football is the 2nd best sport

[Bread Regal]

oh yes. of course. the world cup.

you know, there is a whole other thread devoted to this topic.

can't you fucking read.

[Bread Regal]

you imbecile

[Cool As Ice Cream]

i honestly thought this thread was devoted to this topic.

people are talking about the world cup all over this thread, and about watching certain games. or are they?

[Cool As Ice Cream]

(you included.)

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by toase

Hey, remember when the Brazilian basketball team won the gold medal in the Panamerican Games over the USA team? That was magical... Only a few years ago, 1987...

nobody give a fuck about that

but i remember when the americans won the bronze in 2000

[sppunk]

ESPN Deportas tweeted FIFA will meet w/ the US about hosting the 2022 WC.

[Trotskilicious]

tellin you it's the best choice, and it was when they selected qatar

[Trotskilicious]

america's well set up for it too. lots of big cities all spread out

[sppunk]

The only issue I could foresee is security costs. Infrastructure-wise we can host it tomorrow.

Too bad Soldiers Field can't host a game.

[Rairun]

Originally Posted by bignothing

I have reason to believe sporadic poster Rairun is one of us. I was 9 years old for that cup and remember just being really sad lol But yeah, people can get annoying. I have this Norwegian friend who's always reminding me about how Brazil never beat Norway (while they beat us twice, once in 98 as well!), and I'm like...???? That's because you haven't qualified enough times for that.

You're right. :P But I've been living in the UK for a few years now.

World cup related: ITV commentators are a disgrace.

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by sppunk

Too bad Soldiers Field can't host a game.

why can't it, they had games in 94

[mxzombie]

And the gold cup final was held there last year

[Bread Regal]

Guys, he was referring to Soldiers field.

[Bread Regal]

Rumors swirling about MLS possibly switching to a winter schedule which coincides with most European leagues. And then MLS VP put the kibosh on that:

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2...2192&utm_tags=

I would love it for a bunch of reasons. For one, we'd get more MLS matches that look like this:



But people say that MLS doesn't have a hard time competing with MLB for viewership over the summer. A winter schedule would pit them against the NBA, NFL and NHL.

Personally, I kind of think that's bullshit. I have a hard time believing that the intersection of fans of basketball, football and hockey intersect so significantly with soccer fans that MLS would see any significant decline in viewership. Plus, soccer games are most often played on the weekends, in the early afternoon. Those other leagues mostly play during prime time. If anything, they'd have to compete with the EPL which heavily saturates the airwaves here anyway.

[Bread Regal]

Is there such thing as spectator fatigue? Like, if there was no off season for these sports, would people tire of watching them? When the EPL wrapped up this year, I was kind of done watching soccer for a couple months. I wasn't about to start following MLS every week.

[hnibos]

I experience that after a couple of innings of baseball.

[hnibos]

I too wasn't about to start watching the mls either but not because I was tired of futbol, drop in quality is too much.

[hnibos]

Also, if they started in the winter, their playoffs would coincide with the beginning of baseball, the last month of basketball. Now, it coincides with football. I'd imagine they'd want their playoffs to not have to compete with the NFL.

[Bread Regal]

good point.

[sppunk]

In winter they'd have a hell of a challenge getting TV time at all. And that's where all the $$$ is now.

[mxzombie]

Originally Posted by sppunk

In winter they'd have a hell of a challenge getting TV time at all. And that's where all the $$$ is now.

i'd be willing to bet this has something to do with it. i like watching mls and i can't be bothered right now to keep up watching epl or bundesliga as well, but there's an undeniable difference in quality. many would say mls is improving and i'd agree, particularly compared to when i first saw an mls game at the inaugural match of the miami fusion. at this point it's good enough for me. and i'll catch highlights of epl games now and then.

[Trotskilicious]

intersection of soccer and basketball fans is pretty significant but you can pay attention to both, it's not hard

it's impossible to be an NBA and NHL fan. i defy you to find a real one

i can think of blackhawks/bulls fans but they didn't give a single fuck about the blackhawks when jordan played i guarantee

[Trotskilicious]

MLS is on the level of mexico which is on the level of dutch and Belgian league football basically, btw if you want to be technical

dutch is on a tier just under the big euro leagues the premier league, la liga, seirie a, even ligue 1

[Trotskilicious]

i want to know how the russian premeir leage plays out now that they've annexed the crimea and two ukranian first league teams also they seem poised to invade east ukrane and take shaktar donetsk and put it into the russian leage. i think this war is about making the russian premeir league better, that's what the tinfoil hat is telling me

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by Bread Regal

Is there such thing as spectator fatigue?

not for huge nerds, like i could literally never get tired of basketball but for example when i had cable i was so excited that NASCAR was over for the year that i practically started to cry when i realized, a month later, that NASCAR was going to start up again

[Trotskilicious]

baseball is like that for me too. it's mid november and you're like "jesus i'm so glad that's over with" then basically 2 1/2 months later it's back like george will on television and you can't explain why anyone would ever entertain this horseshit

[Trotskilicious]

[Trotskilicious]

dude's name is wolf's dick

[Bread Regal]

You guys see the MLS All-Stars beat Bayern Munich?

[mxzombie]

Yeah and apparently guardiola refused to shake caleb porter's hand at the end of the match. Schweinsteiger may have hurt his ankle iirc