Something changed – or perhaps was revealed – in the US during the last month: Many millions more Americans watched the World Cup soccer tournament than ever before. They may never call it "football," but now it is their sport, too.
WASHINGTON, DC – Something changed – or perhaps was revealed – in the United States during the last month. Many millions more Americans watched the World Cup soccer tournament in English and Spanish than ever before. True, with the World Cup’s end, many are arguing, as usual, that Americans pay attention only every four years – and only when the US is playing. But this time something was different: Americans continued to watch even after the US team was eliminated.
Indeed, on a weekday afternoon in the middle of summer, nearly 15 million Americans tuned in to the Brazil-Germany match in the semifinal. That is more than the usual viewership for ESPN’s Monday Night Football, the biggest regular television draw for fans of American football.
Almost every young person at my organization, New America, found ways to watch the US games in the early rounds. My apartment mate explained that everyone in her office, in the US Department of Education, had used the excuse of a birthday party to watch the US-Germany match. On the Tuesday afternoon when the US played Belgium in the knockout round, every bar in Aspen, Colorado, was packed.
WASHINGTON, DC – Something changed – or perhaps was revealed – in the United States during the last month. Many millions more Americans watched the World Cup soccer tournament in English and Spanish than ever before. True, with the World Cup’s end, many are arguing, as usual, that Americans pay attention only every four years – and only when the US is playing. But this time something was different: Americans continued to watch even after the US team was eliminated.
Indeed, on a weekday afternoon in the middle of summer, nearly 15 million Americans tuned in to the Brazil-Germany match in the semifinal. That is more than the usual viewership for ESPN’s Monday Night Football, the biggest regular television draw for fans of American football.
Almost every young person at my organization, New America, found ways to watch the US games in the early rounds. My apartment mate explained that everyone in her office, in the US Department of Education, had used the excuse of a birthday party to watch the US-Germany match. On the Tuesday afternoon when the US played Belgium in the knockout round, every bar in Aspen, Colorado, was packed.