That article is horrible! In my opinion, the real reason soccer is not as popular as a spectator sport in the US as it is in the rest of the world is that it did not become a part of the “fabric” of American society during our society's development and maturation. In the rest of the world, soccer has been the most popular sport for over a century. By the time soccer began to make it's impact in the US, it was too late. The very mature American societal psyche of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is difficult to penetrate.
Two significant events played primary roles in excluding soccer from the sports psyche of the American public during the society’s significant maturation stages:
1. Early football playing colleges rejected Association Football (soccer) rules in favor of the “handling” rules of the Rugby style game when they formed the Intercollegiate Football Association in the 1870s. American gridiron football then evolved from this style of play and has thrived to the present day as the most popular spectator sport among US colleges and universities. As a result, soccer disappeared entirely from the college sports scene for nearly 40 years and did not become an official NCAA sport until 1959.
2. The failure of professional soccer leagues in the US as a result of the “soccer wars” of the late 1920s. During the 1920s, the American Soccer League (ASL) became prosperous and commonly played before crowds of over 10,000 spectators. This league led to the US success in the 1930 World Cup and compared quite favorably with the popularity of the National Football League (gridiron) at the time. In the late 1920s, a long running dispute between the ASL and US soccer’s governing body, the USFA (later renamed USSF), led to the eventual demise of the ASL. As a result, no professional soccer league was very successful again in the US until the 1970s.
