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Basketball is not suitable if you hands are not big enough to grip ball. Most people dont unless they use the small youth balls. You cannot do a proper lay up, or a dunk the ball (assuming you can get above the rim). you end up doing a jump shot right under the basket.
Plus you need a hoop setup. Soccer can do everything BBall can like 1v1, 2v2 or small area game and it is much easier to create makeshift goal than a makeshift basket. And you can expand to include more players and over larger area.
2) We have no infrastructure. In the United States, American universities are required to have a 1:1 ration of Men/Women college sports. The Women's equivalent to College Football is Women's Soccer. they have a great infrastructure but the Men's.....only a few P5 Universities even field a Men's Soccer team. Some P5 Conferences, like the Big 12, currently has ZERO Men's soccer teams. In Texas, there are ZERO P5 Men's Soccer teams. Even the University of Texas chooses not to field a team and they have all of the money in the world and they don't have soccer. I bring this up to point out there is a glass ceiling for US soccer players. Most colleges do NOT field teams and those that do have horrible attendance records.
Why would a n American 5 Star level athlete pick soccer if they can't even get a scholarship
5) No Money. Look at the MINIMUM salary of a MLS player and compare that to the MINIMUM salary of a player in MLB, NFL and NBA.
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LOL plenty of infrastructure now. The MLS teams have academies. Players can skip college. College is becoming a joke anyways academically anyways. They have NIL now. Even Lebron once called for more development of the G-league because he states college basketball is corrupt. The USL minor league system is also pretty wide spread now. It is almost like every midsize town has pro team.
As for the money, there is no money if you cannot grow to 6'6" ft or dont want to be an overly muscled meathead to play in NBA or NFL either. Now that there is a viable pro option for those that fall out of that category, more will partake.
I have a slightly different take on American football vs soccer.
1. American football is practically tailor made for TV. Lots of dead time where they can fit in commercials, get a snack, get a beer, and argue over the last play. It lasts 3-4 hours but only has about 15 minutes worth of action so you get a lot of eating, drinking, and arguing time without missing anything.
2. Soccer is dynamic and played in real time by the players on the pitch. You have to understand what's happening to see a play building. Actually, scoring is hard. American football is more of a chess match between coaches. Calling in plays. Offensive plays vs defensive plays. Did the coach call the right play? Did the defense anticipate properly? Did the players execute as planned? Every individual play is a chance for something dramatic to happen either offensively or defensively. You can see all the drama in 8 seconds; you don't have to watch movement over the entire pitch for a whole series of actions to see a play develop.
3. Clock. Clock management is a huge part of the drama of football. Depending on how a game is going, the whole 4th quarter or the last play on the ball can create the drama of being deep in stoppage time in a 1-nill game.
4. Scoring. Since scoring is so hard in soccer, games often reach the point where you wonder why they don't call it now. While you can get the same in American football, esp if a team has a good lead and possession with less than a minute to go, you can also get the Hail Mary with no time left on the clock more often than a Rapinoe to Wambach in the stoppage of the stoppage of the stoppage against Brazil.
Cannot compare the two. American Football is the violent, full contact sport. Soccer is the other end of the spectrum. It is better to compare Soccer with Basketball.
Since you're from Dayton, I'm curious, is soccer growing in popularity at all in Ohio? I ask because Ohio is generally always seen as the bellwether for American cultural trends alongside politics. So if it's popular there, that must be a sign it's becoming a popular American sport at large, if that makes any sense.
Columbus Crew has been around for a while now. FC Cincy started in the USL, and was pretty popular. They play in big stadium, and from what I see, pretty packed. So they moved to top level MLS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natural510
We have two MLS teams, with Cincinnati’s being formed just within the past few years. So interest is growing, but it will likely not reach the other major sports here. Ohio’s influence is waning though, as it ages and younger people move to more progressive or warmer states.
Nationally though, baseball is becoming less popular as time goes on and soccer more so, especially with increased immigration and more native interest due to social media. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the two switch places in the next few decades, especially since MLB’s financial model is unsustainable
Looks like the droughts, hurricanes and rising QOL are forcing people to come back to the cold and dreary Midwest.
Cannot compare the two. American Football is the violent, full contact sport. Soccer is the other end of the spectrum. It is better to compare Soccer with Basketball.
What's the difference between the Fabinho foot stomp and a Ndamukong Suh foot stomp? Other than that Fabinho throws his arms up to the sky praying it's not a red card and always gets away with it. I watch Liverpool. He does probably 10 of those per year.
I watch a ton of Championship where there is no VAR. It's really physical.
LOL plenty of infrastructure now. The MLS teams have academies. Players can skip college. College is becoming a joke anyways academically anyways. They have NIL now. Even Lebron once called for more development of the G-league because he states college basketball is corrupt. The USL minor league system is also pretty wide spread now. It is almost like every midsize town has pro team.
As for the money, there is no money if you cannot grow to 6'6" ft or dont want to be an overly muscled meathead to play in NBA or NFL either. Now that there is a viable pro option for those that fall out of that category, more will partake.
Yeah that's kind of a bizarre take on the sport and the league.
MLS literally has "MLS Next," which is a direct pathway to MLS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133
Cannot compare the two. American Football is the violent, full contact sport. Soccer is the other end of the spectrum. It is better to compare Soccer with Basketball.
