Anyone Else Wish Basketball was as Competitive as Soccer Internationally?

[InfiniteBaskets]

IMO, soccer will never be successful in the US because unlike basketball, baseball and football, it has only one 15 minute interval for commercials. and that's not something big companies would like to support.

There's also the advertisements that run for 90+ minutes per match on the backs and these players and throughout the arena barriers.

Big company's like Nike, Audi, Coke, VIVA, Barclay's have historically sponsored the game in the UK. The problem is with culture, it's simply not very big the US so our population isn't lined up to watch soccer games and as a result, advertisements don't do anything for sponsors here. Although US soccer is seemingly slowly trending upwards.

[Rondo]

lol hard@ some saying basketball being a rich man's sport. All you need is a ball and a hoop for chris's sake. And it is way easier to find a pick-up game or practicing by yourself than soccer. Soccer is popular 'cause the world has gone soft

They dive to gain an advantage, not because they or the sport is soft. Some of the broken legs you see are nasty. You could say basketball is soft considering you're penalised for farting on a guy when he's attacking the basket.

[Walker]

Interesting.

But that (what the corporations thought of the game with respect to advertising) would come into play only after soccer was to ever gain enough fans to have good tv ratings in the US. And that hasn't happened yet...and it is all because of the game on the field.

So, what is it about soccer on the field that makes it boring to US fans?

- too slow...USA is a fast paced nation
- there's too many players in soccer and no one player can have a huge affect on the game...we here in the US like our super hero sports celebrities who can dominate games by themselves

Baseball is far from fast, American Football, even though I love it, is slow as hell with all the cuts in action.

Umm, there's 11 players and 5 to 7 subs on each team dude, rosters are usually around 25. There's WAY more players on any Baseball or NFL team

[bdreason]

This thread is a train wreck.

[SpanishACB]

Brazil doesn't dominate soccer just because it has a large population...

Brazil dominates soccer? What?