Telemundo had a 5.5 mm rating for the Bra x Mex game https://www.multichannel.com/news/t...tings-record-mexico-brazil-world-cup-telecast "Fox Sports drew big numbers Monday for the Brazil-Mexico match as 4.7 million viewers tuned in on Fox and streaming sources (4.18 million on TV) to watch Brazil advance, 2-0, to the quarterfinals. The TV audience peaked at 5.373 million viewers between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. ET." https://www.multichannel.com/news/f...sults-early-world-cup-knockout-round-coverage
Take a look at the numbers 2014, when the US was in the WC: With such a huge drop off (understanding Russia may not be as inviting for some Americans as Brazil), I'd say the bulk of the 2018 sales were to supporters of other teams living in the US.
This is probably better, because it is the *total* sales, not the phase sales shown above: Other than host Russia, which has sold 796,875 tickets, the country with the most ticket sales so far is the United States, with 80,161 tickets purchased before the final phase of sales. Brazil is next with 65,863, followed by Colombia (60,199), Germany (55,136), Mexico (51,736), Argentina (44,882), Peru (38,544), Australia (34,628), and England (30,711). I would still say many of those are to supporters of other clubs living in the US.
A useful chart showing average *broadcast* viewership for WC matches only: Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fox-losing-money-on-world-cup-without-u-s-team-1531311913
Not a poll or anything scientific, but... One of my first cousins and his wife own and operate a bar in central Kansas. It's in a town of under 15,000, and it's a typical Midwestern blue collar bar that serves food on the side. They just posted on their Facebook page that they're opening an hour earlier than usual on Sunday for the World Cup Final.
We set records, and then we set the bar higher72,243 is your new @MLS single-match attendance record. Thank you, Atlanta! pic.twitter.com/PzV7d4a5y6— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) July 15, 2018
The New York Times just ran a profile on youth soccer participation rates. It includes this statistic: "Over the past three years, the percentage of 6- to 12-year-olds playing soccer regularly has dropped nearly 14 percent, to 2.3 million players, according to a study by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association" So, this study echoes some of the others on this topic with a bit different numbers. Full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/sports/world-cup/soccer-youth-decline.html
Good question. I'm guessing that the study combined the stats for boys and girls because it just generally uses "youth" and "children." I think that the study mentioned is this one that looks at participation rates in a variety of sports over recent years, and unfortunately they do not break down it down by gender. However, it does note that the overall participation of girls (again ages 6-12) in team sports increased 1.5% in 2016, the latest year the study examines. The boys remained stagnant in that regard. Besides that, it's surprisingly hard to find stats on the topic for this age group. Maybe the sport is in a little better shape on the girls side based on their overall participation in team sports increasing, but it's hard to say. Perhaps someone else will be able to find something that I'm missing.
That contradicts official NFHS numbers showing boys' soccer as the fastest-growing HS sport in terms of total participation increase. Could be a short-term loss due to the recent change from grade level to birth year classifications. How has sports participation changed in high schools over the past 5 years? Good news if you like lax or indoor track (Data @NFHS_Org). pic.twitter.com/u1cXmDYVSa— NCAA Research (@NCAAResearch) August 9, 2017
That's two different age groups (6-12 vs 14-18). It could be that we'll notice the decline at the HS level 6 years from now. Or it could be that parents' attitudes towards younger children's spare time have changed, and kids will be picking up the game later. A third possibility is that fewer of the kids who are playing are doing so in registered leagues where they can be counted (though the 6-12 data looks like polling, not a compilation of player registries).
