General Soccer Thread

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thrill
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by thrill »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: What makes it expensive? Serious question...my kid plays, it's less than baseball to join the league and the equipment is considerably less.
https://www.socceramerica.com/publicati ... h-soc.html
http://time.com/money/4037391/soccer-bi ... ly-budget/
The playing, or club, fees alone run to $675 a month. Last year, Steve and Siobhan (pronounced “Shih-VAWN”) paid $17,400 for soccer-related expenses, by far the biggest item in their budget after their mortgage.

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lukethedrifter
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by lukethedrifter »

thrill wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: What makes it expensive? Serious question...my kid plays, it's less than baseball to join the league and the equipment is considerably less.
https://www.socceramerica.com/publicati ... h-soc.html
http://time.com/money/4037391/soccer-bi ... ly-budget/
The playing, or club, fees alone run to $675 a month. Last year, Steve and Siobhan (pronounced “Shih-VAWN”) paid $17,400 for soccer-related expenses, by far the biggest item in their budget after their mortgage.

I have never asked my sister what she paid for her 3 boys to play soccer. It has to be a ton. OTOH the eldest got a schollie to Georgetown and the youngest to Syracuse.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Wow, hadn't seen that. Thanks, Thrill. I remember when I was a kid, there were local optimist teams that did a little traveling but nothing too insane. My boss said his son who is about 10-15 years younger than me got into soccer and thye did a ton of traveling and it was expensive. I'm just naive, I guess, and thought there would be good games/competition locally.

Otoh, like Luke mentions, some of these families will get relief from college expenses if the kids are good enough to get scholarships, and a lot of kids that go that route probably are good enough at some level to get some help with tuition at least.

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mikechamp
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by mikechamp »

Another well-written article about soccer in the U.S.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/arch ... ry/565109/

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thrill
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Re: General Soccer Thread

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The reason I became a soccer fan has retired. Bummer. One of my favorite athletes ever.

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Re: General Soccer Thread

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I was disappointed that they didn't really give him a chance to break the goals record over the last few years. But, one of my all-time favorites! What a pleasure to watch.

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go birds
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by go birds »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:I honestly don't understand why soccer is such a divisive issue in America. I personally love playing it but don't pay much attention to MLS or USMNT until WC qualifiers roll around. So, I'm not the biggest proponent, but some people would rather lose a testicle than play it or watch it or talk about it. I don't get it.

Regardless, I've often wondered what it would take to make America great at soccer and Pulisic's comments were insightful. Still, you'd think the sheer number of players would result in some world class players regardless of having world class training or not. I mean, it's not like America is a dearth of physical talent. Yet, at soccer they seem to be.
it needs to shake the "boring" stigma.

BrntOrngStud
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by BrntOrngStud »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
thrill wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/spor ... cline.html
Youth Soccer Participation Has Fallen Significantly in America
Soccer in America might be at an all time low.
Too expensive. Too big a time commitment. Gotta make youth soccer more accessible.
What makes it expensive? Serious question...my kid plays, it's less than baseball to join the league and the equipment is considerably less.
Soccer IS expensive when played competitively. Select teams charge thousands of dollars. Why is that necessary?

Soccer in the US is an middle class/upper middle class sport (ie a "soccer mom" sport). In the rest of the world, it is more akin to what basketball is here. Played in the streets.

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mikechamp
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by mikechamp »

BrntOrngStud wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
thrill wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/spor ... cline.html
Youth Soccer Participation Has Fallen Significantly in America
Soccer in America might be at an all time low.
Too expensive. Too big a time commitment. Gotta make youth soccer more accessible.
What makes it expensive? Serious question...my kid plays, it's less than baseball to join the league and the equipment is considerably less.
Soccer IS expensive when played competitively. Select teams charge thousands of dollars. Why is that necessary?

Soccer in the US is an middle class/upper middle class sport (ie a "soccer mom" sport). In the rest of the world, it is more akin to what basketball is here. Played in the streets.
To further this point:

I was talking with a fellow dad a couple weeks back. He played club soccer when he was in junior high/high school. His son now plays club soccer. I coach a rec team that's pretty good, and have both this guy's son and a former club soccer player amongst our players. I've been thinking about "elevating" my rec team to the travel level. He said a parent can only coach a club team for so long. Eventually, all teams through US Soccer are required to have a certified trainer. Certified trainers are professional coaches. They might coach 2, 3 or 4 teams at a time, but it's their full time job. The aforementioned father has a friend who is a certified trainer in the St. Louis area, and if I remember correctly, I think he said these trainers get paid $50-60k/year. Who foots the bill for that salary? The families of every kid he coaches.

At what age can the kids no longer be parent coached and require a professional? I believe it is around 10 or 11.

So let's do some quick math: 4 teams with 15 kids per team = 60 kids. That means each family gets to pay between $833-1,000. And that's just for the trainer. That doesn't include tournament/league fees, shoes, shinguards, ball or uniforms. There might even be dues payable to US Soccer. I honestly don't know about that part. But that dollar amount cited earlier also doesn't include the travel expenses. And you might roll your eyes and say, what travel expenses? Well, even if your child's team doesn't go to out-of-town tournaments, you still have to pay for the gas to get to & from wherever they play.

Youth travel/select/tournament teams aren't cheap, regardless of the sport. But the main point is: Soccer isn't exempt, just because it's kids kicking a ball around a grassy field.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: General Soccer Thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Ronaldo being sued for rape in 2009 in his Vegas Penthouse

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/30/us/crist ... index.html

The case devolves even further than most into how stars cover themselves with fixers that go in and intimidate the victim into settling with threats of public humiliation.

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