estefanio crushing itt

Here's a link to a different report than the one I'd seen several months back. The other one I saw which I can't find showed the NBA being the only major sports league in the last ten years to lower their average fan age (by a couple months if I recall).

This one basically has the NBA and MLS doing a good job and everyone else is screwed. The NHL looks especially bad with an average age of 33 in 2000 and sixteen years later their average age is 49 in 2016. Yikes.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the...ces-2017-06-30

Here's another link with more leagues and apparently from the same source data.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...ip-trends.aspx

Looks to me like the NBA, MLS, and international soccer are the future for USA sports viewing.

The overall age of USA#5's population has gone from a median of 35 years old in 2000 to 37.7 years in 2016 which likely explains the other report I can't find which probably just had the NBA fanbase aging slightly slower than the overall rise of the median age of the entire population.

so what? it's not like a sport is stuck with just the audience they have now until those people die

Golf is dying as a participation sport, too. There's been net course closings in the country for something like 13-14 years in a row.

Right and pro baseball or hockey or golf could all lose half their revenue and still be much larger than MLS is now

Fwiw our 2 best cb didn't play. Brooks was injured and Cameron got Arenaed cause Omar is his og

True, but we should be able to field more than 2 CBs that we'd feel comfortable with in a do-or-die match in CONCACAF. England has, what, 10?

England has +/- zero

England sucks and has no top 25 CB itw, may want to turn to Italy/Germany/Spain for reference

No one is talking about goalkeepers. We're talking about soccer players. Some of those big hoops players might have made good gks. If I remember right, Olajuwon started out as a gk. But that's not what the issue is, although I'll admit that just because of it keeper Costa Rica has a better team than the US does.

It's this kind of thinking that is why the US is so bad at soccer. I'd rather have 10 Busquets than 10 Ibras.

Folks thinking Julio Jones could have developed into a pro soccer player are just delusional about how specific skill sets are. Usain Bolt can't run 1500m in 5 min. Raw athleticism is not the key in soccer.

The perfect (developable, modern) football player is some mix of Xavi/Iniesta/Zidane/Pirlo and guys like Xavi/Iniesta would have been dropped in the US because they are too short, too slow and not athletic enough. (By developable, I mean Ronaldo made himself and Messi is the product of some Marvel Comics genetic experiment).

I agree, but don't see it ever happening. It's just not ingrained in our culture the way it is in the powerhouse countries.

Also, estefanio knows his ****.

Usain absolutely can run a 5 min 1500

Our problem has never been not having athletic enough players. in fact, I think you could argue that we had more athletic players on the field when we played Belgium and still got battered.

The only way that MLS will ever become close to ingrained in our culture is if you make it unique to the other professional sports. That could be done simply by doing what the rest of the world does and incorporate promotion/relegation into the league. That’s not something that the average US sports fan is used to and that change would bring in some much needed excitement to the league. That’s even without the added benefit of the league play becoming better with the need for teams/clubs to be innovative if their team is going to struggle to stay up.

I don't mean the league, I'm referring to the sport itself.

Right, but if you improve the league and get more viewers you’ll get more interest in the sport.

It's much less clear than you think. Carl Lewis ran an 800 in one of those old tv shows. He ran 2:16, losing by 14 seconds to James Lofton (the NFL receiver). I could run 2:16 in the 800 when I was younger. That wouldn't have gotten on my high school track team (nor would a 2:00 for that matter). That's a huge drop off from WR elite 100m to mediocre 800m. The drop off to 1500 is even more substantial. Bolt would have to train a lot to break 5min in the 1500. Maybe his threshhold is 4:40, maybe it's even 4:30 (i doubt it a lot). That's not really the point. The point is that while he's the GOAT in the 100, he's almost certainly not competitive in high school regionals in the 1500m.

This is exactly what I'm saying. For me Jermaine Jones is typical of US soccer. A hard-working athlete with minimal technique and skill.

Maybe not Julio Jones specifically, but certainly having more athletic players on the team wouldn't be a bad thing.

The article in the Guardian made it pretty clear what the problem is - pay to play is killing player development. The best prospects for the US are in the same neighborhoods that are providing the country with its elite football and basketball prospects. And that's exactly where none of the best soccer players being developed by the country are coming from. So instead of Julio Jones, we get Michael Bradley. And you aren't going to win anything with Michael Bradley.

OK but Busquets is sick and also a fairly large, athletic footballer.

You perhaps took my point too literally. When I say 10 Ibras, I mean 10 players of Ibras size and strength and skill who will all willingly play their role on the pitch. In that situation, Ibras win.

Soccer people tend to underrate physical size and strength and claim its a skill game. It is a skill game, obviously, but when that skill comes in a 6'5" strong and fast package, it's devastating.

Arena has officially resigned, not a big surprise I guess.

https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/new...018-world-cup/

Is this like how the demographics for republicans are really bad and how they will never win a presidency when obama's 2 term's are done? Please see the republican party is doomed (I forgot the real name, but it is something like that) thread in politics for more info.

Oh boy, the NFLers playing soccer fight again. Sizzling takes in here.

Good riddance Arena