Pretty sure MLB still crushes soccer in both attendance and TV viewership in the US.
Why have America never produced a world class football player ?
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TN Toffee
Player Valuation: £25m
That may not be the case for long, as baseball seems to be wildly unpopular with millennials and younger, but for the time being I still think it’s got a considerable lead. For sure in terms of attendance and TV revenue. Not sure if I would feel differently if I lived in any sort of a city with an MLS or lower league soccer team.
Ballly
Player Valuation: £950k
Yep, it wont be long now I think. Even though it's America's past time, like you said, the younger generation are starting to pick soccer/lacrosse over baseball due to the guaranteed continual action of them (over sometimes standing in the outfield for much off a game without seeing the ball). Dads though are probably still playing catch with the mitt first with their sons in their early years before kicking a ball. However, as this new generation filters through and presuming the MLS keeps up it steady momentum, then things could change soon, and quickly you'd have to think. .
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
I think by the numbers on TV ratings and stuff like that it is, although whether that is true in even as few as 5 years is certainly with questioning.
TN Toffee
Player Valuation: £25m
I don’t think the slow pace of the game is even the biggest factor. A huge driving force in creating new generations of fans is having them play the game as a kid. The sad reality is that at this point, baseball has effectively become a country club sport where only the most affluent kids with parents who have both the cash and the time to let them play travel ball in far off cities every weekend have access to. There is an element of that once you reach a certain age with soccer as well, but at the very least the outlay for equipment is considerably less. I know parents here who have literally spent HUNDREDS of dollars on a single baseball bat for an 8 year old, which is absurd.Yep, it wont be long now I think. Even though it's America's past time, like you said, the younger generation are starting to pick soccer/lacrosse over baseball due to the guaranteed continual action of them (over sometimes standing in the outfield for much off a game without seeing the ball). Dads though are probably still playing catch with the mitt first with their sons in their early years before kicking a ball. However, as this new generation filters through and presuming the MLS keeps up it steady momentum, then things could change soon, and quickly you'd have to think. .
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
The old fashioned baseball where everyone played all the time growing up is far far in the past. Soccer is certainly filling that void along with playground basketball.
I assume we are talking men, because we have many world class women players.
As to men, we don't have a system that makes them hungry for success; we have universities that provide degrees and also host college teams that play a horrifically poor, physical type of soccer that is cringey to watch. It's a middle class sport and there is no pressure to succeed; if it doesn't work out you can always fall back on your college degree and get a good job. Few USA professional/national team players play in Europe because of family issues or lack of desire--they have options. Jordan Morris decided to play for Seattle when he could have played overseas, same goes of other players. Adam Christman played on the LA Galaxy with Beckham--he had a second concussion and stopped playing and joined the Physician Assistant program at my Uni (imagine one year he was playing with Beckham, the next year he was on a recreational team playing with me and friends...LOL); he had no problem re-integrating into society after playing professionally. For most kids in many countries, professional soccer is the way out of a bad lifeway whereas in the USA it is mostly just a temporary lifestyle until you do something else.
As to men, we don't have a system that makes them hungry for success; we have universities that provide degrees and also host college teams that play a horrifically poor, physical type of soccer that is cringey to watch. It's a middle class sport and there is no pressure to succeed; if it doesn't work out you can always fall back on your college degree and get a good job. Few USA professional/national team players play in Europe because of family issues or lack of desire--they have options. Jordan Morris decided to play for Seattle when he could have played overseas, same goes of other players. Adam Christman played on the LA Galaxy with Beckham--he had a second concussion and stopped playing and joined the Physician Assistant program at my Uni (imagine one year he was playing with Beckham, the next year he was on a recreational team playing with me and friends...LOL); he had no problem re-integrating into society after playing professionally. For most kids in many countries, professional soccer is the way out of a bad lifeway whereas in the USA it is mostly just a temporary lifestyle until you do something else.
No such thing as a world class woman footballer mate.
Koff
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
Middle class is generous. Club soccer is beyond expensive and is one of the most ridiculous parts of the whole thing.
No college player will ever be world class.
The travel and how expensive it is are the two biggest hindrances with it.
Not to mention the ridiculousness that is the tier system.
Also thinking playing four to five full games on a weekend is not detrimental to the young lads and lasses is nuts.
Many of my friends and colleagues who have teens that play soccer all have stories of torn and strained ACL or ATFL
Some of it has to do with coaches as well. Slowly and I mean slowly are teams learning that not all of the best coaches are European and many of the euro imports are liars or exaggerate their experience.
I think the real reason is that from an early age American kids, especially boys, are taught to pick the ball up with their hands and run with it, knocking anyone over who gets in their way. They see grown men wearing gladiatorial armor doing this on TV all the time. Said gladiators get paid handsomely and are treated like heroic celebrities.
Would it be less sexist, for you, if she said they were the best women of football in the world. Some might say 1st class.
Those gladiators also get beat to hell and back with many physical ailments later in life. Big reason soccer is gaining popularity.
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