And even then, with constant tackles, shoulder barges, a hard ball flying at you at 70mph (yes, the ball is hard, and the contact from it can definitely hurt,) collisions during corner kicks, etc., I'd argue that soccer is a much more physical sport than basketball. Obviously nowhere near American Football.
But now you have MLS. MLS is getting big and that means more and more kids will see it as a viable future since most will not be 6'6" or taller, nor will most want to be in order to make NBA.
Will they though? They've hidden it on AppleTV. I really think it was a backwards step for the league, but with Messi coming maybe that will result in increased subscribers? I'm not convinced.
It's funny, I was talking with my kids and the way they view soccer these days is so different from when I grew up, they see these players as the attraction, not the ground, not a club, but individual players. My kids love to talk about Ronaldo, Messi and Mbappe, but they couldn't tell you much about their teams. Soccer is permeating American society, just in a different, celebrity focused way.
I've said previously, I don't think MLS needs to be successful for soccer to grow in the US and with them moving behind a fairly niche paywall, I think soccer fans would rather watch higher quality games from Europe than they would a game involving Colombus vs New York Red Bulls.
And, I'm sure, a typical outsiders view here, but they need to look at relegation and promotion with USL.
2) We have no infrastructure. In the United States, American universities are required to have a 1:1 ration of Men/Women college sports. The Women's equivalent to College Football is Women's Soccer. they have a great infrastructure but the Men's.....only a few P5 Universities even field a Men's Soccer team. Some P5 Conferences, like the Big 12, currently has ZERO Men's soccer teams. In Texas, there are ZERO P5 Men's Soccer teams. Even the University of Texas chooses not to field a team and they have all of the money in the world and they don't have soccer. I bring this up to point out there is a glass ceiling for US soccer players. Most colleges do NOT field teams and those that do have horrible attendance records.
Why would a n American 5 Star level athlete pick soccer if they can't even get a scholarship
3) Old World vs New World Innovation. Soccer/Football is a great game but as a die hard sports fan.....is it as creative as American Football? In American Football. you can literally be as creative with the "chess pieces" as you want! Move a quarter back to receiver..sure. Invent a new defensive formation...sure. Every changing offensive schemes/plays...sure. Of course soccer has innovation and strategy but the old world rigidness stymies it compared to American Football, which resonates more with Americans.
4) No Coaching Tree. Who is the best American born Soccer coach? What is his / her coaching tree? These are basic questions Americans ask about Baseball, Football & Basketball coaches.
5) No Money. Look at the MINIMUM salary of a MLS player and compare that to the MINIMUM salary of a player in MLB, NFL and NBA.
I'll bite:
2) Nonsense lol... My son went from Rec, to Club Regional, to ECNL, to now MLS Next. All "promotions," if you will. He is 14. Top players in MLS Next get drafted directly into MLS. Most others get scholarships to play at the collegiate level. A lot of them play at the international level throughout their youth.
3) You can do all of that in soccer as well. Coaches are constantly changing formations. A winger can be moved to left back, or to striker, depending on situations. There are constant shifts in strategies and formations, and player positions.
4) What does this even mean? There is a coaching tree. Even at the youth level, one must possess certain licenses to be able to coach at top levels.
5) That's rapidly changing. In addition to that, MLS might not even be a Top 10 league in the world. Compared to most 2nd tier professional sports leagues, the salaries are quite good. Have you seen how little G League NBA players make? If one doesn't make NBA, the top league in the world, they're making ~$40k on average? The top soccer leagues in the world pay A LOT.
Quote:
Originally Posted by H'ton
With no Men's College system, in place, the MLS needs to pay top American high school prospects and place them in summer camps with a n option to make the MLS team after graduating High School. They need to PULL 5 Star athletes away from other sports and KEEP them in soccer.
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No. That's not the pathway to MLS. Club Soccer is. And Academy players don't go to traditional High School. The Academies have their own schools.
That said, many MLS Next players who don't get immediately drafter into pro leagues DO get college scholarships, and several end up playing pro after, but they typically have to sign up for tryouts, as opposed to being invited. Ditto to top High School players (see Daryl D!ke.) *Had to edit his last name due to censorship.
LOL plenty of infrastructure now. The MLS teams have academies. Players can skip college. College is becoming a joke anyways academically anyways. They have NIL now. Even Lebron once called for more development of the G-league because he states college basketball is corrupt. The USL minor league system is also pretty wide spread now. It is almost like every midsize town has pro team.
As for the money, there is no money if you cannot grow to 6'6" ft or dont want to be an overly muscled meathead to play in NBA or NFL either. Now that there is a viable pro option for those that fall out of that category, more will partake.
Yes...I stated the INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE MLS is what is needed to elevate soccer in the US and "steal" away talented Americans from other sports.
I live in Texas, a huge state with a huge hispanic population, and we have ZERO......I'll repeat that, ZERO, P5 Mens soccer programs, at the University level.
That is the infrastructure I am talking about. Why play a sport with a glass ceiling when you can make X amount more playing almost any other sport?
That is the infrastructure I am talking about. Why play a sport with a glass ceiling when you can make X amount more playing almost any other sport?
Why do you think Higher Education having a team is essential? Most of the world does not have this even Canada. Well Canada has USports, but that is more for un signed players and basically a step back.
Yes you can make more money playing other sports but you have to want to, or be the right size. Most people no matter how much they try cannot grow to 6'6". And most people dont want to be 300lbs, nor suffer concussions.
Soccer you dont need to be any of those. It has more mass appeal for playing.
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