Soccer/football - World Cup and the USA - is it your choice watch or not to watch?

For a sports junkie like myself the last couple of months have been pig heaven; tennis, ice hockey, basketball, and now the FIFA World Cup - the icing on the cake.  For the rest of the world there is no one event bigger than the FIFA World Cup and I think having to wait for it for four years makes it even sweeter. Countries competing at the highest level; families, friends gathering around TV set in living rooms and bars worldwide.   People betting on games, tears of disappointment when teams under-perform, my own bracket fell apart within the first few games.     The excitement is intoxicating. 

I must admit with each World Cup the coverage in the USA improves significantly.  This year we have ESPN and Univision covering the matches.  Estimates have the viewership up approximately 37% on 2010's numbers. With a population of over 300 million this is a mere fraction watching the World Cup, but it is said to be good for a nation whose love for soccer/football is in its infancy.  When comparing it to the number drawn in by the Super Bowl which brags an all-time high of 109 million viewers, numbers are very small.  Those in the know credit the growth in soccer viewer to two main aspects.  The first being the ever expanding Hispanic population - soccer runs in their veins.  Second is the population brought up by "soccer moms" – for them soccer has been a part of their lives.

All in all some feel soccer will never be a big a sport in the USA as it is not a viable sport for commercial sponsorship.  This is a contradiction to the recent commitment by NBC Universal, which now offers coverage of the Barclays Premier League and Fox will be covering the German Bundesliga football.  Corporate America is dissuaded from sponsorship by the lack of timeouts during game.  During NFL football and NBA basketball these slots are used to load up with commercials – guaranteed number of eyeballs for advertising.

Which begs the question on programming that we see on TV - how much is free choice? How many games or programs are on air because they are popular?  How many programs are there simply because of the advertising revenue they bring?  Many confess to being part of the Super Bowl viewership solely for the commercials.

It is a given that the USA is a retailer’s dream but how much do we allow ourselves to fall prey to marketing.  How many of us make purchases out of true need?  How many after seeing ads over and over again are intrigued to try a new product?  When budgeting do you put aside money specifically for these purchases?  A good example is my favorite grocery store - Mariano's.  Their goods are stocked so perfectly and each visit leaves you over budget and it isn’t that they are expensive.  Quite the contrary, reasonably priced but the shelving is done so well that you see the perfect sides to that one item you went in for.  They cater to customer so well that you mentally make notes of items to pick up on your next visit.