soccer vs olympics argument

I wouldnt even bother. Thats the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. The WC is easily and obviously the most popular sporting event the world has ever known.

No offense, but your brother's friends are retarded.

did i ever tell you guys about the time my friend argued that around the horn on espn would have higher ratings than the champions league final being shown on espn2 at the same time?

i have no idea but id say it's pretty obvious that the champions league woulda had higher ratings.

#4 Winter Olympics- one has to be wealthy to play and participate. Live in resort area.

First off, tell him to check the internet for viewers for the past WC's and Olympics. The numbers will vary a good bit, but in general, one will consistently say it had more viewers which Im fairly confident is the WC.

My big reason for the WC over Olympics is that soccer is a MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more fan friendly and personal relationship between players/club and their fans. Go ask someone from Mexico or Brazil or basically any country in Africa who their favorite national team Olympic swimmer/CC-Skiier/Curler/Pole-Vaulter is or, and THEN ask them who their favorite soccer player is... If they could name more than 3 Olympians, if any at all, they would be in a small minority. But I bet they could rattle off soccer players like nobody's business.

Soccer clubs are much, much more numerous throughout the world, and people get to actually follow their teams and favorite players in person, whereas if someone wanted to follow a "US Women's Aerials" athlete, it would be difficult to keep track of them and ever get to see them in action, thus producing a huge disconnect between the athlete and their fans.

None of what I said is backed up by any facts I'm aware of, but thats just what sounds logical to me.

1. number of viewers

A report by IPG media agency Initiative Worldwide stated that the 2006 FIFA World Cup was the most-watched sporting event of that year with an average 95 Million viewers per match(an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany) for a total of 6.08 billion vewers.
vs.
According to Nielsen Media Research, 4.7 billion viewers worldwide tuned in to some of the television coverage, one-fifth larger than the 3.9 billion who watched the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens

2. revenue

FIFA raised $2.28billion in marketing revenue and $840million for a total of $3.12billion from sponsorship from the 2006 World Cup
vs
for the 2010 winter olympics a Price-Waterhouse report indicating that the projected direct revenues would be in the range of $1 billion.

in comparison
Retailers made about 3 billion more dollars in retail such as jerseys and other paraphernalia regarding the World Cup 2006.

OLYMPICS CAN'T COMPARE WITH THE WORLD CUP

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Granted, it doesn't have the history or status of the Summer Games, but the World Cup has something the Olympics will never have: the ability to make billions of people around the world stop dead in their tracks for 90 minutes.

Soccer has halted wars (a three-day cease fire was called in the Nigerian civil war in 1969 so that Pele and Brazilian team Santos could play two exhibition matches against local teams) and it has started wars (Honduras and El Salvador briefly fought in 1969 following a disputed World Cup qualifying match).

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Heck, over 300 million tuned in last December to watch the group draw for the 2006 World Cup - 300 million just to see Sepp Blatter pull ping pong balls out of glass tumblers!

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How to run rings around the Olympics