The real reason soccer will soon be on par with the NBA and the NHL
Sep 21, 2012, 12:45 PM EDT
Getty Images ESPN’s Roger Bennett examines the growing popularity of soccer in the United States and finds a serious advocate for the sport.
The takeaway: “Rich Luker, a 59-year-old baseball-loving social scientist based in North Carolina, is the brains behind the ESPN Sports Poll, the complex database that recently pronounced soccer as America’s second-most popular sport for those age 12-24, outstripping the NBA, MLB and college football.”
There are a lot of stats to back up the claim, but here’s the most convincing argument: “We are talking generational change. A generation of kids have now grown up as having MLS as part of their reality.”
Think about that for a second. It’s HUGE that kids can a) go to MLS games, b) watch MLS games (and European games) on television, and c) (most importantly) see men being paid to play soccer.
If you’re a 12-year-old kid, you don’t care that the average MLS player makes little when compared with the average NBA star; you care that they are getting paid. The details don’t matter; the reality of the possibility of becoming a professional athlete does.
The lament about soccer is always that the youth levels are hugely popular, but then kids choose other sports. The reason for that, at least in part, is that 15 years ago, it was much, much harder for a teenager to picture himself as a professional soccer player. (Raises hand.) Now, however, that barrier is being removed, meaning fewer kids will quit.
Luker again: “The game was massive up to the age of 13, when sport was all about bonding with male peers, but in middle school, it became all about cross-bonding with other genders and high school football shot right to the top. You simply can’t beat the social lubrication of the homecoming football game.”
And, no, you can’t. But you can equal it. And for a massive percentage of the population, it’s a heck of a lot easier to picture being a professional soccer player than an NBA star.
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- mungman69 - Sep 21, 2012 at 2:39 PM
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I’ve been hearing this stuff for decades. I will believe it when I see it.
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- wfjackson3 - Sep 21, 2012 at 10:13 PM
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You may have been hearing it for decades, but now you are being presented with data indicating the trend is real. Doubters beware.
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- g68rh - Sep 21, 2012 at 2:40 PM
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I think with the growing concern over head injuries, especially in football, you may start seeing a lot of parents pushing their children to stay with soccer through high school. Now, I am not saying that soccer will see an influx of Lebron James or RG3 type athletes but it may have parent’s thinking twice about whether they want their child in a sport like football.
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- scottp11 - Sep 21, 2012 at 4:31 PM
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This is it for me. I’m a good ol’ Texan boy. Actually played club soccer until 9th grade…when football really took over. Plus my parents couldn’t pay the club fees anymore. At times, I enjoyed football and my younger brothers were all-city/district type of players.
But looking back, I simply cannot believe the massive amounts of injuries and head collisions that happen every single day. I had 2 concussions. I won’t let my kids play football, whenever I have them. My brothers feel the same way. There’s plenty of other great sports and activities to be participated in.
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- jerichowhiskey - Sep 21, 2012 at 2:40 PM
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Plus, even if you’re playing a third division team like Orlando City, you can still play in friendlies against Stoke City, etc.
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- futbolhistorian - Sep 21, 2012 at 3:57 PM
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Back in 1999, I used the results of a similar poll (sports popularity among 12-24 year olds) in a presentation. The poll result back then: 1. Pro Football 2. Soccer.
At least soccer hasn’t gone backwards.
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- makeham98 - Sep 21, 2012 at 4:01 PM
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I can’t wait for the Cosmos to sell out Giants Stadium again. The momentum is unstoppable. The Capri Sun MSL Championship Game will outshine any Super Bowl ever.
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- zoophagous - Sep 21, 2012 at 4:03 PM
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My own anecdotal unscientific reason for thinking soccer will continue to grow in popularity: look at all the kids at MLS games. I live in Seattle and have Sounder season tickets. I have also traveled to several other cities for away matches. Every MLS match I have gone to regardless of location has lots of families with kids. It’s great seeing a 10 year old kid singing along with the supporters group – that kid is going to grow up loving soccer. Though it breaks my heart to see that sight in Portland. Poor kid will never know what a trophy looks like. (I keed I keed)
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- berlintexas - Sep 21, 2012 at 4:10 PM
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I recently ran into a friend of mine from high school at a Dynamo game who started for two years in the Big Ten (we graduated in 96). He said the reason he quit playing was because he didn’t see a future for himself in the game and he needed to focus on preparing for the real world. If he had the MLS as a legitimate option back then he would have stayed with the game and thinks it’s great for kids growing up now to have high level soccer to learn from and aspire to.
