re: Is soccer in the US close to surpassing hockey as the 4th sport?

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Actually, I'm just calling it like I see it.

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Nah, you are being a pussy.

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Which is fine but to act like there are no Hockey fans because he lives in the middle of nowhere Alabama or something and doesnt see any is kind of illogical.

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There are certainly some. Just far less than fans of football, basketball, baseball, and now (or very soon to be) soccer.

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Why are you getting so upset? I've lived in FL my entire life. I'm just trying to understand here. Is St Louis some HUGE hockey market or something? Are the fans concentrated in a handful of markets? We have a huge cross section of America here and nearly zero hockey fans. I'm asking honestly.

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Each city with a pro hockey team has a cult following of passionate fans. Nobody else cares at all.

I think its a regional question. NY, Chicago Boston, Philly, Detroit, Nashville. Basically any city with an NHL team hockey trumps Soccer. Seattle, KC and Portland, not so much.

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The OP asked a question to start a conversation.

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Sure, but you're answering a different question. The NHL is more popular than the MLS. Hockey is not more popular than soccer. That should really be pretty obvious by now.

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I live in the largest city in the state of Florida. Now you're resorting to insults.

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Oh christ. It wasnt an insult. It was just a general statement explaining the lack of hockey fans in the south.



I like you man, Im not trying to insult you at all.

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nah, I lived in a city that WON the Stanley Cup and doesn't even have an MLS team.... but we love us some soccer... we also have a huge immigrant tradition. (it's Tampa btw)

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I have little doubt that given an MLS team it would compete with the BLues very well in St Louis but St Louis has always had a die hard soccer following and tradition that goes back over a 100 years.

We get that you follow soccer, and love hockey.

No big deal. But, you´re mighty, mighty defensive about hockey. Tremendously so.

The numbers you threw up were weak in comparison to the US WC first round appearances, and those numbers corresponded to the ´finalísima´ of hockey.

You´re now attacking MLS, which I get. It still is inferior to the NHL.

The question was, soccer.

As many on here have said, depending upon where you live, you´ll never see a hockey jersey in the street on someone. Even in hockey country, you´ll see a soccer jersey. Mind you, the US national side, or a major European club (the US national side, 90 plus percent of the time).

Hockey´s not a US game anyway, so I don´t get the vehemence with which you defend it.

You refer to numbers. Pull them out. I´m sure you´re referring to some absolute numbers, and regional, when applicable.

The demographic breakdown of hockey fandom is certainly top heavy in an older age group and certain regions of the US, and many hispanic regions probably are soccer across the board, irrespective of the age group.

The important demographic sampling is middle class and upper middle class´(both are specimens suffering an economic holocaust of course), across the board.

Get these numbers. I know you´d be shocked.

Again, seriously IDGAF, but you were one of two who went on and on about ´The Miracle on Ice´, and how that great achievement is multifold superior to a potential WC won by the US. Your flippancy and selective facts were very adolescent, and when I properly dismounted them, you and your friend reverted to ´soccer fig´ and ´sense of superiority´type comments.

Were the WC won by the US in ´Miracle on Ice´ times, it would have been comparable, but only because it was Cold War time still. No Cold War, the WC win wins, hands down.

Again, keep on with the MLS prism, that´ll let you properly ´weasel out´.

Soccer has the potential to be bigger, but hockey is bigger as of now. Hockey's fanbase seems regionalized while soccer can grow anywhere.