While some, like myself, vilify the inordant amount of kids at MLS games, other contend that these same childeren will grow up to become fans of the league. This is how MLS will grow. Looking around, I see lots of kids, 8 year olds, 10 year olds, 12 year olds etc. Being that the league has been around for almost a decade, many of the kids that have been watching since the beginning should be in their late teens or early 20's now. Are there any such fans here? A fan, that has been watching since they were a child, and has now grown up to support the league.
*crickets* Come back in a decade, cheif. Right now, it's just guys from the bad old days and World Cup converts.
That's me. I started coming to games in 1996 when I was 5. My parents bought season tickets to the KC Wiz. They made me come. I hated coming. The only reason I would like it is if they would buy me a bag of peanuts. They brought me back like six times a year and I finally became a fan at the end of the '99 season. Now, my life goes around soccer and MLS.
Well apparently Ring Pops and Nickelodeon thought it was important enough to get involved with the league as sponsors. I do see more younger kids at MLS games then i do at other sporting events and I guess we will have to wait awhile to see the impact.
Hey....where have I heard this discussion before, crusio?? I still contend that MLS has a larger opportunity converting little kids to fans in the longterm then they do creating fans out of young adults in the short term.
Just off of the top of my head I can think of 5 kids I know who are usually at the games within a row or two of me who started going to games at a young age and are now in high school or college and are hard core fans.
i was 12 whe we had the world cup and i didnt even know we had it. I didnt know the existance of mls until i was at my grandmas house and all my uncles were watching the San Jose vs dc united match. I watched the galaxy on TV versus New england first time i ever sat down and wathced soccer, i was fourteen. When i was 16 i went to see the galaxy live, I used to work the lines at the rose bowl handing out the free gifts to the season ticket holders. Got to watch the ames for free. Been a fan since
This is good to hear. Do any of your friends share a similar story? 562nation, same question... Or more generally, what do your friends think of MLS?
FWIW, after he was drafted in 2003, Mike Magee said he "grew up" watching the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl.
I am on the cusp of WC convert/kid growing up watching MLS. My first outdoor soccer game I attended (aside from NASL games as an infant) was US/Col at WC 94 as a 12 year old. And that is what converted me to the outdoor game and what got me into the yet-to-exist MLS. When MLS started, I was all gung-ho and ready to support it from the start and have been ever since. I did also go to very many MISL indoor games as a kid growing up. It may help that my father likes soccer though.
Now you and I will have to find some common ground I still disagree, but i do want to hear more on this.....
well for a long time ive been the only galaxy fan among my group see were divided they all typically follow chivas except for a few the only soccer they is the galaxy, and the world cup. This year i was surprised when they they all wanted to plan a trip to a galaxy(kindal like planing a trip to a dodger game) game because they were shocked to know i went to all these games by myself last year, this year as well.(only one lack of funds) Most of my friends know who the galaxy are. And are interested they got mad at me beause they went to the last regular season game and i didnt(lack of funds) But they like it. It was a new expierience for them. They want to go again from what they told me.
I know quite a few people my age that are fans, but I don't know how long they have been. I live in the 'burbs outside of KC and people wear Wizards stuff to school often. If I wear a jersey, sometimes people I don't even know will comment about it and the team. This is good news and think of all the support this league will have in just 10 years.
yeah, i was actually hesitant about putting that word next to your name, but I broke down and did it anyway! LOL
I am in my early 20s! There's a good handful of young adults and kids in their late teens at the games. Keep in mind at that age, the teenagers are still somewhat at their parents' mercy in terms of where they can go and how much they can spend, then many have their next four years in college, and right out of college they also don't have much money.
I thought all those kids never grew up and just kept coming year after year. As far as getting young adults to become fans........ ....a group of 7 friends started kicking the ball around last november when the season ended. not even a game.....just a field, a ball, and living pairs of feet that turned into a pick-up game which we invited friends to play in (from 16 - 35 years of age), some played before, some hadn't. then we started invited some people from LARS and a handful would show up then the 2004 season came along and we moved our games to the morning/afternoon before the game so we could have time to play, clean up and make it to the stadium with ample time to "tailgate" and socialize and now the young adults that came to have a pick up game are coming to LA games on a regular basis and some of these players bring their little kids and bring them along to the LA games as well try it out in your neck of the woods then you can play us
I went to like 10 Rapids games in the inagural season ('96...the Shaun Barlett/Balboa days). I was about 16 at the time and was already a pretty big soccer fan in general(even before '94, remember watching Italia '90 and my first CL final on TV was the Milan-Marseille game...I knew Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard if you can believe that!!!), but think kids my brothers age (20 today) are more telling. He's a pretty hardcore Rapids fan and more or less follows them with an intensity usually reserved for the Big 4 sports. He has a few other friends like that. Kids a bit younger than him are also pretty into the team and this is in Cheyenne, WY 90 miles north of Denver. I'd say that they were the ones that "grew up" watching the team. I don't think my brother or his friends would've ever attained that level of support without going to those games as a kid. Man, was '97 beautiful. 20K going nuts after Henerson's scissor kick sent us to the cup. That was sick. Enough of the personal anecdote... I agree that long term fan growth is reliant upon the younger fans. Most of us on BS are already fans and will be no matter what. Most people in their 20s won't or refuse to become fans (I converted a few guys that never played in high school), but younger kids are much more impressionable. Brainwash them. We need SSS!!!
Your mentioning of the Henderson goal game got me thinking. Imagine what if you were a 10 year old Quakes fan at that 5 goal comeback game vs LA last year. What an impression that would make!
I watched the very first game in MLS history when I was 9 and have been a fan ever since. I started playing soccer in 93 because everyone else at my daycare played (an this was in Georgia). Then WC 94 came an I remember watching the final with my family. Then I watched A-League until MLS came around. I'm poud to say I've grown up with MLS.