MLS is soccer and makes tens even hundreds of millions of dollars NLL is the equivalent of IFL (indoor football). I know this is hard to take in but the MLS is actually relevant in this quiz calling it non professional is either due to lack of info or can't believe that a foreign sport can be on this list cause then you should remove Hockey and Football cause they are both (technically) from Canada.
It's useless listing subjective reasons why a sport is supposed to be more or less interesting. Use attendance, revenue, TV viewers etc. Soccer (or volleyball or handball) sees more action than American football, not just a few minutes a few times per year, for example ...
I mean yes but the average attendance for MLS is higher than NBA and NHL so.... why not have it on the list. The popularity of the MLS is rising quickly and it becomes closer and closer to eclipsing the popularity of Hockey every year.
This is mistaken. The best metric for assessing the popularity of a sport is team revenue. That combines TV contracts, gate receipts, merchandise sales, etc. The NHL is fourth, with an average team revenue of around $150 million per year. MLS is a distant fifth, with an average team revenue of just below $50 million per year. The NFL (the top earner, of course) has an average team revenue of around $450 million per year. That's three times the NHL revenue, which is itself three times the MLS revenue. Quite a wide gap indeed. I can also say anecdotally that, at least in Chicago, NHL games are packed with devoted fans, whereas MLS games tend to attract more casual viewers...families looking for a day out with kids, camp groups, schools, etc. The tickets are much cheaper, so it's more attractive.
I also just looked up TV ratings out of curiosity. The NHL is averaging about 924,000 viewers per playoff game right now. The most recent MLS playoff data I found (2019) shows an average of 177,000 viewers per playoff game, so...not even close.
California native here and never heard of Warriors or Sharks. Then again, I got all of the rest of them and I don't like professional sports so I guess it is easy for any Californian who watches some sports.
The only reason I've heard of any of those people is from Jetpunk. For people who don't watch sportsball, the players' names don't usually come up in casual conversation the way movie actors or singers do. It's very reasonable that the majority of the public will have never heard of the Warriors or Kevin Durant.
Stephen Curry is on his way to the Michael Jordan-type of fame where he is a mainstream celebrity outside of sports. I can understand not knowing what team he plays for, but it's unusual for an American to not know who he is.
Thank you for calling me an unusual American. I have no idea who Curry is. I watch a little Cardinal baseball, Blues hockey, and Chiefs football (if they're in the playoffs), and I enjoy watching FIFA and the Olympics, but I can't stand to watch basketball. Sorry.
Back in my day (Dark Ages) the Big 3 sports were football, basketball, & baseball. Thus it was that I like millions of others focused only on those. To this day I know little & care nothing about hockey, soccer, tennis, track, croquet, etc....The Big 3 live forever!!!
Good idea for a quiz. This argument may have been settled, but speaking as a non-American, I'm pretty sure that more people outside the USA have heard of the LA Galaxy than of some of the other teams on the list. However, I'd guess that the Lakers are by far the most recognisable team there.
As for the most well-known teams among U.S. citizens, I don't know.
hschrock, hockey will often have a final score of 1-0, soccer often 0-0. Thus, hockey is infinitely more fulfilling than soccer.
The Atlanta team is consistently drawing 70,000+ fans.
LA Galaxy
LA FC
SJ Quakes
As for the most well-known teams among U.S. citizens, I don't know.