The dollar bill drives everything in America, including sports.
While the naïve sports fan would believe sporting events are televised solely for appeal, they would be wrong. Sponsorship and marketing opportunities drive television time, as people are constantly looking for ways to make an extra dollar and increase their brand visibility.
This seems to work for the majority of the popular sports, but it severely hampers soccer, the most popular sport in the world. Sports benefit from television exposure, but soccer does not provide networks an opportunity to make money.
As a result, soccer is rarely televised and not as popular in the USA as it could, or should, be.
In baseball, there are commercials between innings. Basketball and football have timeouts, possession changes, and breaks between quarters.
Soccer has halftime. Otherwise, they play two 45-minute halves without commercial interruption.
While the constant play makes the game easier to watch, it provides very few opportunities for ads. Most Americans hate commercials and would love to watch sports without them, but the economy works the opposite way. Everyone loves money and commercials generate revenue.
Soccer is a great sport that deserves exposure, but corporate America does not provide enough opportunities to watch it because they have yet to find a way to monetize it.
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