Quote Originally Posted by curmudgeon View Post
Unsolicited advice about how the soccer crew can make soccer better in this country:

1. Stop forcing it down our throats. There are some people that just aren't going to like it. Accept it and move on.
2. Accept that it is going to be a niche sport in a country that fills 100k stadiums for football. Many of the soccer diehards want to see it flourish on that level. Its just not going to happen.
3. Fix the youth system. Its a mess and it finally cost a World Cup bid. Too many daddies coaching younger players and not knowing what they are doing. Once kids get 10 years old, they should have a certified coach.
4. Move the high school season so it doesn't compete with basketball. There's some great athletes that are having to choose and the choices are becoming racial. Its a fall sport in college, it should be in high school as well.
5. You have to find a way to get it on to SEC college campuses on the men's side. You have an uphill battle with Title IX, but it will not thrive until its a viable college sport across the nation.
I?m not the worlds biggest soccer fan, but there is a lot of wrong in your statements

1) No one forces you to watch it, so don?t. The volume of soccer on TV is a reflection of how popular it is.

2) It already has flourished at pretty high attendance level - albeit inconsistently. The Cosmos were selling out the Meadowlands in the 70s, various international exhibition games over the years - not to mention the ?94 World Cup and ?96 Olympics sold out multiple NFL and college venues. The Atlanta United sold out the new dome with 42,000 so much, they expanded it to football seating and they hold the record for the building at 71,874 people. Now, as a whole, MLS is starting to push MLB for attendance not the NFL and they are the ones who should be scared. 90 minute matches (not 4:45 every day) cheaper tickets, and more easily accessible sport for youth to play is a bad recipe for baseball.

3) Youth soccer may be a mess in MS - but in areas like Atlanta, you just described youth soccer 30 years ago not now. Youth soccer is highly organized, well coached, and has even attracted affiliation programs with EPL teams. Hell, my little community here on the coast has a youth club affiliated with Chelsea. The down side of that is it is more expensive then rec soccer - but it?s no different then travel baseball.

4) Competes against basketball in HS? I?ve never known it as a winter sport anywhere - most states it is fall or spring. In Georgia it runs Spring and tracks a similar season timeline to baseball. If a kid is on the basketball team, they might miss early season IF they make playoffs, otherwise not much conflict. If MS is doing it was a winter sport, you are an outlier and it is a problem.

5) After all the hate, you advocate making it an SEC men?s sport??? I get that you think that the SEC holds some sort of magic keys to athletic dominance becuae ?it just means more?, but the ACC has a 30 year leg up on us in this sport. It?s funny that 12 ACC schools have figured out how to do it with the same Title IX issues and the SEC hasn?t.