Why is uk football more popular then US sports?

[Nathan]

I'm watching as I type a repeat of last nights spurs vs rockets nba game in Houston .. It's a regular season game agaist a elite team in the spurs .. I just don't understand why there is so many empty seats ?? Houston around the 4th biggest city in the states and no fans have other teams around to go to .. But yet we have a sell out at teams like stoke or west ham .. :/ . Plus if you look at our premier league players on twitter they have 10 x more followers then NBA stars who play in a continent league :/?

[Ryan]

Because the Premier League is known worldwide, whereas the NBA is only more popular in the US.

[messi]

because soccer is the sport that is played ALL over the world...tickets prices could be another reason...and my reason also that people who watch american sports go more for the main teams...i live in chicago and EVERY game for either the bulls (basketball) or the bears(americanfootball) tickets are sold out....but yess buddie soccer is alot more popular and known all over the world. And English premier is the best league out there

[Yogi-D]

Most people watch NBA games at home, compare the cost of going to a UK football game to a NBA game the cheap seats in an NBA game are what box seats cost in a UK Football game. NBA top stars are actually just as well known if not more well known than the average football roster (mind you I said top stars) I bet you almost every person you Know knows who Lebron James and Kobe Bryant are even if they don't watch the NBA, but come to the USA and try to find 10 random people who can list the starters of Manchester United.

I know football is more popular world wide, but the NBA stars are actually better known the world over, not just in the UK but world wide. got to China and ask them to name a UK football team I bet the couldn't, but ask them to name the starting lineup of the Miami Heat or Houston Rockets (they know Houston in China because the most popular Chinese player in the world is there) San Antonio has a player that is like a Rock God in south and Central America (the heart of Football fandom) Manu Ginobili can't walk the streets without getting mobbed south of the US border. He is one of the most popular athletes in the world. Also Tony Parker (even though he's a Frenchman) I'm quite certain many of you in the UK know he is VERY well especially after what he did to the UK national team in euro-league tournament play leading up to the Olympics. Last I'm certain you all know who Dirk Nowitski is as well. Yes hes from Germany, but he's another European player who is a NBA star and face of a franchise.

So it seems to me that your looking at this whole thing with a rather myopic point of view. As I said before, the popularity of the sport of Football is defiantely greater across the UK, but to make the assumption that fans don't support the teams by turnout at an early season game is wrong. (we tend to show up in greater numbers after the all-star break since the NBA regular season is 86 games long while the average UK football team plays around 10-14 games a season). To base popularity on YOU not knowing and NBA team roster means nothing if your not a major fan. Like I said I'm betting many of your friends could name an NBA star, while most Americans couldn't name a UK footballer. The sport of football is more popular globally, but NBA basketball's stars are better know.

[Dr. Doom]

Football is more of an international sport, anyone can play, all you essentially need is a ball and a couple pylons to use as nets, people from all walks of life can play it, sports like Basketball, Hockey, Football require specific courts. Also, these sports don't have as long histories and were invented in the new world.

[Randy]

This is an easy question because it's not.

You picked Basketball, I'm presuming because it's being played right now. So we'll stick to that for answering this question instead of addressing all three major sports(baseball, basketball, football)

For the premiership, you have 20 teams and 38 games per season. For the NBA, you have 30 teams and 82 games per season. It would stand to reason the less games there are to attend, the more likely they will sell out.

In England, you have the premiership, a rugby league, and I'm certain a cricket league of some kind. Living on this side of the pond and watching a ton of British sports, the Rugby league and whatever other sports get a fraction of the coverage and media attention that the Premiership does.

In the US, the three major sports are essentially on equal standing as far as coverage, every game for every sport is televised.

What I am getting at with this comparison, is there a lot more competition for your sports dollar in the US than in the UK.

Basketball isn't only the 'big game' in town. Most major cities have at least two if not 3 of the major sports.

This of course ignores college athletics which the UK doesn't have anything that remotely resembles the US system. People don't sell out stadiums of 60,000 on a weekly basis to watch Oxford play whoever in Soccer, they do however in American college football and in American college basketball.

In regards to twitter, have you ever looked at the top 100 people with the most followers are on Twitter, there are three NBA players(all 3 are above Rooney) and one premiership player.

In regards, to last night's game, if you opened a Houston newspaper this morning. You would see the front page is all about the Houston Texans(the best team in the NFL) losing last night to the Patriots at the exact same time the Rockets were losing to the Spurs. The NFL season is winding down and was much more important game than the Rockets game. If I lived in Houston, and I was a fan of both teams I would have been at home watching football.

Next month, the Detroit Pistons are playing the NY Knicks in London for a regular season game(not exhibition, this game has meaning).

This has happened what the last 3 years in a row now, playing NBA games in London, not to mention the annual NFL games.

When was the last time any premiership played another premiership team in the States? Try never. For a country with 5 times the population of the entire UK, you figure it would be easier to find enough people to watch a game stateside. I mean being how much more popular UK Soccer is, right?

What I am providing here is just the tip of the iceberg? If you really want to see how wrong you are. Go look at the size of the TV contracts for any of the major American Sports versus the Premiership it's not even close how much more money they generate and also remember are sports are 'free to air', we don't pay TV licenses and we don't pay extra for premium channels to watch our regional teams. Our sports TV revenue comes directly from how many people watch, and thus the number of people the adverts reach.