Immigrants count as Americans too. And statically we are younger and have more children, so we count even more... Jesta - quite the divisive remark. Do you operate out of Russia?
Don't forget that 2026 will be the 1st 48-team WC edition. Not sure how high will TV ratings be when US gets paired up with the male equivalent of 2019 Thailand's female squad. Host nations tend to be grouped with the worst teams in the tournament.
The ratings will probably be higher since it is hosted in the USA. IT is the reason every Television Network outside of FOX and NBC was very angry FIFA just handed the 2026 rights over to them without a fair bidding process.
Can you share which competitors were angry? FOX+Telemundo have bought broadcasting rights for Americas market. The largest TV market is Asia, and those US broadcasters have no influence there.
There were unofficial reports that ABC/ESPN was very angry that the rights were just handed out to Fox-NBC/Telemundo. I am sure Univision was very angry as well. Asia has nothing to do with your post. Your post was questioning the ratings for an extended tournament. IT will probably be the highest rated World Cup ever in the USA because it is being hosted in the USA (no matter how much they expand).
WC success is measured by world market measures, not local market numbers. Broadcasters buy TV rights for re-transmission within their TV markets. Nobody is forced to purchase TV rights from US broadcasters. FIFA's largest TV revenue comes from Asia. Reason why CWC was played so many times over there. TV ratings of Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 are unbeaten, despite the *time zone complaints* from Western TV markets.
Your points have nothing to do with my points. You should have said global ratings because I thought you were just referencing USA TV ratings Globally it probably will not be as good obviously. Although there will probably be lots of good time slots correlating with Euro Prime Time slots which are important.
Ditto. My original post was a response to another fella. It is an open forum about a world sports event. No need to enforce a US narrative here.
When the World Cup is being hosted by the USA and it is expected to be the largest television audience ever domestically and largest attended in the stands globally the narrative is usually unavoidable.
Can you explain how "largest attended in the stands globally" works? Is USA throwing out its travel ban against MENA countries soon?
Even if it banned all of MENA the attendance would be the best of all time within the Global history of the sport.
Well there's going to probably be at least 4 MENA countries qualifying to the world cup that year so lets hope not.
As has been said before in another thread there would be some special conditions and exceptions for big events and it does not get much bigger than the World Cup. But let's say in some weird way it did in some weird parallel universe, those tickets would still be sold to many people of MENA Nations descent already living in the USA so either way, who cares.
There will probably alot of early kick off times in 2026 to benefit the European tv market. That's what they did in 2014, granted it's a bit more difficult for 2026 as N. America is 1-4 timezones further behind CET.
nope. and btw. not all immigrants count as americans! but you know well what I wanted to say. people with immigrant background, no matter if americans or not, or not yet if you want to be precise, are much closer to the beautiful game of football than americans without recent (to be precise again, because only 1,5% of americans are true natives) immigration history. in short words, if you grew up in the states without parents who have any sort of relation to football, you highly likely think baseball or american football is the biggest sport in the world, you probably think olympics are the biggest sport event in the world but only after the superbowl and and you hardly ever heard about the world cup! EDIT: and yes, there is nothing bad about it, just different countries - different tastes - different habbits! I was in lithuania first week of june and it wasn't easy at all to find the good place to watch the champions league final match, all they care about is basketball, and they are in europe....
I'll reserve the word "significantly" for when the day comes that it actually has evolved significantly. Otherwise, what adjective to use when that day finally comes? There is a reason why soccer is still basically covered here by guys with Mexican or British accents. Why halftime shows consist of a panel of 4 - three foreigners and one token American-born panellist that is always the weak-link.
Weird. I watched Mexico-Haiti last night and the only foreigner on the "panel" was Fernando Fiore (and Kate Abdo was host). 3 gringos on the panel. Token foreigner (and not Mexican). You have things backwards, Hoss. Also, PBP was gringo and color was Mariano Trujillo, who actually played for El Tri. Getting former El Tri players anywhere near commentary is a RECENT innovation.
Must have been pretty bad then. Americans have never done soccer well. That's not their fault, they just didn't grow up with the sport. That's why I say this would be one of the telling signs that the game has evolved 'significantly' in this country. That and some Americans managing top clubs in Europe. Just a couple of signs that would demonstrate that the sport is growing some deep roots in the country.