deadbq03 said:

---

Those factors aren't problems for other sports in the US.

The biggest problem is that the best talent is playing football or basketball instead, trying to get scholarships. Soccer has very few pathways to college for men. To me, that's the biggest problem. Rightly or wrongly, US sports uniquely emphasize collegiate sports, but soccer doesn't have that same pathway (for men; the opposite is true for women and it's the reason they historically dominate).

---

Soccer has exploded in the US and the local clubs around KC have parents paying for their kids playing in what amounts to a Rec division for $2000+ a year. It's ridiculous.

What is the path to pro-soccer for a kid in the US? I'm just going on the Midwest, but there are now 5 'super leagues' in this region (KS, MO, IA, SD, Ark, OK). What team or organization is really promoting the best players to the highest level? How does a player get from U10 Club soccer to the MLS or above? I'm honestly asking b/c since my son stopped playing my knowledge of the 'system' is I referee. I don't follow all the clubs and paths anymore.

All I see as a referee is a lot of parents paying a lot of money for little Johnny/Suzy to play kickball on a big field where the best players may or may not get frustrated and quit.

Probably a discussion for another topic, but the system seems so fractured. My son graduated HS and stopped club soccer after that in 2020. Just in the last 5 years the numbers have doubled in our area. Just last weekend my local assignors (multiple) were trying to fill slots for 600+ soccer games just in Kansas City. Now add in HS, College and some semi-pro leagues and they need to fill 2000 referee slots. Last week between Tues-Saturday I worked 9 games (5 HS, 3 Club, 1-Semi-Pro) and the assignor was asking me to work 3 more on Sunday but I had to decline b/c I needed a break.

AAU Basketball has a lot of $$ pouring in from Nike and UA. Those really good players aren't paying to play BB. My nephew played AAU and it cost him a fraction of what I paid for my son to play Club soccer. He was a UA team and walked on a Div 1 school. But I agree the good athletes are playing FB and BB.

agracer said:

---

parents paying for their kids playing in what amounts to a Rec division for $2000+ a year. It's ridiculous.

---

Yes it is.

Quote:

---

What is the path to pro-soccer for a kid in the US?
How does a player get from U10 Club soccer to the MLS or above?

---

at least one of the local clubs must have an MLS Next team for each birth year. Kids need to make that team, survive not being cut from it each year as the clubs bring in internationals and recruit other kids from other clubs, get noticed and be in the club's first team plans by U17. ...otherwise just quit and go play in college for fun somewhere. If there is no MLS Next team near by, or your kid doesn't make the MLS Next team, try an ECNL team. Highly competitive and showcases may have college scouting, but professional track is probably off the table if not in MLS Next. For men's college soccer, there aren't that many scholarships due to title IX, so you're looking at really small schools and few scholarships, so if any male plays soccer beyond high school, it has to be because they love it... both professional tracks and college scholarships are very few and competitive for men vs women. vs Europe, the professional tracks are a lot more plentiful with multiple tiers of professional soccer in every country.

Quote:

---

Probably a discussion for another topic, but the system seems so fractured.

---

the various youth club systems are indeed F'd beyond belief with fracture, division, politics, etc. before you even consider the detriment that "pay to play" has on attracting and retaining the best talent to stick with the sport.

You hit on the real problem at the bottom when you discuss sponsorships. The problem isn't necessarily pay to play. The problem is that there is overwhelmingly more sponsorship/scholarship opportunities for popular sports. And that's the real root problem… soccer simply isn't popular.

And so it's not fair IMO to toss blame at USSF or MLS for dropping academy programs… those also cost money and there simply isn't surplus for that because soccer isn't popular.

So yeah I was off base too in describing another symptom (lack of men's soccer in college) but the real overarching problem is that soccer isn't popular. Period. The money/programs at all levels would be there if it were.

Most colleges spend 85 of their men's athletic scholarships on football. Due to title IX requiring equal number of men's and women's athletic scholarships, most colleges simply don't have men's soccer as a sport they invest in- many big universities just have it as a club and not an ncaa sport and zero scholarships.

For men's soccer, you really have to be on a professional track (MLS Next) from a young age to have a chance and USA really only has one tier of professional soccer. The MLS clubs have their second team/ reserve team - basically like a U19/U21 team bridge from their academy to their first team- called MLS Next Pro - and that's it, because our actual 2nd tier of professional soccer in USA, USL, does not pay for schlit and can hardly be considered "professional".

When you go to Europe, every country has several tiers of professional leagues. ...maybe most comparable here is baseball - so many more opportunities for ambitious talented youth with three levels of minor league professionals before even reaching the top tier MLB as well as several times more scholarship opportunities either before or in lieu of professional opportunities.

And that's a problem.

How many Dempseys aren't getting the time of day because they have no access to such programs?

Who?mikejones! said:

---

And that's a problem.

How many Dempseys aren't getting the time of day because they have no access to such programs?

---

Correct, we only get to see the upper middle class to rich versions of Dempsey here. Honestly, as an investor, I'd love for someone to create a fund that allows investors en masse to fund the development of blue chip type kids with some kind of ROI if they pan out. Probably a pipe dream to ever construct something like that, but it would be a viable channel I think….at least as long as the US is stuck in this dead end pay for play structure.

also, youth club soccer is so ridiculously cost prohibitive for many of our best athletes.

every neighborhood park and apartment complex in America has a basketball court- where the only cost to start developing skills and a love of the game are shoes and a ball. ...but go to London or Paris or anywhere else in Europe and every neighborhood park and apartment complex has a futsal court- where the only cost to start developing skills and a love of the game are shoes and a ball.

It wouldn't be a pipe dream if soccer were more popular.

Hell, our rich guys toss ridiculous money into college athletics with zero hope of ROI.

If soccer were as popular as Big 3, pay to play is nearly a non-factor because poor kids would get subsidized.

SKorea beating Mexico 2-1 in the 77th minute