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“The whole world’s watching right now,� former U.S. player Cobi Jones said Monday on CNN.

Well, maybe not everywhere.

There’s been a case of mammoth malaise in St. Louis, once the American hotbed of the sport, according to a significant measure tool. While TV ratings aren’t yet available for the United States’ game Thursday against Germany — the Americans’ only loss thus far in the tourney — the St. Louis figures for the U.S. team’s two games before that not only were abysmal for a town rich in soccer history, but neither time did St. Louis even match the national average.

There are 56 major U.S. markets in which viewership is measured electronically, and the American’s 2-1 victory over Ghana on June 16 was seen in 6.3 percent of homes in those markets. The St. Louis rating was just 5.5 — ranking a lousy 38th.

On Sunday when the U.S. and Portugal had a highly-entertaining wild rumble that ended in a 2-2 tie, the national rating was 9.6. St. Louis clunked in at 8.7, ranking 23rd. Both games were shown on ESPN, and the ratings were compiled by The Nielsen Co.

(Figures for the Univision version of the telecasts were unavailable, but that network is seen in far fewer homes than ESPN and its associated outlets.)

And in ratings for the tourney as a whole, St. Louis is mired in a tie for 37th place nationally.

“Wow! I’m taken aback by that,’’ said Bill McDermott, who played on NCAA championship teams at St. Louis University in the late ’60s. He is reporting on this year’s Cup for KMOX (1120 AM), marking the 12th time he has covered soccer’s biggest tournament at either the network or local level. “I’m at a loss. It’s tremendously disappointing to hear that.’’

Another local soccer icon, Pat McBride, also is perplexed.

“I’m really surprised,’’ said McBride, who was a standout at SLU during its soccer glory era, played and coached professionally and is one of many native St. Louisans who have been inducted into the national soccer hall of fame. He said he is especially baffled because of the success of recent international exhibition matches in St. Louis.

“I really felt that (World Cup) interest in St. Louis would be certainly at or above the national average,’’ he said. “It seems to me like soccer still is on the upswing in St. Louis,� pointing out that club play is strong.

Added McDermott: “Every place I’ve been during the games has been packed.�

However, the rating counts only in-home viewership — not those watching in public places such as bars and restaurants. But that’s the case in every market, not just St. Louis, so the ranking list is an apples-to-apples comparison. In fact, judging by many reports there have been much larger group gatherings to watch games elsewhere than in St. Louis.

And there has been lo overlapping of U.S. Cup matches and Cardinals baseball telecasts, which could have strongly hurt soccer ratings.

So while people like to play the game and attend high-profile matches in this market, the ratings say that they don’t follow through with watching at home.

“I’m taken aback by all this,’’ McDermott said. “It’s tremendously disappointing to hear something like that. You’d think people in a soccer community like this would be dying to watch the World Cup, which has been presented so splendidly.�

MEMORY TIME

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St. Louis soccer glory days clearly are in the past — and rapidly becoming the distant past. The city provided a core group of players to the U.S. team that upset England in the 1950 World Cup and local players helped St. Louis University dominate the early years of the NCAA crowing a champion in the sport.

That began in 1959, when the Billikens won the title to begin a run of 13 appearances in the championship game in 16 years, including nine outright crowns and one that was shared. The local talent pool was so deep that upstart Southern Illinois University Edwardsville joined the party, winning the national crown in 1979 after coming in second four years earlier.

The SLU-SIUE fever became so big that Busch Stadium was needed to accommodate the oversized crowd for their “Bronze Boot� match. But the rivalry faded. SIUE eventually dropped out of Division I for the sport and SLU’s glory days are just a memory.

“The rest of the country has caught us and that’s really good for the sport,’’ McBride said. “It was bound to happen.�

Local talent also was a key factor in the St. Louis Steamers’ success in indoor soccer in the late 1970s through the mid-80s, as the team for a time was outdrawing The Arena’s other big tenant — the Blues.

But those days are long gone, too.

St. Louis now doesn’t even match cross-state rival Kansas City as a soccer mecca, as that market has surpassed the Gateway city as the soccer capital of the region. KC has a Major League Soccer team in the suburbans, playing in a stadium that has hosted U.S. national team games. In St. Louis, talk of getting a team in MLS has been just that — talk — and several recent attempts at fielding even low-level pro teams have failed, though another one is scheduled to try to make it next year.

And Kansas City beat St. Louis by 19 percent in the TV ratings for the first two U.S. games, and is 25 percent ahead in ratings for all Cup telecasts.

U.S. SOCCER RATINGS

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TV ratings through Wednesday for the World Cup in the 56 major American markets for games shown on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC:

