really? i didnt know that soccer is number 6th. well as far as i know, ice-hockey very popular in america. always full house, and on newspaper and media.
Well since you live close to Buffalo that fools you. Buffalo is a big Hockey town because that is their only good team that makes it to the playoffs!
Seems like his arrival is being fairly well received in the states. This article says that over 250,000 Beckham Jerseys were pre-ordered!
Also for a lot of Americans, football starts and ends just with David Beckham. No other players could have garnered more eyeballs. If ever a player can attract crowds into stadiums, then it got to be DB.
I don't think he can be called as a "failure" at Real Madrid. They regretted the decision to allow him to leave the club. He is a great player.
We are not talking rugby we are talking about soccer. The "overweight oafs they watch lumbering about twice a week" actually play once per week and are much bigger, faster, and stronger than the guys the Beckham has been playing with. Has a soccer player won the Olympic Gold Medal in the 100 meter dash? Football players that have won it include Bob Hayes, Jim Thorpe and a few others. The current champion is trying out for the NFL. The biggest fastest, and strongest kids in America typically play football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball or track in the spring.
As far as popularity, I'd say golf would be above soccer and I don't like golf but I hear a lot more people talking about it and encouraging me to try it while no one encourages me to check out NASCAR or watch MLS. I was always suspect of the claims of NASCAR, they claim to have 70 million fans, I would have guessed more like 10 to 20 million. They have one big race per weekend that might draw 250,000 but the NHL might have 15 games that day with 20,000 in attendance, during a week they might have 40 games or 800,000 attendance.
Autoracing is easier to follow on TV rather than other sports. So the actual crowd doesn't count that much, I think. And yeah, coming from Europe, I sometimes feel left out here in the US when at parties and stuff I can't actively discuss sports because it's always about football, baseball, hockey, golf, etc, rarely soccer, or proper football, as i still like to call it!
Autoracing is easy to follow but that probably makes it uninteresting to someone who has no special interest in a driver. I'd think soccer is just as easy to follow, you don't have the complexities of what down it is, how many yards to go for a first down, what set of defensive players have been brought in, etc as you do in football. With a little research you should be able to jump into baseball discussions as I jump into cricket discussions. If I say to an Indian guy "the West Indies bowlers are strong this year" they pick up the conversation and I just agree or say something against Pakistan. Make some negative remark about the Yankees or Barry Bonds and you'll do fine.
A weeks wages paid for then I hope he does well over there. Beckham is a world class player still. Hopefully he will help make football/soccer a bit more popular over there.
They are about the same.. NHL isn't as popular as some people may think. NBC was doing the playoffs the same day as a horserace and it went into overtime. They switched to the "PREGAME" of horseracing... thats saying something.
Gary Bettman has done a bad job marketing especially in getting TV contracts but the popularity of hockey has certainly grown. I picked up my daughter from a party at a rink near Laguna Beach and was shocked to see more than 100 little boys all decked out in complete hockey gear going through a clinic and since 1967 when the league went from 6 to 12 teams the league has more than doubled in size. It's not hard to find Ducks or Kings fans hear in So Cal. You are from Ohio so you may not have the same perspective if you were from an area that had some NHL history or success. Do you know what NHL team has Ohio heritage and won the Stanley Cup?
At MU he was a real top class football player Afther that he beome a star and similar to others "loosers" like Paris M Jackson etc Waste of talent .... This is a marketing move nothing more IN usa football is not very popular as in Europe / Sud America
He doing the smartest move in his career. He did very well in England with lots of money. He did even better in Madrid with more money. Now, his top is behind him. He can't compete in la liga or in the calcio with the younger strikers. Going to the US for $250 millions in 5 years would be exactly what I would do at this time. The US level is not so high so he can still be a very good player at that level for the next 5 years. Very smart move.
There's only one tiny little glitch: he'd love to play for England a few more times at least, but unfortunately I don't know if he's going to make it to 100 caps, as it's too much travel. But there are just a few to go, if I'm not mistaken, maybe 6 or so, he might make it. Good luck David, I believe you're a good man! (Not so sure about his wife, but...)
She's old now, and after a few kids, lots of plastic and makeup, huge sunglasses, come on, there is so much better out there...