The "major sports" as they exist in the minds of most Americans are: football (the American kind), baseball, basketball, and hockey. While hockey's profile has taken a hit in the last few years, the sport still maintains its de facto place in the "major" quartet. Of the team sports currently played on a professional level in the United States, only soccer and lacrosse do not rate as "major" (I'm ignoring variants, i.e. arena football or indoor soccer). This is obviously not the case around the world, as soccer is most often the first (and sometimes only) sport that qualifies as "major". The sports landscape in the developed nations of Europe and South America most often consists of soccer (or football if you prefer) and perhaps one or two ancillary sports; no other nation in the world has four major professional leagues each playing a different sport that draws the attention of the populace on a large scale. Potential soccer fans in the U.S. are forced to wade through this flooded environment, and without direction (i.e. proper marketing) from soccer's leading entities, they simply never find their way to the game.
Americans, numerically, typically have more sports passions than their peers around the world. While fans in England, Italy, Germany, Brazil, etc. often support their soccer clubs with their full attention and effort, a majority of Americans split their passion between two or more teams in different sports. Media coverage of sports abroad is emblematic of this; while more attention is paid to soccer and soccer related news than in the U.S., the lack of a major secondary sport gives more room for individual sports that are given significantly less attention in the U.S. on a daily basis (i.e. tennis, golf, auto racing).
If we take a look at the sports news sites of a few major outlets abroad as compared those of a few American outlets, the differences in sports cultures are clear:
BBC
Sky Sports
I used BBC and Sky simply for language reasons, but both are good representations for European sport. Football (soccer) dominates as expected, cricket and rugby are represented but clearly secondary, and there is more of the individual sports than one would see from an American outlet (although I'll give BBC a bit of a pass with the Andy Murry headline; the Brits obsess over Murray and his tennis fortunes).
Let's contrast BBC and Sky to two major American outlets, ESPN and Sports Illustrated:
ESPN
Sports Illustrated
*NOTE* Click for larger images if you cannot see them clearly
It is important to remember the timing of these snapshots, and to put their content in the seasonal context; if we keep this in mind and focus purely on the peripheral stories rather than the headlines, we see that no one sport receives a majority of the coverage. American football is king in the U.S., but less than a week before the biggest game on its calendar, it still does not dominate the websites of these major sports news outlets (or serve as the headline for Sports Illustrated). While the individual sports that the BBC and Sky featured so prominently are also present on the ESPN and SI pages, they are surrounded on all sides by news from the major American team sports. In addition to the professional team sports stories, major college team sports also make the cut for front page inclusion; another group of competitions that splits the attention of the American sports fan.
These snapshots give a small indication of the overall sports culture, how news is reported (i.e., which sports are given preeminence), and what may be important to the target audience of these media outlets; they do not, however, exhibit the depth of the flooded American sports landscape.
Here are the top ten professional sports leagues in the world by attendance (per Wikipedia):
(Sorry about the quality of the table)
Note that 4 of the top 5 are American leagues; even if we take the size of the population into account and focus on average attendance, it's clear that Americans support professional sports over the course of a season on a scale not matched anywhere else in the world. MLS, while attempting to become culturally relevant, is forced to compete with other popular professional leagues for the attention and commitment of the consumer. This situation is unique to the United States, and makes the task all the more difficult.
As fans, the love we hold for our sports teams creates very personal connections. Our emotions are tied to the success of our teams; our greatest personal moments are often those related to great victory or a glorious championship. These connections begin in our childhoods and grow into our adulthoods, becoming essential parts of our lives. While people from cultures around the world focus their passion on their football club and identify themselves soley with that club, Americans form bonds of the same intensity with American football teams, baseball teams, basketball teams, hockey teams, etc., all at the same time. Americans are masters of sports multi-tasking; we follow several sports at once, transition from season to season with ease and support multiple teams with our money and our passion on a scale most in the world could not imagine. We have the ultimate sports culture, but the question still remains: Is there room for soccer?
I think there is, but it's going to take a lot of work on the part of a lot of people. The American appetite for sports seems insatiable, and despite the economic situation, soccer can absolutely become one of the "major" sports. I know it's already "major" for me.
