Point being that Football in England is THE most popular sport, cheese rolling or not In the US, It comes behind, Football (American) Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Tennis and Golf. In the major cities the MLS has some interest, but it is still a bit part sport. I spent 4 years in New York and the Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets dominate the sports scenes, franchises, TV coverage, shirt and cap sales etc.
Is there some point you're trying to make here Piskie, because what you're saying currently seems rather irrelevant. NBC signed a 3 year, $250m deal to show all 380 Premier League games each season over there, with an absolute **** ton of other coverage across a bunch of channels. The sport's clearly progressing over there, one of their bigger networks are pushing it in a big way and they've chosen one of our players as their main image to do so. Trying to spin that negatively is pretty childish, frankly.
The fact that we have two Yanks in our squad and a huge american kit manufacturer who are making us their main marketing focus ties in nicely with NBC wanting Bale as their main image. Face it, Bale is more marketable then any Gooner right now. And whilst NY may have many different teams, most people aren't limited to just one sports team. It's not like London where we have lots and lots of teams, but ppl tend to pick one. NYers will watch all those sports you have said, and probably pay for cable tv to watch the mighty Spurs on NBC.
Well clearly there are those that disagree with your pessimism about soccer's potential in the US, including NBC who won the PL coverage rights to America after trebling Fox's expiring deal. Lots of clubs disagree with you too as more and more teams look to capitalise on a growing market by sending their team to play there in preseason. Anyway, as I said, I think it's Bale's rising popularity that can help us so long as he stays. If Bale is considered the poster boy in America for the PL than imagine the potential. If this was replicated across the World, Bale promoting the World's most popular league in his Spurs kit, well we'd be laughing wouldn't we? Okay I don't believe that's realistic but all I've been trying to explain is the value of increased exposure to the club and Bale's our best chance of that.
The fact that football has never been a major sport in the US - and never will be, for all the marketing - is testament to how insular American society can be. This is a country which has a "World Series" for sports which only they play to any proper standard!! European culture influences US society in so many ways - it would do given that the mass immigration there from many European nations - but sport seems to be a part of life where the US wants its own identity and recognition for its own achievements. The only way in which football has been pioneering in the US is in relation to the women's game. If there was the same determination to be successful in the men's game, the US could be a force, but clearly there isn't, so they aren't, nor will they ever be.
I truly believe they are beginning to embrace it, in a very similar way to how the UK has begun to embrace American Football - 10 years ago most people wouldn't have had a clue about it but now most people I know have a favourite team and a pretty good understanding of the rules and tactics, even if they don't watch them all that often.
It is very much a growing sport out there and there's less cynicism around it thanks to increased coverage. Whilst it will never be the main sport out there, there are 300 million people there so it doesn't have to be to be a valuable market.
Actually Amercian Football had its heyday in the UK around 25 years ago, when the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys played at Wembley, I know because I was there. Most of the people got bored with the game (which lasted about 4 hours) and watched the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders instead We even had a London team playing American Football for a while, London Broncos I think there were called ? But inevitably the sport's popularity waned because it just doesn't suit our cultural palette, not in huge numbers anyway. It's the same for soccer in the US. It will always be a bit part sport because Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey rein supreme. The MLS is aggressively marketed and has some popularity in the cities, but it just isn't ever going to compete with the big sports in the US. As for the person who said that people in NYC will choose several teams to support, you obviously haven't spent any time in New York, because the Yankees v Mets rivalry is probably as strong as the Arsenal v Spurs one.
You can keep making empty claims about what can never happen all day Piskie, but the figures say otherwise. FIFA 13 was the 10th highest selling game in the US last year, the viewing figures for football continue to climb, the revenue is going up and more people are playing it than ever. Saying that something will never happen because it hasn't happened yet isn't much of an argument.
As others have said, Football doesn't need to be the main sport to make the US a valuable market. The US is an affluent, diverse, highly populous nation, home to the largest corporations in the world - show these people a video of Bale scoring goals and they will be impressed and want to latch on to him (and thereby us). There's a lot more point targeting the US, than say Vietnam and Indonesia (where Arsenal are currently) - countries where there is very little money, and even though football may be their biggest sport, are not in a financial position to make a significant fiscal contribution to the club.
I remember that too, yes there was an attempt at interest in the 80's, I seem to recall San Fransisco 49ers being fairly prominent in that era, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.
Yeah and Washington Redskins won the superbowl around that time,with thier legendery running back"diesel" John Riggins
Perhaps I didn't articulate myself very well. I was saying that an average NYer could support multiple teams accross sports ie one soccer team one american football team One hockey team One basketball team there is room for football. By comparison I was saying it was not like in London where we have an abundance of teams....but in one sport. Just look at the current viewing figures for the superbowl in this country, they are not bad. I know lots of people that stay up for it. Just as I like Cricket, International rugby, Le mans series racing, F1 & football - america can adopt new sports too.
