That is great. But that is Chicago. One of the biggest cities. There is much more of a multi-cultural influence there, and in places like NY or LA. Soccer is more mainstream there. I'd like to see it free in other places, too. Smaller cities, or more rural areas. Youth soccer did not even exist in the rural town I grew up in. Once it did, they slapped fees on it and it became the yuppie kids' sport. (I volunteered like crazy, coaching and refereeing, to help the kids learn the sport.) The poorer kids (African-Americans included) stuck with baseball, which was free. There is no reason youth soccer should be more expensive than youth baseball and definitely youth football, anywhere. Where I live now (small city), here are the costs: - Soccer (outdoor): $700 per team (10-game season), plus ref fees per game - Soccer (indoor) $725 per team (8-game season), plus ref fees per game That's way too much, especially outdoor, for too few games, IMHO. This does not include the local elite traveling club team. - Youth baseball/softball: $40 - There also is a less-competitive (don't keep score), participation-based youth soccer league for $30 (10 or 12 games). That would be the route the poorer kids here would go, but they are not likely to get the proper coaching.
first of all do any of you even live in a poor area i think is up to the parents hispanic families where i live usually take their kids buy them uniforms and you only have to pay the referee $5 thats all i had to pay, the uniform was borowed when the game was over we gave them back if you kept it it was like $10 for the uniform maybe $15 money really isnt the issue
Is that in LA? I think LA and Chicago are aberrations. You and John are likely talking about places were soccer is more a part of the culture, and more of an effort to find a game is made by the participant. Sometimes I wish I grew up near such neighborhoods, then I would have had the opportunity with the sport as a kid. I'm talking about the rest of the country. In most places, money IS an issue. How is soccer supposed to be able to make inroads in poor communities around the country, and overcome the "sissy sport" stereotype, if it costs to play? $60 for just an 8- or 10-game season (equipment and referees not provided, unlike youth baseball or football) isn't going to get them. In much of the country, someone is trying to make a buck off soccer.
Am I missing something here, or are you really saying that kids over there don't play the game unless they are playing matches in an organised league?
How often do you see English boys shooting hoops in the park? OK, a bit of a stretch. But not that much. Soccer isn't our #1 sport, or #2, or #3, or #4. Aside from the soccer-mad immigrant pockets, how often do you think that kids are casually playing soccer? To my answer my rhetorical question, not often. At my boy'sunior high school, he is as likely to encounter soccer as he is curling.
really when you think about it its kinda mind bogaling considering in africa thats like all they do there is play soccer. the only thing i can think of is that they dont want to seem more americanized but i guess they were kinda of cut of from soccer since most of them came over here before soccer was devolped honestly iam clueless i should talk to an afraican american on why they dont like soccer
Other way around kronz. Very American- and conservative in outlook for large parts of the population- with little, if any, actual attachment to Africa. And yes, it's all about organized leagues- there are few places in the country where kids might play their own pick-up games.
ok but think about this why did it end up like this i mean when the immergrants came here why didnt soccer come with them things like this. before sports in this country were extablished why didnt soccer win over? thats so mind boggling. every other country pretty much has soccer as there first or second sport except for the usa i just dont see how that happened with the african americans or any other american
The ancestors of most African-Americans preceded organized professional sports. You need to understand that before commenting on this thread. You could do some reading. A large number of the ancestors would include people brought to the US- or the Colonies- as slave labor. Why did Americans invent alternative vesions of popular sports? American football to football and rugby, baseball to cricket? That's a huge topic, there's tons of stuff out there on that too: "American exceptionalism" etc., plus we're an ocean away. In the olde days that made a huge difference.
I can't say I speak with too much authority as the game wasn't even on the radar when I was growing up and I was about 12 before I even saw a basketball (literally) but you do see hoops in public parks and in people's gardens etc now, but I'd guess kids are far more likely to play recreationally with their mates than play in a team. The same certainly is true of soccer. In fact only the top 10-20% of kids play in an organised team at all, if that. (although not being discussed here, that's one reason why the numbers of registered players per country often touted here are misleading, as here that figure only represents the tip of the iceberg). But why is that, and I don't just mean among african-americans? Sure, there's the lack of popularity angle, but why do kids seem to have this impression that you can't play unless it's in an organised league? It's only being in an organised league that makes it an expensive game. When kids play here, even those on team, most spend the majority of time playing without proper kit, certainly not wearing proper boots, almost always without any proper goals, often on concrete rather than grass and often with a tennis ball rather than a football. It has to be the cheapest, easiest game going.
yeah is in la im really im like blocks away from compton but i dont think money is an issue because black kids here have an oportunity to play and is still rare u dont really see black kids play soccer in LA is more of they see it as a game only mexicans, salvadorians,hondurans u know whites and hispanics somehow we have to let them know theres alot of good black players that play problably the want someone from brooklyn than instead of someone from cameroon.
