The interest in this year’s World Cup tells New Yorkers, “The rest of the US is no longer very different from you, as our country becomes more diverse and more interested than ever in events beyond our borders.”
According to published reports, 19.4 million people in the US saw the US-Ghana game last weekend, which made it the most watched soccer match in US television history. Even when the US is not playing, this year’s World Cup matches are averaging almost 5 million viewers.
By comparison, last autumn’s World Series featuring the Yankees and Phillies averaged 19.1 million viewers per game, and this spring’s NBA finals between the Lakers and Celtics averaged 18.1 million viewers. The Stanley Cup finals this spring between the Blackhawks and Flyers averaged about 14 million viewers. Keep in mind that, unlike the baseball, basketball and hockey showcases, none of the World Cup games have aired during prime time.
(If you’re wondering, 27.6 million people in the US saw this winter’s Olympics gold medal hockey game between the US and Canada -- and this winter’s Super Bowl game between the Saints and Colts was the most-watched American TV program ever, drawing 106.5 million viewers.)
For the first 52 games, the number of people watching this year’s World Cup on ESPN was up 58 percent over the last World Cup in 2006, and up almost 10 percent on Spanish-language Univision. Also interesting is a report that the average age of World Cup viewers is 15 years younger than that of the average Olympics viewer – 37 versus 52.
Clearly, New Yorkers who are crowding bars and cafes to watch this year’s World Cup matches, even when the US is not playing, are no longer mainly the “foreigners” who followed past World Cups. They are in the company of die-hard American sports fans at the Jersey shore, in the midwest and on the west coast. That says a lot about New York – and the US – today.
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