No Fields For Soccer

It’s already top tiered in Mexico and it has shown promise in Canada with the popularity of Toronto FC and the world juniors drawing crowds across the country. But the big bucks and top tiered status come from our southern neighbors, and it will never crack the American big 4 sport market. The U.S. already has a massive sports market super saturated with everything that soccer could potentially bring to the table.

Across the globe, soccer games are mega events. Stadiums are packed and atmospheres are electric. There is a perfect blend of cheering families and rowdy fans. There’s tailgating, after parties, pre and post game shows, the works. It’s nearly impossible to find a ticket from world cup, through the premiership and even into the bottom of the club league ranks. There's just one problem with bringing that to the American public…Its Already there. NFL games are massive events, consuming cities and network television. Tickets are so tough to get, that Green Bay has a 20 year waitlist and the stadium holds more people than the town! And the market is supersaturated. You’ve got the NFL, NCAA, and AFL. Even high school football is enormous. Rural communities base their livelihoods on high school teams’ performance. As a European would dump his savings to see his country win world Cup, rural Americans are liable to sell the farm to win State. The market is absolutely flooded. And we haven’t even broke into the other major sports; baseball (which has an incredibly large, and widely supported minor league system to tag along with MLB) the NBA and Canada’s gem the NHL. I mean, the little league World Series draws more attention then the MLS.

Soccer’s popularity with youth correlates with how easy it is to play and have success. If you can run and kick, you can play soccer. Kids all over the globe scrape together whatever they can for a ball, run out to a grassy field and emulate there heroes with flashy moves and boisterous post goal celebrations. Sounds great, but the American youth already have that with basketball. If you can bounce a ball and toss it in the general direction of a hoop you can play and have a blast. Kids and teens spend hours dribbling on sidewalks, streets, driveways alleys in urban and suburbia US alike. Always working on the razzle dazzle the superstars showed the night before. And in the concrete jungles that populate much of the United States, the thump of a basketball will always dominate the scraping of a rolling soccer ball.