While watching American edition on CNNI tonight I saw the Gallup Pollster doing his usual pitch on American public opinion - this time on the popularity of various sports in America. What caught my attention was that when he started on one of his charts, he mentioned soccer was not an item asked on the pol since "soccer is not so big in America." Of course figure skating made the list of possible sports to choose but soccer could not even be asked. Talk about not being in touch! The game has experienced real growth in America and MLS is making some positive strides to improve the sport's popularity. Of course the US team's success at the World Cup and the popularity of youth soccer can only bode well for the future. Too bad the Gallup Corp is among those who still don't get it.
How do they know it's a not so big sport, if they don't include it in the poll? I'm confident that soccer would be on top of figure skating. Although there are a lot of women that like to watch that crap.
A recent telephone survey of 508 Houston residents found soccer to be the 5th most popular spectator sport amongst Houston adults. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1558549 Granted, Houston's sizable Latino community helped boost soccer's numbers in the poll. But still, you've got to think that soccer would do quite well in surveys of other U.S. cities with large Hispanic populations such as LA, Chicago, and Dallas.
Wow--this really is an example of exclusion for no particular reason. Amazing--a soccer bashing thread that actually points out a new location where some really was bashing soccer, and not just for a sound bite.