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- dws110 - Sep 21, 2012 at 4:12 PM
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For all of the structural faults and organizational deficiencies in MLS, the league deserves massive credit for staying alive long enough to have fans grow up with it. I’ve done my fair share of complaining about the impossibility of pro/rel due to the franchise structure, the artificiality of the conferences and playoffs, the insistance on building SSS in the ‘burbs, the current blinders the league has for NY/LA…but all of that has to be viewed through the perspective of keeping the league solvent and functioning. In fairness, every choice the league has made (even those I fundamentally disagree with) have been made with an eye firmly on the future. MLS is certainly paying attention, and for that I will applaud them every time.
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- scottp11 - Sep 21, 2012 at 4:33 PM
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All the leagues have blinders for the NY and LA teams. It’s maddening, particularly in a building league, but it’s something we have to live with.
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- berlintexas - Sep 21, 2012 at 5:02 PM
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I used to get extremely agitated about the league’s obvious NY/LA bias until someone with knowledge broke down to me like this. They said look, even though there are 300 million people in America that don’t live in NY/LA the people that do live in those cities control what gets in the news and who gets on television. Therefore, MLS needs to raise the needle in those cities in order to spread the word to everyone else. I still don’t like it, but it’s a reality.
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- ndnut - Sep 21, 2012 at 4:56 PM
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Happy Homecoming from O’Gorman Catholic High School in Sioux Falls, SD! We are the only school in the city with a school sponsored soccer team. I’m not in shape to play, plus I’m busy with some other things like work study and homework, but I’m going to be a team manager for them next year. We had signs up through the school to get people to a “homecoming game” on Tuesday night. While attendance was much lower than the football game will ever be, it was the biggest turnout of the season. It also might draw fans to the last game or a playoff game if necessary.
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- adewitt27 - Sep 26, 2012 at 11:25 AM
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You’re wrong. You forgot about the best team in the state which is also sanctioned and in Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Christian. The small private school of 200 is filled high level club players that can easily compete with the larger high schools in the city and state. We just tied O’Gorman this past weekend. We also play on an officially FIFA sanctioned field also used by the University of Sioux Falls. Having dominated Class A for years, the team is getting its chance to compete with the big schools and is doing very well, sitting at 1st or 2nd in the state.
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- pensfan603 - Sep 21, 2012 at 9:29 PM
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The MLS has seen little growth in Attendance and average tv ratings in the last what 10 years it has fluctuated and is on a high right now but i dont think poepel can call it the fastest growing sport, i doubt its the second most popular among kids.. Lacrosse seems way more popular and faster growing to me.. and if it is i am so happy it would tell me that young fans can see the difference soccer has between the other sports and that these players actually have to work to get good money and how the fans in the MLS are the most loyal, its not over saturated with commercials about it every 10 minutes on sports center if not being talked about. Also the fact that the game may not seem exiting but it is intense to watch and last it is the fastest playing sport it is two 45 minute halfs making it hour and 30 in length but also less time tv wise as football takes 4 hours to play.. even though it is only 1 hour game time.
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- wfjackson3 - Sep 21, 2012 at 10:15 PM
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Please provide evidence that the attendance has “seen little growth…in the last 10 years.” I sincerely doubt you have any.
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- CaliforniaRedskins - Sep 21, 2012 at 10:35 PM
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I do agree that everyone should be bullish on the MLS, but I do think that the excitement should be tempered. I don’t think that MLS is in any danger of passing college football in popularity and a lot of these numbers are inflated by the addition of international soccer. I know a large number of people that are fans of the USMNT that would never sniff the MLS because their interest in soccer is more patriotic than anything else. Bottom line: growth yes, but slow growth. The key point word used in the article is ‘generational.’ Nothing is going to happen overnight although the foundation is in place for dramatic growth in the future.
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- joeyt360 - Sep 22, 2012 at 5:00 PM
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It’s a shame that the article doesn’t show the underlying survey, some of which was posted to Twitter by Chris Schlosser of MLS a few months ago, and which actually does parse that difference. MLS does trail international soccer, but what stands out is that among avid fans, it isn’t the blowout you’d think–for every 10 avid international soccer fans in the US, there are 7 or 8 avid MLS fans.
