Soccer in the U.S. is a story about high participation rates combined with comparatively low fan interest.
“It” happens a few times a decade. “It” is when the American public pays attention to competitive soccer. One time is the Olympics. The other time is the World Cup. It’s the World Cup’s turn this year.
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It’s not as though soccer is an anathema to Americans. Hardly. Just last month The Sports and Fitness Industry Association reported that soccer is among the highest participation sports in the country—third in rank (12 million) behind basketball (23 million) and baseball (16 million).
Notably, it’s a game our children play. Over 4 million children age 6-12 play soccer. Another 2.5 million players are between the ages of 13-17.
But soccer in the U.S. doesn’t get a corresponding level of fan interest—certainly not as much as for football, basketball, hockey, and baseball. Fans gather to watch and cheer those other sports at levels that matter to Americans—at the scholastic, collegiate, and pro levels.
Soccer just doesn’t grab America’s fans the way those other sports do. But it should. It’s a game everybody can play, including both genders. And it’s a game that has an inimitable dash of ‘spice.’ How so? Countries face off against other countries with a world championship on the line. It’s never that way in America’s major sports.
But in America’s soccer, there’s no equivalent to “Friday Night Lights,” March Madness, or The World Series.
What’s holding back fan interest? Let me offer four reasons.
One reason, I think, is soccer’s status as ‘The World’s Game.’ A huge advantage elsewhere, it’s a major drawback here. Except in international women’s competition, the U.S. has never dominated the sport. It’s not in the American psyche to be a global also-ran. Plus there’s little (if any) evidence that America is willing/able to become a soccer power. Indeed, the U.S. didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
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Another reason is that the game doesn’t align well with America’s preferred tastes, which include a lot of scoring and ‘beating the crap out of an opponent.’ Scoring makes basketball compelling to fans. Toughness makes football and hockey attractive.
Then there’s America complex storyline associated with diversity. Soccer is arguably the most diverse sport globally because it’s played all over the world. And, if there’s a defining characteristic of major collegiate and pro basketball and football, it’s this: African Americans are in the majority of players. What about soccer?
The sport in America isn’t as diverse as one might think, especially at the youth level, and particularly with respect to grooming kids for international competition. Olympic soccer star Hope Solo spoke to those matters recently when she called youth soccer “a white, rich kids’ sport.” The game has become “too expensive for many Hispanic-American, African-American, and rural kids” Solo said. “That robs the U.S. Soccer Federation of the type of young talent that rises through the ranks in other nations.” That’s no way to build an internationally competitive sport, she concluded.
Sounds like golf and tennis, doesn’t it?
The fourth reason may be the most telling. During my lifetime there has been an ebb and flow to what might be best termed, “America’s Game.” It was baseball during my youth, a game that inarguably fit the moniker, “America’s Pastime.” Those days are long gone, though. By the 1960’s football gained steam and it wrestled the crown away from baseball. Football is still at the top of the heap, but basketball is gaining ground quickly.
Soccer? Perhaps bigger than ever globally, it’s just not a pinnacle sport in this country—it never has been and may never be.
I write this critique as a supporter, not as a critic, of the sport. I’ve become increasingly fond of the game and enjoy following European and international competition, especially.
With so many people playing the sport in the U.S. –coupled with increasing attention regarding head injuries in sports–you’d think that the sport would generate appreciably more fan interest with an elevated platform at the high school, college, and pro levels.
But soccer is nowhere close to becoming a major sport here–even though there are good reasons why it should. In America, soccer is an enigma.
Enigma: mysterious, puzzling–a riddle, conundrum, paradox
