2011 Women's World Cup: Record German TV Ratings Mean Americans Should Tune In

Record TV Ratings Surge in Germany Means Americans Should Tune In to 2011 Women’s World Cup

When we think of the biggest events in sports, we think of the Super Bowl or the World Series, but we need to start thinking about the 2011 Women’s World Cup.

FIFA Soccer said today that Sunday’s match between host country Germany and opponent Canada achieved an average audience of 15.4 million with a peak of 18 million.

To put that in perspective for the American audience, that is one quarter of the German population.

Those ratings are the best for a Women’s World Cup in Germany in history, and they are 10 percent higher than the ratings between the German men and the Serbians during the 2010 World Cup.

For women’s soccer, this news is some of the most promising to hear, and it appears the future is getting much brighter for the sport.

Even with all of the success of the sport overseas, it has failed to catch on at a high level in the United States, and the TV ratings have shown that.

During the last Women’s World Cup in 2007, there was little excitement for the games, and the TV ratings were an abysmal average of a 0.4 rating and 394,000 viewers for 11 matches on ESPN, and an 0.2 rating and 232,000 viewers for 21 games on ESPN2.

With the low totals in the United States, advertisers have steered clear of the American economy, and by denying soccer as a national sport, the country is depriving itself of new trade markets.

Hope is not lost completely, though, because the American television viewers have shown in the past that they will get behind a team if they are winning.

In 1999, the United States Women won the World Cup against China, and the match averaged 17.9 million viewers on ABC, and the network estimated 40 million Americans watched the match at some point.

All of this shows the potential for the United States to support the games with TV ratings, but it also shows the manner in which the majority of fans only support their team when they’re winning.

The talent level on this year’s American squad is the best since they won the World Cup in 1999, and the potential for another title is not that farfetched. With all of the success, it is just a matter of time before the fans decide that they will get behind the American team.

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