I agree with most of your post. But, more non-Anglo kids are playing golf because of Tiger, who is a self-described cablasian, i.e., 25% Chinese, 25% Thai, 25% black, 12.5% American Indian and 12.5% caucasian. The key is perception and the media. If Demarcus and Eddie get a lot of air time on some "regular" networks/stations, or if Nike signs one of them and begins airing commercials on ESPN or ESPN2, then you'll begin to see a major shift in demographics of both soccer players and soccer fans.
I still have to stick by my point. Tiger hasn't caused a golf boom in the black community. The Williams sisters haven't caused more kids to play tennis. Heck, black kids aren't playing baseball anymore even though you see Derek Jeter and other black players in ads. Advertising alone doesn't mean anything when kids lack the facilities and the coaching to participate in the sport. The reason I'm not optimistic about African-American participation in soccer is that everyone seems to want to take the cheap and easy way to getting kids to play. Suburban middle class kids play because they have the opportunity to do so. There are people out there making the effort to bring the sport to them. That is the only way to get kids playing. There is no substitute for that. It's the only reason that Eddie Johnson is playing now.
Strange, the kids in the brown lower-class town a few miles up seem to take soccer a whole lot more seriously than do the ones in my son's white (upper) middle-class town.
Bah, I know me a kid who's been playing soccer all during highschool. Why? Cause it gets him the womens. Most likely he'll be trying out for the soccer squad at whatever college he finally decides to attend. Also trying to nudge him into looking at some MLS camps just for fun.
I don't dispute the presence of Latinos in the sport. And you are right saying Latinos do make up a large part of the people who play. But considering that most African-Americans don’t spend time steeped in Latin American culture or accessing Spanish language media that influence is almost non-existent. The one thing that the kids in your town and the lower class town are doing is playing the sport and that is not happening by and large in African-American communities across this country. And? I know AA kids who play lacrosse, swim, and ice skate. That doesn’t change the fact that those sports are largely out of reach economically and culturally, especially when the farther down the economic ladder you go. My point is that soccer is not seen as a viable option by most African-Americans in this country. That is something I would like to see change.
True enough. However, I would bet the heart of this answer lies with peer pressure and not economic issues. My kid gets crap for playing a minor league sport like soccer rather than a sport with street cred like basketball. And he's in a school district that has a strong soccer program, as well as one where the only "street" the kids have ever experienced is the one that requires looking both ways before crossing. So yeah, I agree with the next poster -- it's not about the money to start off the little kids in the sport. It's about keeping them there when they get old enough to think for themselves.
I don't think it's about money at the grass roots stage. It's about the money and the prestige that comes later. Think about this from an unbiased point of view: would you rather be the star of the football/basketball team or the soccer team in highschool? when you imagine being projected as a lottery pick, which sport would an unbiased american kid choose? It's obviously going to be the more popular sports. Everyone wants either to "make it out" or be something special, but how? I know that if I go to my high school reunion, I don't want to tell them that I am now a professional pac-man player, and many consider me to be the greatest pac-man player ever. I want to tell them, yeah I'm a pro poker player, or pro football player, or pro basketball player, etc. When kids of the inner city think of the glorious ways to "make it out", they don't think about soccer. They think MJ floating to the basket from the foul-line with flash bulbs going off everywhere; unfortunately, they don't know or even care who ronaldinho is.
Peer pressure I’m sure plays a part but kids like your son still play. I know that has a lot to do with your involvement with the sport and the encouragement that you can give him. Part of the problem is that there are not enough of those other voices that can counteract the negatives that come a kids way. A career as a pro soccer player is something most kids can’t visualize. Last night I watched a re-airing of the reality series that showed the high-school basketball player Sebastian Telfair's journey to the NBA. The most gripping parts of the program were where you got to see just what a pro career means to kids living in poor neighborhoods. What getting out really means and more importantly what failing to make it means. There is no equivalent of that kind of story being told about soccer in this country. We get to see the finished product plenty but there is no one there to record the stories of the kids coming up who many kids no matter where they come from can be inspired by.
This thread can be closed now, here is the truth behind its title........... http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=364126&root=us&cc=3888