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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips - No Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (81370)	6/19/2002 12:02:31 PM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 99280

Speaking of contenders, the US, despite its size and wealth, will never produce contenders on anything like a regular basis, only a surprise basis, until the sport actually takes hold in the youth's day to day activities (as it does in Europe and South America). American soccer is played by and large by kids attending some sort of organized soccer league or school team, and camps, etc. in the summer. Moms and Dads (e.g. soccer moms) do the driving. You rarely, if ever, see any children practicing soccer on their own, playing 2 on 2, 3 on 3, or grabbing a little patch of grass or alley to practice their skills (which, see, generally, favelas in Brasil). The best players, by the end of high school, have been produced via thousands of gallons of gasoline (for travel) and tens of thousands of dollars of premier club fees, coaching fees, tournament fees, summer camp fees, invitational summer camp fees. And, because of this financial elitism of American soccer, many of the best potential players never get a chance. The real sport in America is the one that owns American youth's mindshare almost completely. Basketball. Kids, solo, duo, trio, quartet, playing with a basketball on the sidewalk, in the streets, with a broken hoop, a hoop over the garage, etc. Little kids, alone, after dinner, practicing a crossover dribble until they're dizzy with it, shooting foul shots in the rain, talking to themselves. Mindshare. As far as I can see, American soccer is still and will remain a very small mindshare sport--we will continually have to recruit players from overseas or ship our own off (Brian Donovan has been playing for a German team since he was 16?). Until this changes, perhaps decades, American soccer will be about as potent on the world stage as Chinese basketball. Kb