Quote:
Originally Posted by raju
I remember discussing USAs chances in futures WCs years ago and the popular consensus was that if the sport ever got popular over there, with the money that country has, they could dominate the game forever.
Whats holding you guys up?
whats the pop? about 300 million or so? Surely there`s room for another major sport over there.
I think with a few Americans seeing the financial potential of the big european clubs and investing in them it may speed the process up so that we see more development of the american leagues.
Not much of an indicator i know but "soccer" is mentioned a lot more in imported american tv shows than it ever used to be. 20 years ago you lot were still calling it kickball.
the problem is that the sport just doesn't have roots here in the states yet, and the domestic product isn't exactly the most aesthetically pleasing.
the thing is, if a more attacking style of play happens in the MLS and the speed of the matches picks up, I would have no doubt that it would become more popular.
It took the NFL to have a more attacking style of american football for it to grow(when the AFL passed more while the old NFL had a more stoic style of play) and then keen marketing for the NFL to become as big as it has
the other factor is in making the sport attractive to more then just white suburbanites. It's pathetic that there aren't more domestic hispanic players playing in both the MLS and national team. When Mexican clubs come into the US to play matches the games sell out and the spanish language channels do very good ratings for club matches.
It would also be nice to see the USSF try to make the game more appealing to some of the inner city schools as I would personally imagine that there are some guys who are good at basketball that would be able to translate that athleticism to the pitch
its a matter of harnessing all of avenues available. The MLS doesn't need to be the main league in the US for the US to be more of a football power, it needs to be able to get more of a foothold and become even the 3rd league in the US