By CAITLIN MURRAY
If you are an American soccer fan reading this then there is a very good chance you are gearing up to enjoy the upcoming FIFA World Cup. A recent poll suggests you will be in the minority when you do watch it.
Two in three Americans don’t plan to follow the World Cup this summer, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday. Only seven percent of Americans said they plan to follow the tournament closely.
The poll found 86 percent of Americans said they either know nothing or only a little bit about the world’s most prestigious soccer tournament. More than two-thirds of respondents didn’t know the World Cup was being played in Brazil.
ESPN and parent company ABC are probably hoping the World Cup attracts some additional casual viewership — they paid $100 million for the English-language broadcast rights for all FIFA events from 2007 to 2014. Univision paid $325 million for the Spanish-language rights.
Hispanic Americans showed the strongest interest demographically, with one-third saying they will be following the tournament or some teams in the tournament closely, double the percentage overall for that question.
By comparison, 46 percent of American households watched the Super Bowl this past winter.
Just last month, an ESPN poll found soccer has caught up with baseball in popularity among America’s youth, signaling an impending shift in the landscape of popular sports.
Ratings for USMNT and Mexican National Team matches have grown consistently in recent years, and the upcoming World Cup is expected to shatter all previous ratings records for the tournament.
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What do you think of the findings in this poll? Do you think more Americans will get into the World Cup once it starts? Not buying the findings of this poll?
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