Lack of critical mass. There are 200 boys in my son's 7th grade. Maybe 10 of 'em like soccer. About 100 like basketball. So hoops it is, every lunchtime. It's funny that way. With basketball, there are plenty of kids who play but who aren't on a team. With soccer, most of the kids who are on a team don't play unless they are with the team. My friend in Southern California says that it's different out there. At his son's school, about 25% of the boys like soccer -- enough to ensure that schoolyard games are going on everyday.
And there, my friend, is where kids become athletes. Everything in the U.S. is overly organized. You don't see kids here playing baseball or gridirion football in the park anymore, not like when I was a kid (20-30 years ago). Heck, I could barely even find an open tennis court back then. Now the tennis courts are empty, or torn down. When I was a kid, I wanted to play baseball, basketball, football, soccer, anything I could think of, in my front yard and my friends' yards. Now, kids play video games, rather than pickup games. I always felt the organized leagues were useful in learning teamwork and fundamentals. But kids need the pickup games to really develop their skills and get good. I played 18 organized baseball games a year, but hundreds of pickup baseball games with whatever we could use (tennis balls for a baseball, taped up bats, bricks or wooden blocks or just plain dirt patches for bases). It it true that the sport is cheapest in a pickup game. But no one does that here anymore. It is a shame. Whether is is sports, music lessons, or even "play dates," everything in a kids life is organized nowadays. But that's a bigger rant I have.
This is true.....but the reason is the same as you said about the 200 boys but here 10 of them like basketball and 100 like soccer so soccer it is THere are daily games actually multiple games at once where MOST of the school kids are playing. Well that happens in schools that are majority Hispanic/Mexican, go figure, LOL. So yeah all the white boys and black boys kinda follow the mass and play soccer during recess. My little brothers friend got into soccer and wants to play on a team but his dad wants him to play HOCKEY because soccer is "gay" "girly" u know. BUt it is true Soccer games in Southern cali schools are pretty much a given.
EDIT: saw your apology and explanation... still uncool. Whatever... we'll both live. Stupid hillbilly.. I know a great deal more about it than you do, I'll wager. Not only are you not Black, you're likely not Southern-reared. Surprised to find it took five pages before someone like you came along and made light of the OP's question. Don't have an answer (for those of you with more sense than the guy I'm quoting), but not one Black person I know -friends, relatives, immediate family- has an issue with the Game. My guess is that there's not as much interest in the inner cities from Black Americans of several generations, but plenty from those who are recently arrived. And I don't know if there's any truth to the rumor that it's become the "new golf" (suburban, middle class, largely White, generally studied/played by people who are well-read and well-traveled), but if there is, that might be a factor as well. Any studies on whether the percentage of Black participants outside the inner cities is in line with the percentage of Black folks living outside the inner cities? It might not be as dire as the Guardian is suggesting. But exposure is everything. It probably just needs more time to grow- for everyone, not just Black people.
I wished it would be possible to make that daddy play in a game in what we nickname the "farmers league", amateur teams mostly from rural places. After that experience there are two posibilities: 1- After he swept of the blood of his shins and (hopefully only) a bloody nose he will make his son join a soccer club or 2- he will forbid his son to ever come near a soccer field in fear of loosing his kid in this kind of battles
true the kids dad has or never problably played competetive football(soccer) i wish he would come here to LA with some hispanics and play a pickup game make him get like 5 concusions and breakin his F@#$ing ankle even though most of the time since we play for fun no serious injuries but trust me when we do play hard i would like to see one of those idiots be on the field
As is the phrase regarding why we don't see many black hockey players...don't see it necessary to dominate yet another sport. Think about the starting 11 the USMNT could have if the guards and small forwards now playing in the NBA had grown up playing football... Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, Carmello Anthony, and there athletic talent on the pitch? Unbelievable, no?
Argentina Italy Beat those guys in basketball. And the best athletes in those countries don't play basketball. What do they play? Soccer
I did not read most of the other threads but the question is stupid. First most "African American" families are part of the middle class and live in the suburbs. From the tone of your question I would guess you mean why is soccer unpopular with innnercity "African Americans". I believe that has been answered in previous posts but soccer is just unpopular period as a spectator sport in the US. As ticket prices keep rising in other traditional American sports soccer is becoming an attractive alternative to the sports fan. Lets not forget that "African Americans" are about 10% of the US population that is why they are called minorities. Yet they dominate the sports scene in the US and Demarcus Beasley and Eddie Johnson two of the brightest young talent the US has are of African decent.
Why can't the question be asked in general. I think it applies. Yeah there is a African-American middle class but just like many other groups in this country blacks regardless of their class don't play soccer in great numbers. They didn't in the African-American middle class suburb I grew up in and they still don't. The game of soccer in this country is a white middle class sport. I'm not talking about who plays necessarily so much as the culture, the heart of the sport. African-Americans don't feel the game is their own or something they can participate in without feeling like some sort of sellout. Will players like DeMarcus Beasley and Eddie Johnson change that? I'm not sure. Having African-American players in MLS or playing in Europe won't change that feeling. After all African-American kids didn;t take up golf or tennis because of Tiger Woods or the Williams sisters so why would these guys have that great of an impact?