MARKET RATING

1. Washington 4.1

2. New York 3.6

3. San Francisco 3.5

4. Los Angeles 3.2

5. Orlando 3.1

5. Hartford, Conn. 3.1

7. San Diego 3.0

7. Miami 3.0

9. Atlanta 2.9

9. West Palm Beach, Fla. 2.9

9. Boston 2.9

9. Richmond, Va. 2.9

13. Las Vegas 2.8

13. Columbus, Ohio 2.8

15. Austin, Texas 2.7

15. Baltimore 2.7

17. Sacramento 2.6

17. Seattle-Tacoma 2.6

17. Philadelphia 2.6

20. Phoenix 2.4

20. Greensboro, N.C. 2.4

20. Kansas City 2.4

23. Providence, R.I. 2.3

23. Cincinnati 2.3

23. Denver 2.3

26. Norfolk, Va. 2.2

27. Salt Lake City 2.1

27. Jacksonville, Fla. 2.1

27. Tampa, Fla. 2.1

27. Charlotte, N.C. 2.1

27. Houston 2.1

32. Portland, Ore. 2.0

32. Chicago 2.0

32. Raleigh, N.C. 2.0

35. Birmingham, Ala. 1.9

35. Albuquerque 1.9

37. St. Louis 1.8

37. Dayton, Ohio 1.8

37. Greenville, S.C. 1.8

37. Memphis 1.8

41. Louisville, Ky. 1.7

41. Tulsa, Okla. 1.7

41. Ft. Myers, Fla. 1.7

41. Oklahoma City 1.7

41. Nashville 1.7

41. Milwaukee 1.7

41. Buffalo 1.7

41. Indianapolis 1.7

49. New Orleans 1.6

49. San Antonio 1.6

49. Dallas-Ft. Worth 1.6

49. Detroit 1.6

53. Minneapolis 1.5

54. Knoxville, Tenn. 1.4

55. Cleveland 1.3

55. Pittsburgh 1.3

Source • The Nielsen Co.

Note • The rating is the percentage of homes with a TV tuned in.

590 LINEUP CHANGES

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The smoke still is clearing at KFNS, where several lineup changes are set to take place Monday following an unprecedented run of wild turmoil that built for months and culminated with fisticuffs after some employees complained of neglect by management, including missed payrolls.

KFNS (590 AM) replaces Brian McKenna with Brandt Dolce in morning drive time. McKenna was fired June 6, just before he had a fight with Dan Marshall, president of parent company Grand Slam ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ.

Mike Calvin, who now is running the station, said the show is to be a localized version of ESPN’s “ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵCenter.” He points out that the other sports stations in the market have either national programming or a show that mixes sports and entertainment in that block. He said that while national events will be discussed, “the focus is on the Cardinals, Blues, Rams, Mizzou and SLU.” Dolce, who had been working at internet broadcaster , is to be on KFNS in that format from 6-9 a.m., then will do an hour of general sports talk.

He’ll be followed by Brendon Hopkins from 10 a.m-noon. Then, Owen Shroyer, who has done support work for Grand Slam, has a tryout to replace Jay Randolph Jr. as co-host of the noon-3 p.m. show alongside Dave Rapp. Randolph is bolting to KTRS (550 AM). Kevin Slaten remains in his 3-6 p.m. slot.

Brendan Weise, who now is on from 6-8 p.m., will be replaced by Charlie “Tuna� Edwards on July 14. Calvin said Weise will be reassigned to attend events to gather interviews for the morning show, though that 6-8 slot often is pre-empted by Gateway Grizzlies baseball broadcasts this time of year.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

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The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees square off this weekend in their second series of the season, and naturally the television networks will go ga-ga with it despite the teams occupying third and fourth places in the AL East.

All four games of the teams’ first meeting in April were shown nationally— two on MLB Network, one on ESPN and the other on Fox ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ 1. And of course there will be maximum coverage again, with tonight’s contest being shown across the country on MLB Network and the Sunday night affair on ESPN. Fox has the Saturday game, and while it won’t be shown to all the nation — the network has regionalized coverage — it goes to 55 percent of the U.S.

Mercifully, the local market will be spared because the Cardinals’ contest in Los Angeles is being shipped to KTVI (Channel 2) at 6:15 p.m., with St. Louis part of the 23 percent of the nation getting it. Thom Brennaman (play-by-play) and Eric Karros (analysis) have that call.

The rest of the country gets either Atlanta-Philadelphia (15 percent) or Washington-Chicago Cubs (6 percent).

In case you will be angry about missing the Saturday game, the teams meet again in early August and you can expect a repeat of the national fixation.

NBA clobbers NHL on St. Louis TV

Hockey town? St. Louis certainly isn’t that, at least when comparing television ratings for the recent title rounds of the NHL and NBA playoffs.

In what has become a regular occurrence, the Stanley Cup Finals were far outdistanced in the local Nielsen numbers by the NBA Finals. That despite the NBA not having a team in St. Louis since 1968 and the NHL having a club in town since ’67.

The rout was by more than a 2-1 margin this year, and it is an apples-to-apples comparison because each series went five games. The Nielsen Co. says 6.9 percent of TV households in the market tuned in, on average, to the NBA games. The NHL figure was 2.9.

All the NBA games were on over-the-air TV, which generally draws better ratings locally than does cable or satellite — where two NHL telecasts appeared. But any such disadvantage for hockey logically should have been offset by the fact all but one of the basketball contests were blowouts whereas all but one of the hockey games were decided by one goal — three in overtime.

And Fox ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Midwest’s Cardinals coverage did significantly better than both on the days they went head to head.

In the big picture, St. Louis fell short of the national rating for every NBA telecast and beat only one of the NHL games, and the lower-than-national average trend has followed for soccer’s World Cup.

How they fared

TV ratings for the NBA and NHL finals in St. Louis and nationally.

NBA FINALS

Game Ìý National Ìý St. Louis

1 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 9.0 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý5.8

2 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 8.9 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý6.4

3 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 9.0 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý6.8

4 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 9.3 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý7.4

5 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 10.3 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý8.3

Avg. Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý9.3 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý6.9

All games on ABC (KDNL, Channel 30 locally)

NHL FINALS

Game Ìý Ìý National Ìý Ìý ÌýSt. Louis

1 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý3.0 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 2.7

2 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý3.7 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 4.9

3 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý1.7 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 1.7

4 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý2.0 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 1.1

5 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý3.7 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 3.3

Avg. Ìý Ìý Ìý 3.0 Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý 2.9

Games 1,2, 5 on NBC (KSDK, Channel 5 locally), the others on NBCSN.

Source • The Nielsen Co.

Note • The rating equals the percentage of homes with a TV that tuned in.