Americans don’t really understand hockey or soccer—why is that?
Here at Where We Watch, we endeavor to provide you information about where to watch all sports -- so NFL and college football, yes, but also Premier League, NHL, and even bull-riding from time to time. But in the grand scheme of America, the tiering system goes something like this:
1. NFL
(wide gap)
2. NBA
3. MLB
4. NHL
If you disagree with that order, bite me. Just kidding! The order stems from where the NBA ranks right now -- they just came off a successful year, the Heat-as-villians storyline is going to be great for them for a few more years, and a champion not from Boston or Los Angeles was just crowned. Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals had close to 20 million viewers. MLB hasn't approached that for a non-Yankees World Series game since 2004, and that was the Red Sox ending a nearly century-old curse. (Sidebar: NBA will fall to No. 3 on this list when they lose 3/4 of next season to a lockout, thus engendering resentment in their fans.)
Between (3) and (4) above, you could also put "wide gap." And soccer, hell, that isn't even on here (you can argue it should be No. 3, as -- at least for really big matches -- you'll see bars packed, which you won't always see for MLB. Also: bars don't open at 8am on Saturdays for baseball, typically.)
Here's where we're left: a good portion of the world (entire countries/continents) respect the hell out of soccer and hockey, but the United States doesn't really. We care about the World Cup, some of us care about UEFA, and we like rioting in Vancouver, but don't talk about the actual Game 7 (would have linked a few videos here, but it was bad stuff). What gives? These answers are going to be fairly simplistic, so I encourage you to berate me in the comments if you feel so inclined.
Not Violent Enough
I've always thought this had something to do with football's popularity. Look at the movies America loves. Most involve people getting punched and a lot of crap blowing up, right? (Ignore Titanic, I guess.) And also, hockey is violent. And no one knows a lick about rugby in America. So this theory = incorrect.
Style Of Play
We're closer here. Football has a big field, but most of the action takes place in a concentrated area you can process on your TV screen. Soccer and hockey = that doesn't happen. In fact, unless the TV station uses an "iso-cam" on a star (i.e. Beckham, Messi, Crosby, Ovechkin), half the time you have no idea where the stars are in the game. People don't like that in America. In football, you always know where the QB is. If you watch hoops, chances are you always know where the star is. Baseball, same -ish -- or at the very least, you can see the pitcher and batter, and that's what matters 97 percent of the time.
We Didn't Grow Up Playing It
Most basic argument, and probably the truest in many respects. Very few kids in America play hockey. A good deal probably do play soccer -- you basically just need a field, a ball, and maybe a league -- but for those that do...
No Icons
NFL, NBA, and MLB have at least 25 guys per sport you can identify by sight, think you know the personality of, and have an opinion about. NHL? Less than five right now, probably. Go ahead and try to top five: Crosby, Ovie, maybe the Sedins, maybe Tim Thomas, maybe Stamkos, maybe Sean Avery, and then ... what? Soccer? If you're a casual fan, you can probably do this -- Beckham, Messi, Ronaldo, Villa (World Cup hero), and ... what? Kids do play QB because they want to be Tom Brady (some do, I mean). It's harder to want to be Lionel Messi when he's only on your TV eight times a year.
Not A Religion
People overlook this element, but I feel it's important: in America, football is basically a religion. You can go from Saturday at 11am until Sunday at 8pm and set all your events by college and pro in a given fall season. It has replaced church in some aspects. Football has that over everything else; the NBA has Flash, readily accessible videos (the NBA's YouTube channel is flooded with poster dunks, nice dishes, etc.) and larger-than-life personalities (same as NFL); and MLB has the notion of being America's past-time, being the sport we associate with the summer, etc. All these parts speak to distinctly American ways of approaching what they choose to embrace. Hockey and soccer have very few of these ties.
What reasons did I miss? Probably quite a few, in all honesty. I'm trying to process the next 78 days right now -- that's when college football begins again -- by considering some of the broader issues in sports. Failing that, I may spend some time evaluating the Heisman race or something.
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