NYT: Youth Soccer Participation Drops by 14% in the USA

[cutchemist42]

Forbes related to the same article news.

What's Killing Youth Soccer in America Is Also Hurting Most Every Other Sport

"What's Killing Youth Soccer in America is Also Hurting Most Every Other Sport'

One argument in improving the U.S. men's soccer fortunes is to encourage more of a culture of pick-up play, as in other countries, and in the U.S., as in other sports, notably basketball, where America usually does pretty well. But with sports so organized at such early ages, squeezing out any who isn't dedicated, talented, physically gifted or monetarily endowed, pick-up culture in all sports is dying. (I left video games out of the equation because I don't necessarily see them as an enemy to playing live sports.)


The money in youth sports isn't going toward expanding participation for all kids, especially those who come from modest means. It's going toward mega-facilities where families -- it's hoped -- will spend big bucks on their "tourna-cation." The growth in youth sports is serving an ever-narrower band of families with the means and desire to travel around the world in the name of sport, and while that isn't inherently a bad thing, it is if that isn't balanced by efforts to include kids and families who want to participate in sports, but don't have the money to support a youth sports-based tourism ecosystem.

I agree with this. For whatever reason, we turned sports into rigid organizations very quickly, and sometimes into acadamies that feel more like they are there to turn decent profits.

We turned a sport that attracted the lower income bracket and turned into a rich white guy sport. Thats just unbelievable to me, but also so very North American.

The fast-growing sports in America are those such as lacrosse and rugby, which have zero pick-up culture in the United States but are growing popular with wealthy white families. However, even sports trying to attract the well-heeled can't count on that growth forever.

At the same time, are these sports simply chasing where the most money is to squeeze out of oblivious families who think lil' Johhny can make it if he just attends this camp and that camp?

 

[SCBlueLiner]

Ive always maintained the drop in participation in sports was more broad than sport-specific like some wish it was to suit some narratives.

No sport is safe from rising costs and overall decline in the slice that sports occupies for socirtys overall interests

I think this "drop" has more to do with sports specialization. Soccer is one of the worst sports about consuming a kid's time and not allowing them to be a multi-sport athlete.

Anecdotal story here, my neighbor has a 12 year old daughter whose softball season just ended this past weekend. Saturday night we were all hanging out and the daughter mentioned how much she was going to miss softball. I said "you're 12 years old, you can play softball again next year". She said that she wouldn't be able to because the local soccer program was going to make her "choose" because they say she can't play soccer and softball at the same time. She is worried that if she doesn't choose soccer she will not make the HS team in a few years. The HS team had over 100 girls tryout last year. I told her to play what she wants to play and not worry about that. There are 100 girls who tryout for soccer, very hard to make, but she can play HS softball if she wants to and she loves the sport.

Soccer has a fall league, a winter indoor league, a spring league, and a summer league. It is year round and dominates these kids' time. Keep in mind, I live in a small town of about 10,000 people. This type of specialization stuff is happening in the smallest of towns and soccer is one of the biggest culprits.

That is why I think soccer numbers are down, because there are these instances where soccer people are forcing kids to "choose" and kids are choosing something else.

 

[DoyleG]

USSoccer doesn't know what it's doing, and a big big problem with the whole thing is the way in which they're allowing themselves to be played by MLS to make that league money and not necessarily for the growth of soccer in the US.

For just one small example in a sea of incompetence, take a look at what is going on in Raleigh. Over the past couple years they have made some headway into getting a MLS team here, with the intention of promoting NCFC from the USL to MLS. We brought in a women's program and resurrected the Courage in women's soccer, and we had the two youth programs in the area merge to form the nation's largest youth soccer program under the umbrella of the NCFC with the intention of using it to effectively create a feeder program to the MLS. Except, MLS is really only using this area as leverage to get sweeter deals elsewhere, completely squandering the developmental opportunities it provides. And this is in an area that effectively set the stage for the current phase of US Soccer when you consider that the women's national team was built upon decades of dominance by the University of North Carolina who won 24 of the first 26 national titles.

Of course, NCFC knew all of that was happening the minute they decided to adopt the strategy. It would've been easier to strive for an MLS alternative than to try and set to be part of a league that chooses who participates.

 

[DoyleG]

I think this "drop" has more to do with sports specialization. Soccer is one of the worst sports about consuming a kid's time and not allowing them to be a multi-sport athlete.

Anecdotal story here, my neighbor has a 12 year old daughter whose softball season just ended this past weekend. Saturday night we were all hanging out and the daughter mentioned how much she was going to miss softball. I said "you're 12 years old, you can play softball again next year". She said that she wouldn't be able to because the local soccer program was going to make her "choose" because they say she can't play soccer and softball at the same time. She is worried that if she doesn't choose soccer she will not make the HS team in a few years. The HS team had over 100 girls tryout last year. I told her to play what she wants to play and not worry about that. There are 100 girls who tryout for soccer, very hard to make, but she can play HS softball if she wants to and she loves the sport.

Soccer has a fall league, a winter indoor league, a spring league, and a summer league. It is year round and dominates these kids' time. Keep in mind, I live in a small town of about 10,000 people. This type of specialization stuff is happening in the smallest of towns and soccer is one of the biggest culprits.

That is why I think soccer numbers are down, because there are these instances where soccer people are forcing kids to "choose" and kids are choosing something else.

The Winner.

People like to focus on corruption and ineffectual associations and how people are turning youth sports into profit-centres of exploitation.

The reality is that the pressure is on kids to be involved in only one sport rather than being the dual-sport athletes that were more common in previous generations. The parents also push this not as much because of cost but more they would rather keep things more simple in life.

 

[MayDay]

I think other sports that used to be more minor are increasing in popularity.

My kid does basketball, tae kwon do, and lately he's been saying that he wants to do lacrosse.

Not much interest in the traditional youth sports of soccer, baseball, & football.

Lacrosse seems to be a sport that's really growing in popularity lately.