO

average attendance for mens football is 43,670, higher then asian cup china 2004(33,557)

for women football average attendance

World Cup China 1991: 19,615
World Cup China 2007: 37,632
Olympics Beijing 2008: 28,462

[TheGrimSweeper]

Interesting that the worst attendances happen at the european countries and the best abroad from Europe. What could be the reason? Tiredness of local audiences, who already watch top soccer during the rest of the year? :confused:

Precisely, how often do people in China get to see Dinho and the Messiah playing?

[greenlion]

Precisely, how often do people in China get to see Dinho and the Messiah playing?

China has 40+ sports channels, most of them show European leagues every week

[Excape Goat]

China has 40+ sports channels, most of them show European leagues every week

I think he meant live.

[Jwaksman]

Chinese people love football, a ticket for group stage is about 1000 to 2000 Yuan here (about 150 to 300 USD) which is very expensive in China IMO

average attendance for mens football is 43,670, higher then asian cup china 2004(33,557)

for women football average attendance

World Cup China 1991: 19,615
World Cup China 2007: 37,632
Olympics Beijing 2008: 28,462


A lot of tickets to Beijing were extremely expensive - yet the stands were half empty. The reason is that very few tickets were for sale to the public. Many were just handed out to government officials, who did not care for the sport yet followed rules not to scalp their tickets. The Chinese government then tried to fix this by handing out tickets to fake fans who were bused in, given fake signs/clothing, and taught cheers.

So you had a very strange combination of events where fake fans were put into stadiums to make them seem full, while fans who really cared were stuck outside scalping tickets for astronomical prices.

It's what you get in a communist nation...

[Gary V]

You can't directly compare number of tickets sold to popularity.

Soccer has large venues, compared to outdoor beach volleyball, or indoor swimming, gymnastics, basketball. It also has a number of discrete events (games), generating multiple ticket sales, as opposed to events like track and field where one ticket got you access to several races, throws, jumps, etc.

[leg_breaker]

How do you count attendances for track and field events? I mean other than asking everyone who goes into the stadium which sport they're going to watch.

[mak9]

FIFA cannot make IOC move the olympics. The IOC is bigger than FIFA, and the olympics draw a far bigger worldwide audience than the world cup.

It's possible that FIFA and IOC will come to some sort of an agreement over things like players to be used, but to say that "FIFA has the IOC over the barrel" is ridiculous.

:confused:

I think u got it wrong

FIFA > IOC

and WC audience is the largest of any other sporting event

[CACuzcatlan]

It gets into specific details, but it appears that the Olympics have the "largest global audience" while the World Cup is the "most widely-viewed." Whatever that means. I got that from Wikipedia. Though I remember hearing last year that the Rugby Union World Cup was the third largest sporting event, behind the World Cup and the Summer Olympics. I couldn't find any concrete evidence to back it up, but I'm pretty sure the WC is bigger than the Olympics.

[OrlandoEngelaar]

:confused:

I think u got it wrong

FIFA > IOC

and WC audience is the largest of any other sporting event


As shocking as that is, its true.

[Jwaksman]

:confused:

I think u got it wrong

FIFA > IOC

and WC audience is the largest of any other sporting event


I'm sorry, but this is wrong. The Olympics opening ceremonies blew away the World Cup Final, and don't forget that the Olympics are getting these massive tv ratings all day long for more than two straight weeks. The World Cup is only a couple of hours per day.


It's possible that the world cup gets bigger top ratings in Europe than the olympics, but you have to think about the rest of the world. The United States, for example, gives 5-10 times the ratings for the olympics as the world cup, and the US makes up about 10% of the world's televisions.


According to wikipedia, 4.7 BILLION people tuned into at least some of the olympics. Nothing else on Earth comes close to that.

[tomwilhelm]

I watched 2 or 3 hours total of the Olympics this year. And that was really only because we were carpetbombed by the media. I think at one point I had about 12 channels dedicated to it.

The world cup doesn't need to get pimped by commercial interests to get billions of viewers.

And people watch how much football outside of the World Cup?

As compared to say... Track and Field? Or Swimming? Or anything?

The Olympics are a one shot thing. And one of it's biggest ratings contributors is an afterthought on it's own sport's calendar.

[YooAhJin]

According to wikipedia, 4.7 BILLION people tuned into at least some of the olympics. Nothing else on Earth comes close to that.

