America’s Interest in Soccer Perks This Year After the World Cup

RAY SUAREZ:

From Berlin, to Rome, to American cities such as Washington, D.C., and Denver, Italy fans were ecstatic after their team won a fourth World Cup yesterday. The championship game was the conclusion of a month-long soccer tournament played once every four years.

The nerve-racking ending, a series of penalty kicks, came after Italy and France were tied following regulation play and then went into overtime. Italy fans were delirious when France missed a kick and Italy prevailed.

ANNOUNCER:

Italy, World Cup champions, 2006!

RAY SUAREZ:

But fans of the French team were stunned and despondent, no more so than when the team's star player, Zinedine Zidane, was thrown out in overtime on a red card for unsportsmanlike behavior. Zidane, who led the French to victory in 1998, used his head to strike an Italian player after they traded remarks.

The worldwide audience was huge; early estimates project about a billion people. In the U.S., nearly 17 million households watched on ABC and Univision. That was comparable to the NBA championship final game, which had nearly 16 million viewers, or the nearly 20 million households that tuned into the last game of the World Series.

The ratings for this tournament were the highest they've ever been and much higher than the last World Cup, when games aired in the middle of the night for U.S. audiences.

For the first time, all the games were aired live on the national networks of ESPN and ABC. Every game was also broadcast on the Spanish-language Univision network.

Ratings were also healthier when the American team played. Nearly 10 million U.S. households watched America's game against Italy three weeks ago.

This World Cup brought new converts to the game, as well, including a number of people in long lines in Washington, D.C.'s, Lucky Bar yesterday.

TAMMY GORDON, Soccer Fan:

In places like D.C. where you have so many fans that are from different areas, it really makes you more into it as the whole thing. I mean, everyone's walking around town with flags, watching the games, so it's really fun.

RAY SUAREZ:

Others, like Gerard Louison in Denver, Colorado, preached the gospel of the cup to others.

GERARD LOUISON, Soccer Fan:

We've even converted three or four friends who've never watched soccer before. In this World Cup, I've gotten them to come and watch games, to watch it on TV at home. I try to explain it to them about the game.

JIM PATEL, Soccer Fan:

How can it be boring? I mean, it's got lots of great talents to show. You've got some of the best players in the world. A lot of the games are interesting. Refereeing decisions have added to the spice of the game.

RAY SUAREZ:

Despite the cup's higher ratings, professional soccer in the U.S. still draws a much smaller following compared to that in other countries, even with the creation of Major League Soccer 10 years ago and the sport's dominance as an after-school event here.

This summer, most games were only viewed by fewer than 5 million households on average. American fans have their own theories.

DEREK TURNER, Soccer Fan:

We don't have the best players in the world, like the rest of the world. You know, the European teams have the best players in the world, so it's really fun to watch. The American players aren't as fun to watch.

ALEXA COURTNEY, Soccer Fan:

The American announcers, I feel like I'm sitting at a baseball game. It's, "So and so passed to so and so, to so and so," without revealing any of the beauty.

RAY SUAREZ:

One thing that didn't help matters this year was the poor performance of the American team, which didn't get past the first round of the tournament.