FoxxyBrown1111 said:
I am always surprised that Nascar is ranked higher than IndyCar.
Back in the 70's-90's Indy had CART (Champ Car) which was better run and had numerous road courses. It was comparable to F1, with many drivers moving back and forth, and quite driver centered as a sport. Everyone got greedy (welcome to the USA), the guy that owned the Indy 500 and some team owners didn't like CART and road courses, so they split in two, and that killed slowly CART and virtually all Indy (style) open wheel racing, and NASCAR got huge. Indy has new ownership and it is getting better, but still much behind NASCAR in fanbase, and F1 in car quality.
The F1 I watched as a kid (the movie Rush!), was much more interesting than when I see in F1 in recent years, and and I agree with all you say Foxxy. It must be living on past glory.
As to FIFA, the sad part in the US is that we have the ability through MLS to make some subtle rule changes to Football (soccer) to make the game more exciting - we in the US are good at that - and I'd simply suggest changing offsides rules, making the clock count
down, and changing overtime rules to get rid of awful penalty kicks, and more organized and hyped playoffs leading to a Superbowl of MLS. But MLS is overly afraid and respectful of FIFA, they fear if they change rules they won't get FIFA's support (who cares?). Won't get top players anymore (who cares? No one in the US can name the top world players! And I say if the money is there, the players will come), or US players won't be able to play on a global level (again, who cares? The US is never going to win the World Cup as is). Such potential exists in MLS, but when they look back at NASL's mistakes, they see rule changes as a flaw, when that wasn't the problem at all, NASL (and USL) didn't go
far enough. MLS is otherwise well run and doing okay, but could be doing much better.
Don't get me wrong, I love the sport. It's beautiful, and I've been to numerous MLS matches, and USL matches before that. I just think the sport has the ability to double in size in the US, maybe much more, if they'd think on their own and not cower behind FIFA and their tradition.