There are 4.2m men and women currently registered with US Soccer as actively playing in amateur and professional football clubs. There is an estimated 25 mil people playing soccer on a regular basis in the US which is way more than American Football and only bettered by Basketball and Baseball. Soccer is the third highest supported sport in the US and the MLS is the seventh highest supported football league in the world. Soccer is the second most popular sport for under 25's according to a 2011 survey.

I think the figures for those who watched the world cup in the US is around 25-30mil.

This is not a minority sport anymore, as for relying on ex-pat support, the entire US stems from immigrant population so it's hardly surprising. Last month a friendly game at the Pasadena rose bowl attracted 110,000. This is why European clubs want a piece of the action.

Oh dear, now he's got you started on throwing statistics about, mel. Take care

Watch those stats meliferra, could set someone off.

The only thing that surprises me is that anyone is surprised by the rise of soccer in the US. There are whole swathes of the US where Spanish has replaced English as the lingua franca because of immigration from Hispanic countries, and the sporting tradition of Hispanic countries is soccer not gridiron.

Where does that put cricket in this country?
I'd never realised that it's finances determine whether a sport is a minority\majority one.

I guess football is a minority sport in most of the world because it tends to be played by poor people on the street rather than the elite and wealthy.

Jumpers for goal posts and the romance of sport are driven by a desire to become one of the elite. I asked about the financials because as a professional sport, they are the driver to success.......the masses at hackney marshes are great but they have little influence over the balance sheets at top tier clubs.

I refer you all to that old adage "ANY publicity is GOOD publicity!".

as usual off thread. . just back from 3 weeks in states. football may be a minority sport but a fast growing one. whilst anecdotal, there is a fair bit of coverage in the media, crowds are growing and the World Cup played big in the USA.

Gutterfax's comments are just outdated stereotypical c***.

Soccer sits behind gridiron, baseball, basketball and hockey in the USA.......it is a minority sport that I never denied wasn't growing, but a minority sport all the same.

And your picture proves what exactly? Soccer is a minority sport in the USA.......buy a copy of the NYTimes any weekend and it gets a page of a 100 page sports supplement.......expats aside and outside the metro centres it is tiny when compared to the other sports

There are some anomalies in US sports that do not exist elsewhere.

Firstly, that they have a very successful Collegiate system of sports which is dominated by Gridiron followed in it's wake by Basketball, then way down the pecking order is Baseball, Soccer and Athletics (in no particular order). At some of the more established US college's, the paying public (in attendances) for both Gridiron and Basketball can easily surpass that of it's professional cousin's. For some fans it's the collegiate versions of the game that they trust and love the most. Most College teams have been around longer than their professional counterparts.

The monies raised by the fee paying public in these primarily "amateur" gatherings (Gridiron/Basketball) along side TV revenue's is in some case's one of a college's major revenue streams and can be a multi-million dollar income stream.

Whilst the audience both live and for TV in the US is primarily with NCAA administered sports, it's the professional version's (NFL/NBA) where it can be argued the money is really at and that is driven by broadcast right revenue alone. The NFL have some of the most ambitious revenue streams and growth projections, especially in International markets in professional sport that make the eye's of some Wall Street type's water.

Baseball is slightly different where the MLB's collegiate cousin is a poor third behind Gridiron & Basketball in the numbers of students on scholarships, attendances and TV revenue, it's professional cousin is the people's sport with in general match-day prices to match, that can be as cheap as $ 5 per ticket per game. IF you've 81 home games in a season then you need to make it affordable for all. And has TV rights revenue's that some sports governing abroad would kill for but are dwarfed by those of the NFL and NBA.

So the question it needs to be is it a) participation, b) press coverage or a lack of it, c) financial clout/revenue d) bums on seats or e) History that makes a sport a "Major" or "Minor" in the land of the free and the home of the brave or beyond?? Discuss or javelin?

i did ask about financials a few posts back...it was side-stepped because the agenda wasn't catered for......soccer is a growth sport in terms of finance but a minority sport all the same.

It wasn't sidestepped. To claim Soccer in the US has the same financial clout as American Football, Baseball or Basketball would be daft. I take no issue with your point on this and if it came across that way it wasnt intended.

As there is no formal definition of what represents a minority sport I feel comfortable disagreeing with your definition and feel no need to challenge it having already given my reasons for thinking otherwise.