I can sum up the problem with soccer in two words: no breaks. Every sport that Americans watch has some sort of break.
In baseball there are breaks between half-innings and for pitching changes. In football there is a break after each play, and longer breaks for timeouts, change of possession and scores.
In basketball there are timeouts for commercials, as well as coaches’ timeouts, player substitutions and free throws. In golf there are long breaks as players walk from the tee to the ball, from fairway to green, from green to the next tee.
But in soccer, the game goes on non-stop for each 45-minute half. Worse, the referee tacks on extra time at the end of each half, but no one knows how long the extra time will last.
The purpose of the break is to give viewers a chance to get another beer and more pretzels, to go to the bathroom or to call a friend and point out how poorly his team is playing. You can’t do that during a soccer game.
Until soccer starts putting in breaks, Americans aren’t going to watch. After all, the most memorable part of America’s greatest sporting event, the Super Bowl, is the commercials.
