The obvious answer here is the private training ecosystem. Americans LOVE to spend money on sports (and then bitch about it later)
The traditional American way is school -> college -> college draft -> pro team. If you can afford it and want to give them an advantage you can send your kids to a sports academy. That's not the only way but it is a common way. The traditional British way is school -> apprenticeship -> professional career. Didn't matter whether you were a plumber, electrician, carpenter or footballer, it was the same process. It used to be very rare for anyone with a good education to become a professional soccer player. That's changed since the early 2000s since when Premier League teams starting snatching babes from their mother's breasts. Not sure how it's done in Germany and The Netherlands but I believe there are a lot of youth clubs where kids can learn soccer.
It is the keeping up with the Joneses. Well-off American parents will do anything to give their kids a leg up. There was a book about it recently called Opportunity Hoarding. We also see it in a lot of different sports. And sports like football, baseball, and basketball used to be a place working class kids could compete on a somewhat level playing field. We still see it in football, sometimes in basketball, and rarely in baseball.
in american sports culture....its about how much you will get paid. and to get the big contracts you need to produce stats and be "special"..... even just looking at the structure of MLS payrolls....it mirrors NFL and NBA....3 huge contracts, many middle of the road, many small contracts.....pyramid shaped......so it creates this internal tension in a team.....a natural hierarchy instead of everyone on the same level, as equals..... so for example, on the usmnt....we have the "stars" like pulisic and adams and mckennie....they are seen as the players who make things happen and decide matches....but their performance doesnt really match that idea imo....pulisic says he doesnt have to do it alone....but vs portugal and belgium thats exactly what he was trying to do. donovan talkd about how he and dempsey competed to see whose "usmnt" it was....as if theres an alpha who controls the team. thats the way american sports work - in NFL and NBA ....and it doesnt work well in soccer imo it creates a bunch of passive players in support roles not taking initiative....and deferring and creates this incentive for a player like pulisic to feel like he has to dominate proceedings tojustify his lofty status of course in european soccer some of this occurs - but not to the same degree.....
I think you are probably taking this too far when we talk about the largest effects of culture or lack thereof. I don't really think the fundamental general sporting culture of the country inhibits soccer development at all. There's a good argument that the general American aversion to governmental support has reduced funding sources for youth soccer, etc. But concerns about individualism or winning don't plague other team sports in the US. That's not the issue. When we talk a lack of culture, it isn't the aspects of the culture that is missing; it's the density and intensity of interest and knowledge in socccer specifically that is missing. As well as a sense of cultural knowledge. The lack of interest and knowledge in the sport manifests itself in a number of ways The % of parents that regularly kick a ball around with their kids as opposed to throw it The % of kids whose friends play soccer and who have enough friends to play anything casually -- it pushes kids in the direction of "whats cool" and allows for actual pickup play, etc. I know a ton of kids who have quit a sport because their friends don't play. The % of kids whose sports idol is Messi or even Pulisic over Brady, LeBron, Shohei or Judge The number of volunteer coaches (parents) who know anything about the sport in terms of real technique or tactics. We'll have Pop Warner coaches running zone blitzes and teach blocking technique and Little League coaches teaching kids how to throw a curve ball; far fewer of our soccer coaches know proper ball striking technique or can teach even basic tactics The % of households where a soccer game is on the TV versus another sport The % of households who go to pro soccer games and spend money there All of the above but account for density -- you may have a kid here or there, but you don't have EVERY kid at school or EVERY kid in a neighborhood focused on one sport. This is a reinforcing cultural element if strong, and a debilitating one if weak. And so on. All this influences what kids play and how good they are at it young. Yes, once you older and better, other concerns like pay to play and the lack of general player pool knowledge definitely show up. But the core cultural problem is the above. There's a critical mass of interest and knowledge in some countries and there isn't here.
I've no opinion on it, I was just wondering what you see as typical American cultural traits, you might recognize from the big sports. I've no clue about that, but you all are submerged in it and most likely can put fingers on certain traits you consider as rubbed off from the big sports or even part of the general American culture.
I know that the Scotland FA, for example gets about half their funding from the government and a large portion of that goes to youth soccer. In Iceland, they made soccer their physical education priority in school and use tax dollars to pay coaches. In general, there's a lot more general support for public facilities and that younger age sports leagues and the such in some other countries. I'm not talking as much as elite academies so much as what's available to the typical 6 year old.