5.9 Billion total for 2006 WC, Duplicated audience of 26.29 Billion.

http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2006/definitive-world-cup-viewing-figures.html

[Warbuxx]

I'm sorry, but this is wrong. The Olympics opening ceremonies blew away the World Cup Final, and don't forget that the Olympics are getting these massive tv ratings all day long for more than two straight weeks. The World Cup is only a couple of hours per day.


It's possible that the world cup gets bigger top ratings in Europe than the olympics, but you have to think about the rest of the world. The United States, for example, gives 5-10 times the ratings for the olympics as the world cup, and the US makes up about 10% of the world's televisions.


According to wikipedia, 4.7 BILLION people tuned into at least some of the olympics. Nothing else on Earth comes close to that.


This is false. A quick check of some online sources indicates a very different picture. All of these show the world cup blowing this 4.7 billion figure right out of the water:
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=81&m=21879&ps=20&dm=1&pd=3

http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/07/25/world-cup-ratings-are-astounding/

Even if some of the above may require a grain of salt, it's clear your assumptions are wrong.

From FIFA's own website.....for what that's worth:
http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/marketingtv/factsfigures/numbers.html

Furthermore, it looks like the 4.7 Billion Wiki figure may need some clarifcation. It seems low, considering how many hours of broadcasting there were and the massive size of the home nation's (China) population. Here is a search from Google Books featuring a book -which goes through 1998- and suggests that there is more of a parity between the two events:
http://books.google.com/books?id=PGRkblShhU8C&pg=PA573&lpg=PA573&dq=%22world+cup%22+total+audience&source=web&ots=EA8Crhye6W&sig=7ruRXldb-waRgIH2QcE8dpnTguk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result

But the World Cup gets huge ratings even outside of Europe......generally better than the Olympics. You'll have to rethink yur position.

[Gold is the Colour]

This is false. A quick check of some online sources indicates a very different picture. All of these show the world cup blowing this 4.7 billion figure right out of the water:
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=81&m=21879&ps=20&dm=1&pd=3

http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/07/25/world-cup-ratings-are-astounding/

Even if some of the above may require a grain of salt, it's clear your assumptions are wrong.

From FIFA's own website.....for what that's worth:
http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/marketingtv/factsfigures/numbers.html

Furthermore, it looks like the 4.7 Billion Wiki figure may need some clarifcation. It seems low, considering how many hours of broadcasting there were and the massive size of the home nation's (China) population. Here is a search from Google Books featuring a book -which goes through 1998- and suggests that there is more of a parity between the two events:
http://books.google.com/books?id=PGRkblShhU8C&pg=PA573&lpg=PA573&dq=%22world+cup%22+total+audience&source=web&ots=EA8Crhye6W&sig=7ruRXldb-waRgIH2QcE8dpnTguk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result

But the World Cup gets huge ratings even outside of Europe......generally better than the Olympics. You'll have to rethink yur position.

All this is true. Not just for TV, but for total revenue generated the WC is about 10x Olympics

[Jwaksman]

I'm sorry, but quoting some blog that says there were 5.9 billion viewers doesn't make it so. And to say that the world cup makes TEN TIMES as much money as the olympics is so laughable that I'm shocked you know how to work your keyboard.


I've been looking around trying to find numbers, and here's what I have so far:


That olympics number might have been low. Supposedly 4 billion watched the opening ceremonies, although who knows. Fifa's own website is remarkably coy on the number of DIFFERENT viewers... they constantly talk about CUMULATIVE viewers. But here's the thing: Nielsen says that 1.5 Billion people watched the 2002 world cup. And FIFA reports that the number of cumulative viewers for 2006 was slightly lower than 2002 (26.4 Billion to 26.29 Billion).

So it's reasonable to assume that something like 1.5 Billion people watched at least part of the 2006 world cup. Very impressive. But nowhere near what the Olympics did. That 5.9 Billion number was obviously a joke... there are only 6.4 Billion people on the planet - there's no way that even 5.9 Billion have access to a television. Be careful what you pull off of some blog... not everything you read on the internet is true.



What people need to understand is that it's not about the popularity of the sport. The World Cup doesn't get much larger of an audience than the Euros, or the late rounds of the Champions League. It's really just another Tournament. The Olympics is on its own plane. Sports that would never even be televised any other time of the quadrennial period are suddenly getting billions of viewers over the 2-3 week period.

The World Cup is big. But not as big as the Olympics.