Soccer popularity in U.S.

Look at the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association webpage. They have a report available for members, but they do have a media version for general viewing. Some very interesting stats.

www.sgma.com/press/2003/press1042576085-13091.html

 

Go to sites like AYSO.(here's some history)
http://www.soccer.org/about/history.html
and also put in phrases and words relating to your questions at http://www.google.com and you'll find lots of info.
I just found this that way.
http://www.tpgsports.com/soccer/edit_mission.htm
This site has some youth soccer links that will likely give you some info if you look at enough of them.
http://soccerpatch.com/SITES/youth.html
You can even e-mail people with the sites and ask questions.

This article says there are currently about 20 million children playing in the US.
http://www.ussoccerplayers.com/resource_center/for_parents/325785.html

This has good numbers and other info that should help you.
http://www.sgma.com/press/1998/press987182006-17954.html

 

An interesting take on this question might be to go beyond the oft-made "soccer is America's #1 youth sport so it has potential" to look for an explanation why the sport has been so popular with youth since the late 70s yet pro soccer has never taken off. That, it seems to me, is what makes the American situation unique.

 

Re: Re: Soccer popularity in U.S.

Good point. What is it that makes the leap from player to fan so difficult in the US is a good subject.
Most of us have lots of theories, I'm sure.

 

A good question to ask might be, "What professional sports league in the United States didn't spend at least forty or fifty years as a fledgling league before taking off?" People forget that Red Grange saved the NFL single handledly during the thirties by choosing to turn professional. The NBA and NHL spent decades as eight team, virtual minor leagues. Baseball floundered as a professional sport for many decades until Babe Ruth and the "Sultans of Swat" popularized it amongst mainstream America in the twenties, turning it into "America's Pastime."

Sure their are plenty of specific problems that we face in regards to the development of soccer in this country, but I would submit that what we are going through is nothing more than normal development for any professional team sport in this country. It takes a lot of time to integrate any sport thoroughly into a culture.

 

what happens at age 13

of the 4-20 million or so youth that play soccer, over 80% stop playing at the age of 13. If you can find out why, then we might be able to answer the question of professional viability better. The ages 13-17 are critical in forming preferences- if there are hardly any players at that age, then it is even more difficult to get the non-players to go to games (watch games on Tv) and so revenue generation is very very difficult as we now know.

Find a way to give high schools an atmosphere conducive to learning about, supporting and getting excited about soccer, and we may be on our way to success. The generally held idea to push kids out of high school soccer (because the current reality is that it does not help players develop- a true statement) and to other venues is the surest way to write professional soccer an early tombstone inscription.

 

I think this is the best statement I've seen on High School Soccer yet... And as the subject of a paper and presentation I'm doing for KAHPERD (Kansas Assoc. of Health, Phys. Ed. and Dance) it hits home.

I think the key to keeping more kids in soccer lies in recruiting current players to coach and pass the game on, and to require USSF Certification for ALL coaches, whether youth, teen, or High School. My personal experience with HS Soccer was with a transformed pointyball coach. At the tender age of 14, I'd forgotten more soccer than he ever knew. (Not an exaggeration)

I'd like to see all coaches required to hold at least an 'E' license (state level) and required to attend a course on the psychology of kids. Several studies (PM for cites if interested) have found that the reason most children drop out of sports is that it's not "fun." If a coach can keep the kids learning about soccer in a fun environment, who's to say that we can't keep the kids around.

 

REASON # 1

1 Just take a look at MLS and the tipe of decisions made.....HIRE LOTHAR MATHAUS FOR A MILLION DLRS ....a complete FLOP and a MILLION DLRS WASTE .....OK now let go to the other side of the coin HIRE TAYLOR TWELMAN a young american born soccer player for a fraction of a MILLION DLRS ....A COMPLETE SUCCESS ....OK so the road have been lay out... do we keep hiring expensive half way foreing players OR WE TAKE A CHANCE, HIRE AN AMERICAN YOUNG SOCCER PLAYER ?????

 

I apologize to everyone in advace...very sorry for the thread bump...but we apparently have huge HUGE problems ahead:

https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...finds-big-drop-in-soccer-participation-i.html

The top three team sports children ages 6-12 played on a regular basis -- basketball, baseball and soccer -- saw declines in participation, but none like soccer has.

In 2010, 3,016,000 children 6-12 played soccer on a regular basis, but that number was only 2,303,000 in 2016, a drop of 23.5 percent.

 

Like I have posted before: the baby bust of the Great Recession of 2008 is coming through now and the number of type of sports are up with a shrinking pool.

8 years ago, not many kids were playing Lacrosse in my area. Now it is huge.
Ultimate Frisbee is also catching on.

 

When the decline for other sports like Basketball and baseball in in the single digits (8.25 and 5.11 respectively), while soccer in in the double digits (23.64), I think there might be something more than some statistical anomaly or wave…

 

From 2008 to 2016

Basketball is dn 3.6%
Baseball is dn 4.1%
Soccer is dn 2.7%

 

Fair enough, things can look better or worse depending on what years you compare…

Still think this should raise alarms within the soccer community; soccer’s participation and popularity margins are a lot tighter than those other sports….even with declining birth rates, soccer (I thought) was supposed to have things working in its favor that would increase these numbers…

 

I am not sure participation stats are anything more than a Red Herring.

The largest participation sport in the UK is ... fishing, by a long way.

Of the team sports it is of course football. Football is also the largest in terms of the professional audiences but there are also some surprises like darts.

I think the popularity of a professional league to spectators is largely down to culture.

As kayasoleil says, US Soccer needs to stop the drain away at 13. People watch a sport they love and understand. People invest in a sport they feel passionately about.

Is part of the problem that in the US Soccer is a gap fill until the real sports like Football, Basketball and Baseball take off at around those ages?

Is the mistake to present Soccer as a way to build all round athleticism rather than a means to an end of its own? If it is, there is no wonder the best athletes leave to play other sports when they are forced to specialise and the gaps they leave are not filled because the sport has spent so long telling so many kids that they are not good enough?

i.e. stop/reduce the cuts and focus on wins at the younger ages and concentrate on keeping people playing at a level that is suitable for them. That way, when the cream of the 'athletes' leave to play other, higher profile, more lucrative sports there are people with a love of the sport left who can develop into the future fanbase because they have not been told to go away because they are not good enough and losers?

Football is known as a sport which loses a lot of late developing talent here in the UK. We lose something like 70% of all mini players, but I believe the age they are lost by is 16 rather than 13. Those three years are very important for the late bloomers and you will be missing even more talent than the English (and I thought we were horrendous for it)