Quote:Yes, there are a lot of people living in the USA...


But how many if those 17m live outside the US ?


I don't think you can argue that the NFL is a global sport in the same way as soccer. It's still essentially a sport played (to any serious level) in one country.


And that country has a lot of people TVs.


I'm sure the NFL would love to expand the brand in the same way that soccer has, but that is a long way off.


Of course with a domestic market that large, maybe it doesn't need to be...

 

Who was arguing it's a global sport? I'm well aware that Soccer and Cricket >>> American football when it comes to global interest. My point was that Americans care as much (or more) about American Football than other countries care about non-World Cup soccer. I mean, how can you argue with the fact that 34 of the 35 most watched TV shows last fall were NFL broadcasts? This was the regular season and the only other TV show that could crack the top 35 was the Macy's Day Parade at #22.

 

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/01...ll/227726/

 

 

DragonFury, while there may be a more soccer clubs than NFL teams, you also have to consider the millions of viewers that are strictly NCAA Football fans and do not follow the NFL. As far as I know, college-level soccer doesn't compare to NCAA football. Now it's impossible to tell how many of fans just follow the NCAA (I'm guessing at least 8 out of 10 are overlaps), but just to paint a picture of NCAA Football following:

 

"Exceptional Attendance Figures: The sport produced the third highest attendance figure ever with 48.96 million fans attending a game, including 1.7 million spectators for the bowl games.

Outstanding Television Viewership: More than 216 million viewers tuned in to watch the regular season with another 126 million watching the bowl games.

Powerful Bowl Ratings: The Discover BCS National Championship Game on ESPN between Alabama and Notre Dame produced the second most-viewed program in cable television history with 26.4 million viewers, only behind the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. The five BCS bowl games averaged 15.1 million viewers up 7 percent from last year."

 

- http://www.footballfoundation.org/tabid/...obust.aspx

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