With record TV ratings, a New York City ticker-tape parade, and the sport’s newly-crowned stars hitting the morning talk show circuit, the U.S. women’s team’s Women's World Cup victory again put soccer back on the U.S. map.
Many reports speculated on how much on the bump the sport would likely gain in youth participation, particularly with girls, and whether the sport’s growing fan base has finally established soccer as a mainstream sport.
Ranked number two in the world before the tournament, the most impressive feat the U.S. women’s team pulled off was drawing TV viewers across America.
Nielsen estimated that Sunday's 5-2 win over Japan averaged a whopping 26.7 million viewers, with 25.4 million watching the English-language telecast on Fox and another 1.3 million checking out the Spanish-language airing on Telemundo.
The English-language audience of 25.4 million far exceeded the previous soccer high in the U.S. of 18.2 million on ESPN last year for the United States-Portugal early-round Men's World Cup contest. The previous high for women's soccer in the States was the 1999 World Cup final on ESPN between the United States and China (18 million).
While still far from Super Bowl levels (The Patriots win over the Seahawks drew 114.4 million U.S. viewers.), the total audience was also larger than that for every NBA Finals basketball game since 2010 and every World Series baseball game since 2004. It also dwarfed the ratings gained by “elite” women’s sporting events like the Olympics and the WNBA playoffs.
To many, the attention spoke to the continued strides women’s athletics has gained since the implementation of Title IX in the seventies. But it particularly underscored soccer’s popularity since the last time the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup in 1999 when Mia Hamm and Brandi became household names.
Many are looking for a similar uptick in female participation to arrive in the years ahead. Indeed, many see soccer, recently surpassing softball, moving ahead of basketball and volleyball in coming years to become the most played women’s team sport.
“There is no question that we will be a beneficiary of this victory,” Ian McMahon, national executive director of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), told Yahoo Parenting. “Anytime there is a success as high profile as this, with this record number of viewers, for us as an organization, we would expect to see a surge in young girls wanting to play soccer. We believe that, with what we offer, they’ll come in and want to play soccer longer and become advocates for the game.”
According to figures from U.S. Youth Soccer, girls club soccer participation has jumped 37 percent since 1995, while the number of boys registered has gone up 21 percent over the same period.
With many athletes picking their favorite sports before they reach high school, minor increases in participation are expected at the JV and freshman levels as a result of the inspiring win. The biggest lift is expected to be seen at the youth levels. Among adults, fan participation is expected to see another boost.
However, like many sports, soccer participation has plateaued and has basically been flat in recent years, according to data from SFIA and NSGA. Indeed, NSGA research shows that soccer participation levels for both males and females have been flat over the last 15 years after female participation surged following the 1999 win.
Though the growth has also slowed in recent years, the National Federation of State High School Associations reports soccer participation in 2013-14 was up 8.7 percent from 2008-09.
Other events that have also boosted the sport long after Pele famously joined the New York Cosmos in the mid-seventies. Recent ones have included the U.S. team’s runner-up run in the 2011 Women’s World Cup, the men’s team’s run at the 2014 World Cup and David Beckham’s 2007 arrival in Major League Soccer.
But many will be watching whether the sport can begin to draw regular, large audiences for other matches and competitions in between the quadrennial World Cups.
Encouragingly, Major League Soccer tallied an average per-game attendance of 21,023 this season, an increase of almost 40 percent over the past 10 years. The league’s title game, the MLS Cup, pulled in 1.6 million viewers in December, its biggest audience since 1997, the league’s second season, according to Nielsen. Also favorable for increasing number of networks that now show English Premier League games and other global leagues.
A particular encouraging sign is fandom at the youth level. According to the 2014 ESPN Sports Poll, a survey of more than 400,000 people that measures sports fandom, professional soccer ranked as the No. 2 sport, behind pro football, among 12- to 17-year-olds. The survey found that Major League Soccer was as popular as Major League Baseball among the same age group.
More discouragingly, two women’s professional soccer leagues have folded since 1999. A new women’s league, the National Women’s Soccer League, is beginning its third year but averaged attendance of 4,129 a game last season.
An outcry also erupted about the U.S. women's soccer team getting $2 million from FIFA for winning the World Cup after Germany's men last year got $35 million when they won in Brazil, particularly considering record attendance and TV ratings from the month-long event in Canada. While some are blaming FIFA for the disparity, others say sponsors haven’t stepped up, partly because the sport hasn’t grown much in other countries over the last 15 years. Besides the U.S., only Germany, Sweden, France, Japan and England are seen as adequately supporting their women’s teams.
Still, the sport of soccer will have several occasions to stay in the headlines, starting with the success of the U.S. men’s team in the ongoing Gold Cup. In 2016, the U.S. for the first time will host the Copa America tournament a battle between the top North American and South American teams. The U.S. and Mexico have been guaranteed entry. Both men’s and women’s U.S. teams are expected to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics and many hopes continue that boy’s participation gains a lift from with a favorable showing by the U.S. men’s team at the 2018 World Cup.
