Super Bowl v World Cup

Just to be clear the Super Bowl doesn't come close to the World Cup, hell it can't even touch the Summer Olympic Games. The World Cup is only once every 4 years while the Super Bowl is every year and unless your NFC Team or AFC Team is in the Super Bowl the only thing that would make the Super Bowl interesting is the commercials that will be running during the Super Bowl, in truth that's what the viewers are watching anyway not the game itself.

The Super Bowl doesn't measure up to the World Cup or the Olympics because there's a difference between watching your team from the NFL play in the Super Bowl as to watching the team that is representing your country on the grandest stage of them all the World Cup.

World Cup wins with the Olympics a very close 2nd place and the Super Bowl in 3rd place.

 

The World Cup is the world's biggest event, but for a "regional" event that's only really popular here in the US, the Super Bowl is pretty damn spectacular. Without the automatic appeal of the Olympics/World Cup (e.g National pride, multi-day sporting events), the Super Bowl manages to generate extremely high amounts of revenue.

 

I wouldn't even waste my breath trying to convince these guys of anything. I'd probably look for new friends too.

 

An interesting comparison would be the Super Bowl vs the UEFA champions league title match.

OP- judging by your id are you in Portland? I thought folks love soccer in the NW?

 

I read that a couple of years ago the UEFA Champions League Final passed the Super Bowl in worldwide viewers.

 

Don't go unless you have to. Soccer will never grow in the U.S. if all fans live in the same area... Lol

I live in the Atlanta area and its Georgia football country.. I like most sports so it's not a problem I just wish more folks would convert to soccer like I did over the last ten years.

 

The events are incomparable. One event is the culmination of the season for two teams in their respective 16 team conferences in our national pastime. The other is the culmination of a multi-year qualification process for national teams in an international sport. One is watched by 100 million Americans, the other is watched by arguably a billion people around the world. One is a single event, the other us a month long tournament, discussion, cultural exchange and global festival. there is no comparison.

In the world outside the US, the world cup is king for a month and prince for a year. In the US, the Super Bowl is king for a day and prince for a week.

 

This bothers you much more than it should. You probably come across as "Soccerfan" in real life.

 

I don't really care if someone doesn't like soccer. I'm older, so I am used to the people hating soccer. When you get these NFL morons mocking soccer or other sports, just explain that their opinion only has value to themselves, not others.

This argument of whether the World Cup or Super Bowl is bigger is a waste time, and if you have friends who believe the Super Bowl is bigger, you should find ones who don't lick stamps for a living.

 

To be honest, soccer bashing is just annoying. Simply avoid these people as much as possible. Life's too short to put up with it.

They have their opinions; you have yours. It's a waste of time to try to make them change when they're not willing to.

 

Making them watch that game again would be a good start. Bleeech.

 

Just to make another note, now that people have brought up "soccer bashers". In their defense, I wouldn't want to argue with someone who's going to use a numbers argument as to why a sport is "good" or "watchable". Worldwide, the Cricket World Cup has more viewers than the Super Bowl, but that's not a good reason for me to watch it, and it doesn't make my low personal opinion of Cricket "wrong". There are different sports for different folks.

 

I think anyone expecting to win over football fans by reminding people that more people watch WC finals is in for disappointment.

My advice is just to enjoy soccer on its own merits. The best way to "convince" your friends (if this is important to you) is just to unabashedly enjoy the sport and shrug off their mockery instead of trying to make some abstract statistical argument about why you like it. Just enjoy the sport; your friends will be impressed by your passion for the game. If not, well, you can't win em all. Not everybody likes everything. But don't let others enjoyment of stuff affect yours.

 

It's not really a bold statement to be honest. The Super Bowl is obviously far bigger here, (I say that as someone who just worked a shift that was 4 hours longer than it should have been due to half the f**king warehouse calling in this morning), Worldwide saying the World Cup is bigger, is like saying Mike Tyson would beat Betty White in a fight. You wont really get a ton of push back.

As for which I find better, I'm not really sure it's fair to compare a month long tournament to a single game. A fairer comparison would be comparing it to the entire playoffs or the Super Bowl to the World Cup Final. That's just personal opinion for everyone, and since this is BigSoccer I'm not sure the answers will be very reflective of Americans as a whole. Personally I enjoy soccer more than football so in terms of the actual game, I like the World Cup Final but from a festivities perspective my memories of World Cup Finals are sitting in my living room watching with my dad (which is fine), but for the Super Bowl I have memories of fun parties, with lots of people, lots of liquor, and lots of great food. Here the Super Bowl has better festivities.

I say this as someone who loves soccer and doesn't really care about the NFL when the Packers aren't playing (I fell asleep in the 3rd quarter last night). I'm part of several online soccer communities, I like a lot of soccer related Facebook pages, follow lots of soccer related Twitter accounts, etc. and every year during Super Bowl weekend I see a ton of articles or posts talking about how the World Cup is better as if they're making some clever point. It comes of as petty and small manish. The Super Bowl is a fun event.

 

The FIFA World Cup has also surpassed the Summer Olympics recently. Soccer is growing faster than ever, causing conflict with Islam, Judaism, and communist regimes around the world. By the end of the century, it may be the largest religion the world has ever seen.

The big problem with soccer around the world is that it comes with a lot of tribal baggage. Clubs often organize around ethnias, social class, religion, language, and skin color. So, in a way, soccer becomes the last refuge of some very dark aspects of the human psyche.

It may be the one force strong enough to defeat 'normal' religious fundamentalism in some part of the world, though. But I'm not sure I'd like a world of soccer fanatics. In a way, that extra baggage that makes it much greater than any other sport, is also what can drive the more educated, sophisticated people away from it.

 

theoretically you are right, practically however... I'd like to reference a meme I saw on imgur a few months ago, that went something like this: "too smart for some people, too stupid for others". If this expression is not suggestive to what I'm trying to say (at a second glance it might not be suggestive, it still popped in my head though when I read your comment ), then my point is that you don't just make other friends. Friends are usually people that you stick with for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not. There even was a quote of Seinfeld in one the first 2-3 episodes of the first season regarding this (I think the episode was called "male bonding", or something...)

 

Hmm, interesting stuff. Makes me think that maybe soccer remaining more of a niche in the U.S. is not really a bad thing at the end of the day. Maybe as a country we're already sports-mad enough without having to deal with all that would come with U.S. soccer as a whole truly taking center stage in the sporting landscape.

 

The World Cup is like the NCAA Tournament from an excitement standpoint, except the WHOLE WORLD is involved.

Far more drama in a month than in 1 game. Early upsets and then huge knockout matchups. And the Super Bowl was terrible this year. The NFL is on the decline from a quality of play standpoint, IMO.

 

The Champions League has always had more worldwide viewers, don't forget that football is a sport watched the world over while the NFL is watched only in the USA, I think I read somewhere that a Premier League game is watched by 612 million people across the world, this is about 4 times the size of a Super Bowl audience isn't it?

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...remierships-worldwide-pot-of-gold-433271.html

Oops overestimated a bit there, nevertheless the 'average' viewing figures for a run of the mill Premier League game is pretty impressive, if there are 7 hundred odd games a season the yearly viewing figures are enormous.

 

This bothers you people a lot more than it should