~Soccer Thread~

[Entropy]

my son is 7... every Saturday he wakes up early to watch Premier League soccer on NBCSN.   He's religious about it.  

At school, when I either attend for an event, volunteer or pick up my kids it is noticeable how many soccer jerseys/shirts I see compared to football, baseball or basketball.  yes, Chiefs day dominates.. and so does  a Royals Friday, but outside that it is soccer.  Sporting is very good and kids in KC have access to watch several European leagues.   It is much more popular today with kids compared to when I was growing up.  

It may never top Football, Baseball or Basketball, but it has gained ground and I believe will continue to gain ground.  

[SFBadger96]

my son is 7... every Saturday he wakes up early to watch Premier League soccer on NBCSN.   He's religious about it.  

At school, when I either attend for an event, volunteer or pick up my kids it is noticeable how many soccer jerseys/shirts I see compared to football, baseball or basketball.  yes, Chiefs day dominates.. and so does Royals Fridays, but outside that it is soccer.  Sporting is very good and kids in KC have access to watch several European leagues.   It is much more popular today with kids compared to when I was growing up.  

It may never top Football, Baseball or Basketball, but it has gained ground and I believe will continue to gain ground.  

Yep, it's gaining ground. TV access to the EPL and Bundesliga have sped it up. I don't pretend to live in a representative area, but I see as many international soccer jerseys at my kids public schools as I do NFL jerseys. 

[rolltidefan]

in my neck of the woods, the heart of cfb country, it's growing tremendously.

[rook119]

the saddest part is a guy like Pulisic could have made millions by playing in the WC, now he won't. not to mention the kid is a phenom that the world could have seen on the biggest stage.

The exchange rate isn't what its used to be but barring injury he's going to make a minimum of 175K/week UK in England (about 13M/year). If say Man city comes for him he'll make 200K+/week for being a squad (largely a bench) player. 

[rolltidefan]

my son is 7... every Saturday he wakes up early to watch Premier League soccer on NBCSN.   He's religious about it.  

At school, when I either attend for an event, volunteer or pick up my kids it is noticeable how many soccer jerseys/shirts I see compared to football, baseball or basketball.  yes, Chiefs day dominates.. and so does Royals Fridays, but outside that it is soccer.  Sporting is very good and kids in KC have access to watch several European leagues.   It is much more popular today with kids compared to when I was growing up.  

It may never top Football, Baseball or Basketball, but it has gained ground and I believe will continue to gain ground.  

it's closer to baseball and basketball that you'd think. football, unsurprisingly, is #1 by a wide but shrinking margin (37%) (also has interesting take on the kneeling/national anthem trend), basketball (11%) and baseball (9%) are just ahead of soccer (7%) as mentioned for favorite sports for americans.
looking at age groups, the older crowd (55+) is keeping baseball relevant (14% and #2) and soccer down (1%). among the 2 groups under 55 (18-34,35-54) soccer and basketball are basically tied at 10-11%, and baseball is down to 6-7%.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx

[ELA]

it's closer to baseball and basketball that you'd think. football, unsurprisingly, is #1 by a wide but shrinking margin (37%) (also has interesting take on the kneeling/national anthem trend), basketball (11%) and baseball (9%) are just ahead of soccer (7%) as mentioned for favorite sports for americans.
looking at age groups, the older crowd (55+) is keeping baseball relevant (14% and #2) and soccer down (1%). among the 2 groups under 55 (18-34,35-54) soccer and basketball are basically tied at 10-11%, and baseball is down to 6-7%.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx

I think part of it there though, is a lot of the traditional fans, just have football-basketball-baseball 1-2-3 in some order (with the majority picking football).  So I'm guessing basketball does more favorably among the 89% who don't say it's their favorite, than soccer does among the 93% who say it isn't.

Just a guess, but if you did it more poll style with points for a 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, etc... vote, soccer would be worse off than just asking people their favorite.

[rolltidefan]

probably, but i bet the age demographics would still favor soccer over baseball. at least be trending that way.

[ELA]

probably, but i bet the age demographics would still favor soccer over baseball. at least be trending that way.

I agree.
I think participation and specialization are exacerbating that.  I played both growing up, but I enjoyed soccer more.  You are a kid, baseball is boring.  It's slow, it's scheme over style.  I didn't start to enjoy baseball til I got older, now it's my favorite sport.  I know a lot of kids that played baseball just because it was the only organized sport going on in the summer, didn't really love it, but by high school, figured out they were really good, and started to really enjoy it.
That's not the case anymore.  You better figure out by 9 what your sport is, and then you play it year round.  No 9 year old is picking baseball over everything else.

[Entropy]

it's closer to baseball and basketball that you'd think. football, unsurprisingly, is #1 by a wide but shrinking margin (37%) (also has interesting take on the kneeling/national anthem trend), basketball (11%) and baseball (9%) are just ahead of soccer (7%) as mentioned for favorite sports for americans.
looking at age groups, the older crowd (55+) is keeping baseball relevant (14% and #2) and soccer down (1%). among the 2 groups under 55 (18-34,35-54) soccer and basketball are basically tied at 10-11%, and baseball is down to 6-7%.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx

Good information.  thanks for sharing.   I had not realized soccer was closing in on baseball that quickly, at least when it came to favorite sports.  

