Nielsen Ratings of the 2010 FIFA World Cup indicate that soccer viewership is exploding in the United States and the center of that explosion is San Diego. Unfortunately, San Diego is not among the top U.S. cities campaigning to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. It is time to change that and you can help.

San Diegans watched World Cup soccer in record numbers.

^{Courtesy photo}

According to Blog.Nielsen.com as of Tuesday, “World Cup soccer telecasts aired on all English and Spanish language networks have reached an estimated 34% of all U.S. TV viewers.” This equates to 99.2 million viewers. That figure already surpasses the total of 91.4 million U.S. viewers who watched all of the 2006 World Cup and there is still a week to go, with the most important games yet to be played.

“These ratings demonstrate the remarkable increase of interest in U.S. soccer over the last four years,” says Stephen Master, VP of sports at Nielsen. “The numbers are even more impressive when you consider that two of these games were played on weekday mornings, when many viewers are at work. Although more people than ever chose to watch live streaming video of the games from their computers and mobile devices, TV viewing climbed even higher.”

A large reason for the increase is that there was a dramatic increase of Americans showing their passion for soccer by tuning in and rooting for the U.S. National Team. Nielsen ratings indicated a 68 percent increase of viewers watching the games that the U.S. played in during the 2010 World Cup over the same period in 2006.

San Diego led the way, posting an astonishing 15.4 rating for the U.S. team’s final game against Ghana and was the leading television market in each of the other three U.S. matches against England (11.5, ABC), Slovenia (8.5, ESPN), and Algeria (8.9, ESPN). Clearly, San Diego has a passion for soccer--making us an ideal host city for a World Cup.

Gousabid.com is the campaigning headquarters to bring the World Cup back to the U.S in to 2018 or 2022. San Diego is among 18 nominated cities to host the event if the U.S. were to win a World Cup bid.

"As America becomes a Soccer Nation, San Diego is ready to be the capitol," says Diane Scavuzzo, former FOX TV producer and founder of SoccerNation.com. "San Diego has always been a hot bed for soccer talent. With an enormous selection of youth soccer training programs, several professional soccer teams and a ton of retired pro players calling San Diego home, our city is at the heart of the soccer evolution that is happening in America.”

Despite our dominance in the television market, San Diego dramatically trails in an online vote for the public to indicate which of the 18 nominated cities would be the ideal host city for a U.S. World Cup. As of Tuesday, San Diego ranks 16 with 16,972 votes while Houston leads all cities with 62,152 votes.

The primary reasons that San Diego is trailing in the polls are that we have no Major League Soccer (MLS) team and we do not yet have a new state-of-the-art stadium suitable for soccer.

The greatest obstacle to raising awareness about San Diego’s candidacy is that our local media has in large part ignored soccer. Mistakenly, television and radio program directors have assumed that there is not a large enough audience base in San Diego to make it worth their time to cover soccer, and in doing so have failed to educate the public that we are a contender to be a World Cup host city.

This is a shame because even without an MLS team San Diego has a strong professional soccer community. This year alone the San Diego Sockers returned as a member of the Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) and won another championship; Boca FC began play and recently qualified for the playoffs in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL); and the San Diego Flash who have short term MLS aspirations began play and are undefeated in an exhibition season. In addition, the San Diego SeaLions are competing for first place in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL).

Clent Alexander, the CEO of the San Diego Flash, is bypassing traditional media and has turned to Facebook and Twitter where combined he has over 20,000 followers and is wagering his own personal campaign to “Bring the World Cup to San Diego.” He also has been hosting World Cup viewing parties with members of the Flash in bars throughout San Diego. Alexander’s efforts have directly contributed to the more than 16,000 votes San Diego currently has.

Meanwhile, president of Boca FC Yan Skwara is promoting his concept for a new soccer-only stadium. “Our organization has recognized the sheer need for a soccer specific stadium in the county of San Diego,” says Skwara. “Boca FC has taken the necessary steps to initiate a step-by-step process to complete this soccer stadium objective.” (Details Here)

Skwara’s soccer-only stadium concept would be an ideal venue for professional soccer in San Diego. However, its intimate seating of fewer than 16,000 would not be large enough for the World Cup stage. That could be accomplished with the Chargers getting a new downtown stadium. Recently the Chargers have made significant strides in their 8-year effort to build a new stadium and it now appears that the ball is in motion for a public vote in 2012.

Perhaps because the Chargers are aware of the growing popularity of soccer, they are now beginning to promote the concept of bringing the World Cup to San Diego as an additional benefit of a new Chargers stadium. Mark Fabiani, the Chargers lead spokesperson on the stadium issue, indicated to citizens at a town hall meeting that hosting a World Cup would have the financial impact of sevenor eight Super Bowls and that a new stadium would automatically make San Diego a leading candidate to be a host city.

Fortunately, we do not have to wait for a new stadium or for the majority of the local media to wake up to soccer. We can make our voices heard now. Simply fill out this form to vote and show your support of World Cup soccer in San Diego.