And like I said, I don't think there's an issue there. We have a very competitive sports culture, but despite what a lot of people think, it's not necessarily individualistic -- for example, American football is probably the most team sport of them all and the culture around it is all for the team. There's definitely a focus on winning that can impeded development in soccer, but it's less a cultural issue than a structural one -- I think the issue there is a lack of quality coaching and professional academies moreso than cultural. I also think the lack of a realistic path to a professional career distorted the player profile parents wanted for their kid; it used to be "get me a college scholarship" which required far less skill; this will shift as the goal is to go pro/ And, of course, the counter to that is all the people saying we already take all the individualism out of the game and create robots ... which is somewhat laughable for the American player. But overall ... none of this is a real problem. The real problem is that the average / median youth soccer player in the US is some kid who first picked up at age 6, half the time because their parent, who doesn't do sports, wanted them to be in a team sport for social reasons ... and then either quits it in a couple of years either to completely stop player sports or picks something they and their friends like better. The standard here is not kicking a ball as a toddler. It's only the youth sport of choice for kids who aren't good at sport. Yes, there are kids who grow up playing soccer, kids who love it and kids for whom it's their #1 ... but that's not who the vast majority of youth players are ... and when you do have good kids, half the time, it's these other kids who are their competition. Unless, of course, they can pay once they get a bit older.
I don't think the Scottish FA gets a anything from the government. There are jointly funded projects but they're spread across all levels, not just youth. The combined investment over several years is probably way less than Celtic's annual payroll.
I'm not exactly sure what specific traits can be pointed to that indicate a "soccer culture". It is more of a spectrum. All I can say is that it is one of those things that you know it when you see it. Some examples would be it's overall prominence in everyday life and culture (clothing, tv commercial advertisements, characters on tv or in movies going to soccer games and or playing etc). Is it cool? "Tailgating" culture. "Superbowl (cup) parties". Bringing a soccer ball to a picnic or the beach. etc. FWIW, I think many of the above characteristics are already in place, but the degree in which they are in place isn't necessarily as strong as it could be. Soccer jerseys are cool, It's cool for celebrities to be seen as soccer fans, stars from other sports attend soccer games and soccer players are seen as "athletically worthy" by other pro athletes and most tv personalities.
They did the last time I looked. And a quick google search says they got $11M this year for grassroots facilities support from the UK government. Scotland has the advantage that it's tiny, so that kind of money is equivalent, population wise, to a $680M investment in the US.
They didn't give it to the SFA, it went to a program that's managed jointly with the SFA and it's spread across grass roots soccer, not just for youth development. If you look at the examples, they include replacing grass pitches with 3G (at about £200k each), upgrading locker rooms, installing floodlights, converting lightbulbs to LED and installing solar panels.
Here's the New York City FC City in the Community Report for 23/24 https://share.google/RyIPDIhiaiFQeEesh And some shit they're doing with the Mayor's Program Next Phase of New York City Soccer Initiative Launches with Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Alongside Mayor Eric Adams to Celebrate Opening of First of 26 New Mini Soccer Pitches | New York City FC https://share.google/Xl23oyvj7S3mMCm6Z
One ... so? That's not something that happens here at that scale. Call me when we get a $680M investment in youth facilities. And two, when I looked into it earlier, direct funding was a significant part of their budget. You can choose to believe me or not.
Again, that's not as investment in youth facilities. Grass roots soccer is not children's soccer. Add up all the state, city, fed, club and private investment in soccer facilities around the US and get back to me.
I haven't, so maybe somewhere some adult grassroots league is subsidized. I mean, I guess it's fairly common for local Latino leagues (and probably others) to seek sponsorships from businesses, but that's not "public funding". Can you provide examples of public funding (from government or the USSF, even though it's a private organization) to subsidize adult grassroots leagues?
The example from Scotland wasn't about subsidizing any leagues. They were largely used to improve facilities. Leagues are generally funded through match fees. New York City is always spending money on improving sports facilities. That has included replacing grass soccer pitches with G3 surfaces and installing floodlights. They resurfaced the whole of Van Cortlandt Park which is used for soccer, cricket, and Aussie Rules. People complain that there's no investment in soccer in the US when there are examples everywhere. You just have to do some searching. For instance: Visa - Visa, Street Soccer USA and Bank of America Join Forces to Expand Access to Soccer in Communities Across the United States https://share.google/BBqlNkQRy1rVzHEhx
The New York City example is good. My city (Louisville) also has spent Parks money to change some tennis courts to soccer courts. So, I suppose that counts as public funding for facilities (though it's very, very small relative to what the Parks dept spends annually).
I asked ChatGPT to estimate grass roots public funding since 2020: TOTAL: Youth & Community Soccer (Public + Grants) Facilities / mini-pitches $800M – $1.5B Youth programs $400M – $900M Schools (public budgets) $300M – $800M Community/nonprofit blend $300M – $700M TOTAL ≈ $1.8B – $3.9B
USSFoundation had grants to upgrade fields to turf, install lights, and I think they added converting courts to futsal/small sided courts. The issue was, you had to own the parcel to get work done, so for example, my club couldn't apply since we use city owned fields, and I think most of the local clubs fall into that - their municipality or school district owns the fields. USSFederation has their innovate to grow program. I seem to recall a local adult program getting something but don't feel like digging through the state board meeting minutes. Looking at the USSF website it seems to be mostly youth focused with the possible exception of trying to reach out to the hispanic leagues a few places.
That would indicate that there's ~$500M/yr in public funding for soccer in the US. That seems unlikely to be true, and I don't trust ChatGPT to be factually correct here.