A Whole New Ballgame

In the new documentary Once In a Lifetime that tells the story of the New York Cosmos soccer team in the 1970s, an official explains the altering of the rules to include extra breaks in the flow of play.

He states that Americans (remember this is the mid 70s not today) don't have the attention span to follow a game of continuous action for longer periods and that "Our national games are designed for short bursts of action punctuated by breaks in which you can drink beer, eat crackerjacks or whatever."

Thus they adapted the game to meet the market - arguably a sensible marketing strategy but one that ultimately didn't work. In reality, the conclusion should have been that the game doesn't match our national characteristics and therefore there's no market.