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Soccer: The Function of Mass Media and Economics on Popularity in the US Soccer — or football as it is called by the rest of the world outside the United States — is the most popular sport in the world. The regional popularity of soccer can be attributed to the exposure of its championship games. Every four years the World Cup (the world championship of soccer) is watched by billions of people all over the world. This is much more than the amount of people who watch the American Super Bowl. ESPN estimated that 1.7 billion television viewers watched the World Cup final between France and Brazil in July of 1998. Which brings me to the question: Why is soccer the most popular sport in the world and not so in the US? In reviewing different articles on the subject and going on my previous knowledge of the American sports scene, there seems to be several reasons as to why this may be the case. One reason seems to lie with the role of the mass media in coverage of soccer in America. In fact, since the World Cup’s creation, the series had never been hosted by the United States until only recently in the summer of 1994. This perhaps, is one of the reasons why the sport of soccer has never quite caught on in the United States. The World Cup, is a genuine “world championship”, involving teams from 32 countries in the final rounds, unlike the much more simple and misnamed World Series in American baseball (that doesn't even involve Japan or Cuba, two baseball hot spots). Although soccer has become important in the American sports scene, it seems that it may never be as popular as football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and even tennis and golf. I. The Role of the Mass Media One reason that soccer may lack mass appeal in the United States is that it does not conform easily to the demands of television. Basketball is enormously popular in America because it regularly schedules what it calls "television time-outs". In addition to these “television time-outs” there are also the time-outs that the teams themselves call to re-group.
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