Go ask any kid—heck, any adult—who their favorite hockey player is. And then ask who their favorite soccer player is.

And if hockey were so much more popular, why do the main networks hardly cover them?

I get that NHL is more popular than MLS, probably. But it’s also NHL Playoff time right now. I’m a casual headline reader. All I knew about the NHL was that Las Vegas was good...and that’s about it. But I knew who was winning the Premier League, the Champions League, La Liga, and I was generally up to date on what Ronaldo, Messi, and Neymar were up to.

Also, as others have said, MLS doesn’t not equal soccer fandom in the U.S. If all the world’s best players played here—as is the case with the NHL and NBA—then there is no question that season ticket prices would skyrocket and attendance, too.

This summer, the International Champions Cup will be in the U.S. Many of the world’s top teams will be here. I know it’s not a true gauge because this isn’t s season, but rather an exhibition. But people will be going crazy for tickets for a match that holds no meaning and might not feature some of the best players right after the World Cup.

Speaking of the World Cup, let’s compare our country’s TV viewership of this summer’s World Cup—which doesn’t even include the U.S.—to the last hockey World Cup or Olympics or whatever.

In terms of how much networks pay to air the respective sports:

The NHL gets about $200 million a year from their TV deal.

The MLS gets about $90 million a year. Not surprising the MLS is less than the NHL. But Fox is paying over $400 million for just two months of World Cup soccer in 2018 and 2022. NBC pays about $160 million a year for the Premier League...and their games are played Saturday mornings before half the country is even awake. Also, Turner Sports and Univision just entered a contract that pays about $90 million a year to air UEFA matches, which are played in early weekday afternoons.

So why are networks so desperate to air soccer matches in bad viewing time slots? $390 million a year, almost double the NHL contract, which plays NHL games in prime time tv slots? And I’m not even counting La Liga.

True, the Winter Olympics contract includes Olympic hockey, and its hard to know how much of the contract is for hockey. But that isn’t going to make up the difference.

I don’t know. It doesn’t seem obvious to me at all that hockey is still more popular. In fact, it seems obvious to me that soccer is more popular.