Every four years the World Cup arrives, and with it comes the discussion about why Americans are the only people on the planet who aren’t crazy about soccer.   The discussion always includes irrelevant and arbitrary points about the style of play, rules of the game, and how the “American lifestyle” is different from the rest of the world.  The fact is none of these things have anything to do with why soccer isn’t as popular in America as it is in the rest of the world. 

The reason is simple and it really has nothing to do with the specific way soccer is played.  Over the last century, as sports began to become an important part of everyday life, a U.S. soccer league was never able to fight through the difficulties and survive.  Almost all major sports had these difficulties, but thanks to things like mergers, the ingenuity of Pete Rozelle and the superstar appeal of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, they were able to overcome them.   The NBA and NFL survived, the NASL (North American Soccer League), ASL (American Soccer League), and USL (United Soccer league) did not.  These leagues didn’t fail because soccer was boring and hated by Americans, they just didn’t have what it took to survive in the cutthroat world of professional sports.

Without a major league it was impossible for soccer to ever become popular in the U.S.  Children were fed a steady diet of baseball, football and basketball, while rarely being exposed to soccer.  Seeing the World Cup once every four years could never be enough to put soccer on the same level as baseball, football, or basketball. 

In other parts of the world, the story is much different.  Soccer is the premier sport all throughout Europe and South America. Soccer games are sold out and broadcast all over television.  Children are raised from birth as soccer fans.  This is why the rest of the world is so fanatical about soccer.  Imagine how passionate people in America would be about football if it was the only major sport—this is how soccer is in the rest of the world. Soccer is the major sport while baseball, basketball, and hockey all take a back seat. 

Soccer does have a bright future in America.  The MLS is stable and growing in popularity.  Teams are spending more money and the talent level of the league continues to rise.  More importantly, children are being raised as soccer fans, and they are attending soccer games. One of the secrets about soccer it that it’s an unbelievable sport to watch live.  You’re able to see all 11 players moving together in unison and notice plays developing before they happen.  There’s no such thing as a TV timeout, and the game isn’t interrupted every five minutes so the team’s marketing interns can shoot hot dogs into the stands.  Finally, soccer games have an unbelievable atmosphere with fans cheering and chanting for the full 90 minutes.  For those who think that waving thunderstix at free throw shooters and dancing during the seventh inning stretch makes them great fans, I recommend they attend a European soccer game.  In 20 or 30 years, children might look on with amazement as we explain that there was a time when the U.S. was terrible at soccer and nobody cared about it.

Those looking for something wrong with soccer to explain why it isn’t popular in America should give up because there really isn’t anything wrong with it.  For somewhat random reasons different sports have grown to be popular in different areas, and because of the traditional nature of sports, this is tough to change.  Baseball is boring but Americans have always loved it.  Hockey is exciting but Americans seem to dislike it.  So if Americans love football but Europeans love futbol, don’t question it, that’s just the way it is.