[SFBadger96]

I agree.
I think participation and specialization are exacerbating that.  I played both growing up, but I enjoyed soccer more.  You are a kid, baseball is boring.  It's slow, it's scheme over style.  I didn't start to enjoy baseball til I got older, now it's my favorite sport.  I know a lot of kids that played baseball just because it was the only organized sport going on in the summer, didn't really love it, but by high school, figured out they were really good, and started to really enjoy it.
That's not the case anymore.  You better figure out by 9 what your sport is, and then you play it year round.  No 9 year old is picking baseball over everything else.

With a 13 and 10-year old, I spend way too much of my life thinking about youth sports, but (1) it's a shame that people think you need to play a sport year round at age 9; (2) many sports--baseball and softball at the top of the list--need to find ways to develop young players without trying to make the 9-year olds play the adult version of the game (baseball and softball are way behind the curve on this); and (3) one of the biggest problems with youth sports in this country is the lure of the NCAA scholarship (the biggest problem with youth sports is parents).  

[MarqHusker]

I wouldn't ignore another interesting trend (Aspen Institute, and SFIA, among others I've read).   Youth participation rate in soccer is now in its 8th year of decline (btw nearly all youth sports have seen declining rates of participation).   Soccer's losses in percentages were much larger than baseball or basketball's decline  (-11% soccer to -4% and -6.8% respectively). May very well be supporting evidence of specialization,   which of course ties into complaints about cost of participation (club).

LaCrosse and Hockey were the only sustained levels of participation growth in the same period for boys (6-17).

I also think we need to acknowledge that what we like as kids may not be what we like as adults.   This applies to so many things.  (food,  politics, music, sports, movies, entertainment).   We can't affix the tastes of 6-17, or Millenials, or Gen X and extrapolate it to their older years.  Huge mistake.   Same people somehow think that 'Red' and 'Blue' states are somehow etched into stone for generations.

[Entropy]

With a 13 and 10-year old, I spend way too much of my life thinking about youth sports, but (1) it's a shame that people think you need to play a sport year round at age 9; (2) many sports--baseball and softball at the top of the list--need to find ways to develop young players without trying to make the 9-year olds play the adult version of the game (baseball and softball are way behind the curve on this); and (3) one of the biggest problems with youth sports in this country is the lure of the NCAA scholarship (the biggest problem with youth sports is parents).

I'd say the biggest problem with youth sports is not the parents (they are a problem) but rather when we were growing up, coaching was a part time job.  Today, many have turned it into full time roles with multiple teams.   You want to play on a non YMCA team, it's a 9 month commitment for soccer here in KC (few exceptions).   Like gymnastics... 20hrs a week to move up.  Don't want to do that to your 8 yr old daughter, no problem.   We just won't teach her anything more.   Dance...?  well, it's a 11 month commitment if you want them learn. 
Parents make choices, but the options are becoming more constrained.   As a parent who wants their kids playing multiple sports or in multiple activities, it is tougher.   I'm sure we could do better.  It is also tough when they want to play with their friends.   And I get that.. we all did. 

[SFBadger96]

I'd say the biggest problem with youth sports is not the parents (they are a problem) but rather when we were growing up, coaching was a part time job.  Today, many have turned it into full time roles with multiple teams.   You want to play on a non YMCA team, it's a 9 month commitment for soccer here in KC (few exceptions).   Like gymnastics... 20hrs a week to move up.  Don't want to do that to your 8 yr old daughter, no problem.   We just won't teach her anything more.   Dance...?  well, it's a 11 month commitment if you want them learn.
Parents make choices, but the options are becoming more constrained.   As a parent who wants their kids playing multiple sports or in multiple activities, it is tougher.   I'm sure we could do better.  It is also tough when they want to play with their friends.   And I get that.. we all did.  

We're basically speaking the same language, but I can tell you that even in 3-month recreational seasons, parents are still the biggest problems. :-)

I would say the focus on professional coaches and 9-month+ commitments is driven by parents who are seeking glory and/or NCAA scholarships. And it's a fools' errand. Great athletes are great athletes. I've seen this as a coach in soccer: a kid leaves a recreational league to go get the professional coaching, the 4x/week practices, and the 9-month season, and comes back to the recreational league 2-3 years later. The ones who were above average when they left are still above average, but not better than that. The ones who were rock stars when they left, are still rock stars, but haven't put much space between the great athletes who never went to to clubs. For the great athletes, the additional touches they get from the competitive programs have given them a little edge, but even that isn't as big as you would think.

Adults play sports for fun, for fitness, and to take our minds off of the hard things in life. Kids should be playing for the same reasons, but it's really, really easy to get sucked into trying to make li'l Johnny or Jane the next big thing. It normally ends with Johnny and Jane dropping the sport before age 14. And for many who make it past that, it often ends with resentment over all the time sunk in something that felt like a job.

I'm painting with a broad brush here; there are plenty of exceptions in a country of 300+ million people, but we could all stand to dial youth sports back. And it's the parents who will (or won't) do it.

[rolltidefan]

that's well said. agree 100%