Will soccer ever be a serious threat to footy, long-term?

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Bunk Moreland said:
In terms of being a major spectator sport, I’m not sure any sport has ever really thrived outside of where the top level is played.

Aust Rules and Rugby League rule in Australia, where the biggest comps are.

Basketball, baseball, grid iron and ice hockey - North America.

If limited overs continues to be the future of cricket, the IPL will remain the biggest league.

Soccer - Europe.

Probably the biggest exceptions are Africa and South America which dont have indigenous sports as such. Soccer rules there.

Wherever soccer has run into an indigenous game/s, it’s failed (and vice versa, of course).
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Disagree.

There are two areas where soccer is not #1. The US and australasia (Australia and New Zealand). Everywhere else on earth soccer is king.

Even in these two regions, the game still enjoys a solid following. The MLS enjoys reasonable crowds and has s good solid cult following, and the country where the most World Cup fans travelled to Russia from??? the US.




On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
BustedWing said:
Disagree.

There are two areas where soccer is not #1. The US and australasia (Australia and New Zealand). Everywhere else on earth soccer is king.

Even in these two regions, the game still enjoys a solid following. The MLS enjoys reasonable crowds and has s good solid cult following, and the country where the most World Cup fans travelled to Russia from??? the US.




On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
Click to expand...
Off the top of my head Canada, India, pacific islands..
 
thegreig said:
Off the top of my head Canada, India, pacific islands..
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Plus you have China where it is only now picking up support.

Soccer will always be a threat to Australian Football for players, sponsorship dollars and supporters as is RL and to a lesser extent RU.
Australian Football of course is the biggest impediment to Soccer ever becoming #1 in Australia as it sucks up the biggest % of fans and income.
Thats the nature of the Australian sporting landscape with four codes competing for support but Im certain that the AFL are well aware of these threats to its current #1 position.
 
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BustedWing said:
Disagree.

There are two areas where soccer is not #1. The US and australasia (Australia and New Zealand). Everywhere else on earth soccer is king.

Even in these two regions, the game still enjoys a solid following. The MLS enjoys reasonable crowds and has s good solid cult following, and the country where the most World Cup fans travelled to Russia from??? the US.




On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
Click to expand...

Japan - baseball
India, pakistan, sri lanka, Bangladesh - cricket
Fiji, Samoa, etc - rugby
Canada - hockey
China - basketball (previous table tennis)
 
HavUEvaSeenTheRain said:
I love how people just dismiss the one and a half billion people plus on the subcontinent where cricket dominates simply because they are so poor.
There are more people there than South America, Central America and Europe combined.
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Yeah it's pretty blatant

People who think they are refined but essentially have a grovelling, cringey, unreconstructed 19th century assumption of European cultural superiority

And apparently the way grow up and cut our apron ties to mother england is devalue our own football code and dismiss it as the most "primitive" code
 
BobbyMorri said:
Oh look, Noobpie talking about Cultural cringe and soccer once more. What a surprise. how riveting.

give it a rest.
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Oh look. BobbyMorri whinging about sporting administrations discriminating against Tasmania again. What a surprise. how riveting etc

As a committed crusader against the cultural cringe, I think I'm as justified in criticising a cultural cringer appropriating the term "cultural cringe" thank you very much
 

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Soccer has been a threat to Footy for decades. Being a threat doesn't mean it will necessarily overtake footy as a spectator sport, but there is the possibility it could. That it hasn't until now also doesn't mean it cannot in the future.
 
jatz14 said:
Soccer has been a threat to Footy for decades. Being a threat doesn't mean it will necessarily overtake footy as a spectator sport, but there is the possibility it could. That it hasn't until now also doesn't mean it cannot in the future.
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So right.The AFL can never drop its guard against soccer Just because they #1 now dosent mean it will always be thus.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom"
 
Pessimistic said:
What was the point of the article? ‘If things were different it’d be well.......different’
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The point was, to make the moronic assumption, if we sacrificed our sporting culture to be more like countries with much thinner sporting cultures that like soccer more we’d be a more mature country
 
It would take a perfect storm to.

1) the A-League would need to eliminate the salary cap (this would increase interest in the league and game as the local product is actually worth watching)
2) subsequently, the clubs need to survive (big if. And if it turns into a Scotland like situation with 2 teams dominating, you can kill off the league too)
3) Australia would need a golden generation (or 2 in a row) giving us a realistical shot in doing damage in the World Cup

We got #3 in 2006 but the failures since have killed off any momentum we had from that.

Can it happen? Yes.
Will it happen? Almost certainly not.

The bigger threat is probably basketball tbh.
 
BobbyMorri said:
Oh look, Noobpie talking about Cultural cringe and soccer once more. What a surprise. how riveting.

give it a rest.
Click to expand...

Well thankfully the hype of the WC for OZ is over. The experts will, as usual, trawl through the ashes & try to blame something for us not kicking a field goal in 3 matches. The FFA like the soul searching stuff, but never seem to change.

OZ did well to make the finals. It'll always be hard to win anything as the HAL here is so weak. Players have to go OS to 'make it'. Consequently the HAL will never challenge the AFL or NRL in terms of media, crowds or sponsorship.

Kids will play soccer as its easier to kick a round ball about. They always have. Its what the best athletes chose to do that matters for the national stage. Soccer is just one of the AFL, NRL, RU, NBL also cricket, as choices to become professional in. It is healthy from a social perspective. Maybe not so for those who look at the worlds biggest sport. Thats tough for those who see nothing but the round ball in other countries. But again its probably healthier for us.
 
Melbourne and Sydney , maybe others should have teams in a SE Asia league with epl type budgets attracting or keeping top players and soccer would be getting somewhere.

Asia is super rich these days.

Ironically, FIFA wouldn’t allow it
 
Dirty Bird said:
It would take a perfect storm to.

1) the A-League would need to eliminate the salary cap (this would increase interest in the league and game as the local product is actually worth watching)
2) subsequently, the clubs need to survive (big if. And if it turns into a Scotland like situation with 2 teams dominating, you can kill off the league too)
3) Australia would need a golden generation (or 2 in a row) giving us a realistical shot in doing damage in the World Cup

We got #3 in 2006 but the failures since have killed off any momentum we had from that.

Can it happen? Yes.
Will it happen? Almost certainly not.

The bigger threat is probably basketball tbh.
Click to expand...
You mean #33 right? if you are talking about world rankings.
 
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