Ruth (@colemans_dream) takes a look at the challenges faced to grow the football viewing audience in the US.
A little background
Football, yes aka ‘soccer’, in the USA continues to have a strange place in the country’s sporting consciousness. Incredibly popular as a youth activity, with pitches swarming with teams over the weekend, football remains a niche sport, but with a growing presence.
A new breed of MLS clubs, such at Atlanta United FC or Los Angeles FC, have worked to define their role as community hubs.
Atlanta is a city where unity is found in diversity – the things that make individuals different are what makes the city stronger as a whole. Atlanta United is powered by that same principle.
In these enclaves, scattered across the country, you will find knowledgeable football fans, highly educated coaches and skilled players. Seattle, Portland, Kansas City are just a few of the US cities with an increasing focus on football.
Popularity is difficult to define but sportsbrowser.net and playersbio.com both evaluate popularity through viewership and participation. They both have football in the top 5 most popular sports in the US, ahead of golf, tennis, WWE/MMA and motor sports.
Football is on the cusp of taking fourth place ahead of ice hockey, but remains a long way behind basketball, baseball and American football. Football on television/streaming has an estimated average event audience of 5 million (2021-22). As a comparison, American football averages over 114 million.
Recently though there is a trend appearing in the vocabulary. Instead of the established ‘Big Four’, you are now as likely to see reference to the ‘Big Five’. With football vying for a permanent place at the ‘Big’ table.
What does this mean for a supporter?
Chances are that, if you are one of those 5 million regularly watching a football game in the US, you are a pretty enthusiastic, well-informed supporter with a legacy of interest in the beautiful game. Your local cable TV provider knows they’re talking to a football savvy audience and delivers relevant, nuanced (and somewhat enthusiastically locally biased) coverage. Think Malcolm Allen with a very different accent. Or another language, as the best coverage is often in Spanish.
Things fall down at a national level. The mega-channels such as ESPN, NBC, CBS … have to pull in much larger audiences to make airing these games worthwhile. That then pushes their potential viewers beyond the ‘5 million’ and into a less engaged, more exploratory audience.
In order to hook in these possibles, the larger networks tend to report on football in a very linear, routine and sometimes even a little crass way. This is amplified when the USMNT (US men’s national team) are playing, as the networks often see the need to talk-up and over-sell the team’s chances. This enthusiasm, they hope, will draw in a speculative, intrigued audience, hopeful of joining a successful sporting journey.
This tactic has proved rather successful for the USWNT (US women’s national team) viewership as the on-field results have been stunning. Can’t argue with four World Cups, four Olympic gold medals and nine CONCACAF Gold Cups, and never being ranked below second. But has been more difficult to pull off with the USMNT results.
Since 1990 the USMNT have only missed out on qualifying for the World Cup in 2018 (admittedly they hosted in 1994). Their highest ranking was four, just before the 2006 World Cup. Much ra-ra cheering and buzz was tossed out by a selection of pundits, and folks were drawn in.
Ultimately the team disappointed, losing to the Czech Republic and Ghana, and drawing with Italy in their group. I think a generation of potential football followers were burned by the over-hyped expectations and turned away. The big bubble burst.
What about this World Cup?
Ironically, the fact that the US are in the toughest (by rankings at least) group at this World Cup, has tempered expectations a little. And there is an acknowledgement of the current team being a building project towards the 2026 World Cup hosted in the US, Mexico and Canada.
This more measured approach from the networks, though far from universal, may in the end do more to draw in a proto-audience that wants to be part of a longer, developmental journey.