FEATURE:Soccer Finally Has Its Moment In the US

During the scoreless second half of the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina, ABC, the network broadcasting the game in the U.S., took a moment to promote another game taking place later that night. The Seattle Sounders, a Major League Soccer team, were playing the Portland Timbers, its Northwest neighbor and division rival. It’s a shopworn prediction that soccer – football to the rest of the world – is finally about to catch fire in the United States, and the Timbers and Sounders are a fine example of why it still seems plausible. The teams have built up an intense rivalry and rabid fan bases. The Sounders even field a star from the U.S. men’s national team — Clint Dempsey, the gritty striker who played with a broken nose for most of the World Cup. (The top-ranked U.S. women’s team, which won the 1999 World Cup, has well-known stars such as Hope Solo and Abby Wambach.) The 426,000 people who tuned into the Timbers-Sounders game on ESPN2 was a four-year high for a soccer game, but it also paled in comparison to the 30 million Americans who watched the World Cup final on TV or streaming broadcasts. The sport’s increasingly valuable television deals, rising ratings and attendance, and the stars coming from major European clubs to play on American soil all show soccer continues to make in-roads in the U.S. And there’s no reason the trend shouldn’t continue. By one count, at least, the sport already lines up nicely against the country’s other major sports. Major League Soccer’s 2013 average regular season attendance of 18,600 topped both the NBA (17,400) and the NHL (17,600). The league’s television ratings also rose 9 percent in 2013, according to Nielsen. Forty percent of the MLS’ viewership is under 34, but what’s more important is that 34 percent is Hispanic. The U.S. Hispanic population is projected to grow from 17 percent of the U.S. population to 31 percent by 2060, which bodes exceedingly well for the sport’s future popularity. The league’s financial prospects are improving, too. Last year, the average value of an MLS team increased to $103 million, nearly triple the $37 million average value in 2008, according to Forbes. In May, MLS signed an eight-year, $720 million television broadcast deal with Univision, Fox and NBC. That’s nowhere near the nine-year, $27 billion deal NFL signed with Fox, NBC and CBS in 2011, but it’s an eleven-fold increase over the $64 million eight-year deal MLS made with ESPN in 2006. “The MLS is in a very healthy position, and a lot of TV networks have put real money into it,” says Ben Grossman, a media analyst and the former editor-in-chief of Broadcasting and Cable, a trade publication. Another sign U.S. soccer is gaining traction? The international stars flocking to the MLS. David Beckham, who played for the Los Angeles Galaxy from 2007 to 2012, is the most famous example, but both Dempsey and Michael Bradley left prestigious soccer clubs in Europe while in the prime of their careers to play for the MLS. (Tottenham FC for Dempsey, and AS Roma for Bradley.) The international stars Ricardo Kaka and David Villa, like Beckham and Fredrik Ljungberg before them, are spending the twilight of their soccer careers playing in the MLS for two new expansion teams, the Orlando City Soccer Club and New York City FC, respectively. Even though the World Cup is an extraordinary event, the level of attention Americans paid is telling. U.S. National Team goalie Tim Howard, who plays for the U.K. club Everton FC during the regular season, became a national bold-faced name after saving 16 shots against Belgium, a World Cup record. His name was mentioned more than 1.8 million times on Twitter during the game, with users claiming the goalie could save their parents’ marriages and prevent Ned Stark from being decapitated in the HBO show “Game of Thrones.” Nielsen data shows MLS’ television viewership has increased 24 percent since 2009, just before the 2010 South Africa World Cup. It should definitely see further increases from here, if still gradual ones. “The World Cup brought soccer to the attention of people who may now watch an MLS game,” says Rob Prazmark, president of 21 Marketing, a sports marketing agency. “But until the U.S. team goes to the finals or produces the next Messi, converting the American audience is going to be a gradual process.” In other words, there’s still some truth to the trope that many U.S. soccer fans are once-every-four-years kind of folk – but the game is scoring more fans with each passing year.