Canada may not have a team entered but that hasn't
stopped millions of Canadians from being bitten by the World Cup bug, a new poll
suggests.
The poll, conducted by Decima Research and provided exclusively to The
Canadian Press on Wednesday, indicates more than seven million Canadian adults
are interested in the tournament, which began June 9 in Germany and concludes
July 9.
"I think this
absolutely speaks to a bright future for soccer in Canada," said Bruce Anderson,
the chief executive officer of Decima Research, a public opinion and marketing
research company. "The World Cup is an international spectacle, a sport that
people seem to find increasingly appealing.
"The thing about the long-term potential is if you look at the nature of the
audience, you see young, urban, higher income, more highly educated people and
those demographics are obviously going to be quite appealing to advertisers and
they'll be more inclined, I think, to get behind the game in the future."
The poll found 23 per cent of those surveyed said they were somewhat
interested in the tournament while 15 per cent were very interested.
Decima said its figures, applied to the country as a whole, suggest seven
million Canadian adults are interested in the World Cup.
Decima polled 1,023 adults via telephone from June 16 to June 18. Its
results, when considered as a reflection of countrywide attitudes, are accurate
to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Television ratings suggest World Cup interest is on the rise.
On Wednesday, the Globe and Mail reported that through the first week of
games carried on TSN averaged 426,000 viewers while Rogers Sportsnet drew
343,000 fans.
The last time World Cup games were carried during the day in Canada was 1998,
and the average audience then was 259,000 on TSN.
"I think these numbers suggest interest in soccer is growing," Anderson said.
"If we look at how many people say they're hockey fans, and we find that's about
40 per cent of the public, these numbers suggest soccer has had a growing fan
base within Canada."
Earl Cochrane of the Canadian Soccer Association was pleased to hear details
about the poll, but was cautious in his interpretation of the results.
"I think it says far more about the appeal of the game worldwide than it does
about the interest in Canada," he said. "I think we'll see the support we have
for soccer in Canada next year when we host the under-20 World Cup.
"I think it (poll) is an indication the game in Canada is growing but I think
the World Cup is also an event that transcends sport a bit."
He said participation in soccer is growing each year, with the majority of
participants being under the age of 12.
"Ten years down the road we could have an enormous base of people who grew up
playing soccer and loving it much like we have with hockey and that will
definitely help the state of soccer in Canada," Cochrane said.
