Battle of sports: Soccer (PRO) vs. Basketball (CON)

Sorry about not defining the terms. I guess I didn't exactly plan on a legitimate debate. Nevertheless, I will continue because soccer IS better than basketball. =============== Defending my case =============== My opponent claims that because soccer was created 43 years earlier, it has an unfair advantage in popularity. This claim can easily be refuted with an example from Australia. One year, Australia qualified to compete in the world cup for the first time in 32 years. The first game against Japan beat the State of Origin in television coverage. The State of Origin is the most popular sporting event in Australian culture. So, even though Australian soccer fans had not seen their team I the world cup in 32 years, the soccer game against Japan was watched more than the country's most popular sporting event. This shows how soccer is popular even after just being introduced to a large base of people. Also, as health.org outlines: soccer is popular not only because it hold the world's biggest sporting tournament, the FIFA World Cup, but also because it is simple to learn, the rules are easy to understand, and it is so easy to form a game in minutes. My opponent also says that basketball courts have been set up in most locations in the world. He brings up an example of a school in Calgary with no soccer nets, which makes basketball more accessible. Firstly, that is only ONE school, and can't be applied on a global scale. Secondly, you don't need regulation soccer nets to play a game of soccer with your friends, while you need a basketball net to play basketball. 1. My opponent says that my first point is invalid because there are fouls, out of bounds, and timeouts in soccer. This does not refute my argument completely. Fouls and out of boundaries are inevitable in soccer. They do not necessarily stop play, while in basketball a team may call a timeout for a specific amount of time. There are no timeouts in soccer that a team can call. Thus, soccer is non-stop play (save for halftime and injuries). However, in basketball, a team has six time-outs that they can use to stop the play of the game. 2. My opponent says that because basketball has a higher score, it makes it more exciting. However, in soccer, getting that one golden goal is a terrific feeling for the player. For the fans, a goal is cause for a major celebration. When do people jump around, dance, scream at the top of their lungs, wave flags, or (in rowdier crowds) throw beer during a basketball game? You may think this makes soccer fans rude, but it only shows passion for the game that you can't find at a basketball game. 2a. My opponent also says that if a team is down by a few goals, fans can become bored of watching soccer because goals are so infrequent. I will address this in two ways. i) Soccer goals are not necessarily infrequent. In fact, in one soccer game, the score was a whopping 31-0 (roughly a goal every 3 minutes) ii) Goals can be scored very quickly. Statistically most goals are scored within 2 minutes of other goals, and the fastest goal ever scored was after 7 seconds of play. 3. My opponent claims that tricks in basketball are just as exciting. However he failed to refute my claim that basketball tricks are VERY infrequent, while several soccer tricks can be seen nearly every game. ==================== My opponent's arguments ==================== 1. Basketball is not necessarily fairer. In soccer, the goalkeeper can use their hands to protect the goal because it would be very difficult to do so if they couldn't. Also, both teams have a goalie, making it fair. In many ways, soccer is actually fairer than basketball. For example, a team cannot stand in their opponent's "paint" for more than 3 seconds at a time. 2. Just because, in one soccer game, a referee made a bad call doesn't mean that basketball referee's are better. There are hundreds of examples of basketball referees making horrible calls. You can't assume that soccer referees are inferior to basketball referees just because you can name one example when a soccer referee made a bad call.