What are the parameters used? This stat includes kids that have played just once in the last 12 months. https://www.statista.com/statistics/191697/participants-in-outdoor-soccer-in-the-us-since-2006/
I forgot who had the running chart to track soccer closing the gap on other sports in HS participation, but it might be time for another update. Article 2017-18 Data Past data
Corrected: Last night’s MLS Cup Final on FOX drew a 1.2 metered market rating, the best rating for a cup final since at least ‘98 and up 71% compared to last year’s final.— Ian Thomas (@byIanThomas) December 9, 2018
I know it is antidotal, but I went to my local gym in LA to workout while watching MLS Cup, only to find out that they didn't have it on TV... Honestly I was shocked, they had some random Boxing Match on ESPN instead. (Granted they only had 4 TV channels playing, on multiple TV's)... MLS continues to grow, but I thought we were a little further along than this...
Two thoughts - ESPN may be a default channel at the gym - That was a pretty big fight (lightweight title bout) involving possibly the best boxer in the world at the moment (Vasiliy Lomachenko)
1. You are correct about ESPN being a default channel at the gym 2. Shows how much Boxing is on my radar... I literally had no idea who they were, but I hate boxing and know almost nothing about the sport, less than what I know about MMA and that is almost nothing. Sports really have become pretty niche with only a few sports really touching a nationwide audience. Still sad that gyms didn't show MLS Cup
This will help on the numbers (was there a Spanish language broadcast too?) MLS Cup on Fox drew 1,563,000 viewers, most-watched league final since 1997, according to Nielsen. It was a 91% increase over 2017 and peaked at 2,065,000.— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) December 12, 2018
I always take everything MLS related with a grain of salt. If you go by ratings, then yes they are the best since 1997, but if you go by viewers, it's actually worse than the 2016 MLS Cup which was also televised by Fox. I remember after last year's final, they had to spin ratings by comparing them to the previous ESPN telecast rather than the previous year in order to show improvement. Bottom line, the first two MLS Cup Finals continue to be the best rated and the most watched, while MLS still manages to capture only 6% of soccer TV viewing in the U.S. after 20 years of existence. The fact that 1.5 M viewers and a 1.2 rating for its culminating event is cause for joy for the league after all this time is pretty sad. I looked up what I consider to be a fringe sport in the U.S. as a reference point, figure skating, and the U.S Figure Skating Championships have at least double the ratings and viewers compared to the MLS Cup every year, and that's not a joke. Then when you see the regular season ratings, things are actually worse on ESPN, and an 0.2 rating is considered good. I think this all shows that the next TV deal for MLS probably won't be any better than the current one. Which is why MLS Commissioner Garber is already talking about expanding right past 28 teams. Those expansion fees are the low hanging fruit and this is a major reason why there's talk of MLS operating like a Ponzi scheme. MLS is looking more and more similar to the NASL at its height, with frequent expansion despite continuing to lose money, and a few major teams that dwarf everyone else in terms of attendance.
A few points. 2016 went to penalties. Larger time frame to view and more interest in only the last act. See the quote below and notice that the third hour is higher in 2016 but the actual game was lower than 2018. There's improvement there. If this year went to extra-time/penalties, the average in the last hour would've exceed 2 million if it followed the same pattern. In fact, the broadcast peaked at 2.07 million in the latter stages of the game (10:00-10:15pm). https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-2018-mls-tv-thread.2080174/page-40#post-37338784 Your 6% of the viewing is a cherry-picked stat and means very little to actual content managers. They care about ad space and revenue in addition to who is following and watching. Further, ESPN subscribers dropped (I think) over 10 million in that same time frame and from 2016 to 2018 viewers went up for MLS. That is not bad at all to hold steady and even improve like that. Average streaming for the event was up over 2016 as well. https://deadline.com/2018/12/mls-cup-2018-final-ratings-atlanta-portland-fox-1202518222/ Lastly, also distinctly different from 2016, there was no LigaMX Apertura semi-final going on at the same time. This put a dent in the numbers, especially on the Spanish language side of things.
Reminds me of when NBC first bought the EPL rights and many said, "You see! EPL is more valuable than MLS! because $$$" Except when you crunched the numbers on how many were broadcast/streamed (380 EPL matches vs. ~40 for MLS at the time) the cost per match to get those rights to each match were roughly equal.