Here’s your best response to the next ninny that tells you soccer isn’t popular in the United States:
The country with the most tickets distributed to the 2014 World Cup, other than the hosts: the United States. That’s according to this New York Times story.
According to figures provided by FIFA, 125,465 tickets were distributed to the United States.
Brazil was allocated 906,433 tickets. From there, Colombia, Germany and Argentina were next in numbers of tickets allocated.
Something does get frequently omitted from this conversation: While it may be natural to assume that this number represents fans from our country lining up to watch Jurgen Klinsmann’s national team, that’s not necessarily the case.
Plenty of the tickets purchased for distribution into the United States represent fans of Mexico, England or other countries participating in the 32-team tournament.