I work with a British guy. He moved to the states about a year ago and started working for my employer. Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about soccer, or as he calls it being from England and all, football. But for the sake of clarity in this post, which is American, from here on out "soccer" is soccer and "football" is NFL. I am American, this is my blog, and that is how we shall proceed. Anyway, the point. We were talking about the Super Bowl last week and how huge it is. Out of the four majors here in the USA it is, by far, the biggest of the big! Hype, publicity, advertising - there is nothing bigger than Super Bowl Sunday. Well, he brought up the World Cup and threw at me that it was bigger. Yes, as far as numbers go, the World Cup gets in the billions and the Super Bowl stays in the millions. My argument was just about hype, nothing more. Anyway, he saw my angle, I saw his, and all was done. Until today, when he sent me this email:
- The last Superbowl brought a spectator rating of 89 million people (including tv) the world cup brought in just over a billion.
- Football (scoccer) is the single largest sport played in the world.
- Football (soccer) is a bigger in revenue than Baseball, Basketball and American Football combined (i didn't even want to include Hockey, is it worth it?? lol)
- FIFA (The Federation of World Football) counts 204 member countries.
- Soccer remains the #1 most popular sport in the world and the most widely played youth sport in the US.
All very valid points, I in fact like his shot at hockey in there. For only living here for a year, the dude catches on quick! Anyway, not to be out done, I came up with my own stats in response to his. Here are the ones I sent back to him:
- A good majority of that one billion are too drunk to even realize what the hell they are watching, so does that still count? Furthermore, once they do realize what they are watching, don't they burn the stands down anyway?
- It is spelled "soccer" not "scoccer" you dumb a**!! (See your second comment).
-It has to be bigger in revenue because there is no equipment to buy, all you need is grass, a net, a ball, some shoes, some shorts, some tall socks and some cards (yellow, red, green, pink - whatever!) Plus, with all the beer they sell, the money has to go somewhere right? How else would you paint those fancy white lines on the grass?
-No, it is not worth it to include hockey - just like soccer, that is not a real sport either (HAH!!!!).
-FIFA - what kind of girlie name is that? Why don't they just call it "Sheryl" (Soccer Helps Everyone Ruin Your Livers") or "Susan" (Soccer Unites Sissies Across Nations).
-Of course it is the number one sport - whether you kick a ball, a can, a cat, a dog, your baby brother or sister, any kid says they are playing soccer! Crap, that means I was a soccer player when I was a kid! Plus, like I said, all you really need is grass and a ball - how much cheaper can you get!
-For the record, I will take a beer and an "American" Football game over your "European" Football game anyday! Something about men running around in short shorts kicking balls just scares me!
Not that this has anything to do with much, but I went to the "Ron Artest School For Self-Promotion", so I felt like sharing with everyone today! Plus, I really liked my "Susan" remark! Anyway, now that I am done doing said self promotion, I have got to get back to work. Later - the sports dude!
Luke Waltons Forehead presented by the Sports Dude.
Friday, January 28, 2005 at 1:51 PM
Pointless post just for self promotion.
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