FanNation - The Republic of Sport

David Beckem is alraedy well known and he has sparked much SPARKY

David Beckham is a shell of what he once was. He's still a very good player but will not be the spark America needs to make soccer mainstream. They are going to need many Beckhams, and I don't see it happening soon.

Soccer cant compete with football,baseball,or basketball even golf right now in America.

it will take incredible World Cup success for the game to get big here.

the US needs to host a world cup to make soccer more popular

America doesnt care about soccer.

Go SOCCER!!!!It will take some time, but Beckham willl difinateley spark the fire.

no one cares

I care. Soccer is ten times the sport basketball and baseball are.

The US hosted the World Cup in 1994 and the US team was actually pretty decent. It did breathe life into an American Soccer League, but it wasn't enough to make soccer even close to being mainstream in the US.

I'm not sure if David Beckham will help make soccer mainstream even if convinced his wife to pose naked at midfield. The game itself is just too boring and 3rd World for the discriminating US market.

I am in the "core demograpic" utilized for polls and tv ratings. I will never, regardless of who plays watch soccer, nor will 99% of people 10 years younger than me or anybody older than me. It will take 30 years for it to get traction. And honestly, lacrosse has a better chance to become a "big time" sport before soccer will. It is far more exciting, and last year it passed soccer for the total number of children under the age of 13 enrolled to play, and total number of high school teams. Soccer may be a physical sport that requires skill to play, but on TV it plays out like hockey- BORING. It is always going to be a game that is WAY better live, just like hockey... americans are all about TV- TV ratings bad = NEVER a mainstream sport. If you think otherwise, you are a blind soccer fan....

If you doubt my comment about TV ratings being the gateway to mainsteam acceptance, chew on this stat for a while before you even TRY to refute it- We ALL agree the NFL wins hands down in fan popularity, amongst all the BIG 4 pro sports leagues. In the NFL as far as attendance goes- last year including the playoffs and superbowl- a little over 22 million people attended games LIVE (that's every team combined for 16 weeks plus the playoffs) . Over 90 million watched JUST the superbowl- one game.

Oh yeah, Beckham will make quite a spark alright, the gayguys are going to go nuts.

david beckham is more of a celeb. then an athlete. As a soccer player ive always hated him and theres no way hes gonnabe popular with men in the states. If it was Roberto Carlos maybe but Beckham is more comparable to Orlando Bloom.

Yes because Beckham is here in the US, I will watch soccer. I'll forget the fact that soccer is a totally boring **** sport and watch it just because David Beckham is playing for a US team which I've never even heard of.

America doesn't hate soccer. They hate to watch it. Compared to the NFL or MLB, where you have upteen million commercial breaks, you can't turn those people into soccer watchers (which doesn't have a real break except at halftime). Why else do you think a 60 minute football game takes 3 hours to play? A soccer game is 90 minutes long, and is done in under 2 hours (including halftime). Thats a long time to make an untrained audience sit and watch it at the bar or at home.

Soccer is forcing **** Wee Football and Pop Warner Baseball out of alot of towns across the nation, so while Mom&Dad don't want to watch the Pro version, they see it as a better youth sport to put their kids into.