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- Oct 25, 2006
Like some of you stated, part of the challenge remains making high-class development in soccer available to the young ones who have the goods, talent-wise, but have barriers due to the system in place. It's not just about convincing kids/future athletes that are playing basketball, baseball, or football to choose soccer as their primary sport.
With the NBA and NFL, the obvious advantage is free youth development (for the most part). Elite basketball and football players play in their respective High School squad, with most of the funding provided by those institutions. None of that Pay-To-Play crap that's going on with Soccer across the country. There are local U8 and U9 teams here in Seattle that require parents to pay almost $2K annually (preadolescent level!). If kids progress through the local development flow charts, the registration fees go up. Not only that, tournaments where "talent scouts" show up, and college showcases are held, come at huge costs for families who have to pay out of pocket for roundtrip flights to cities all over the country, hotels, etc.
The USSF needs to stop trying to find ways to make the Beautiful Game work with our culture, but instead modify our culture to become relevant and evolve within the Beautiful Game.
With the NBA and NFL, the obvious advantage is free youth development (for the most part). Elite basketball and football players play in their respective High School squad, with most of the funding provided by those institutions. None of that Pay-To-Play crap that's going on with Soccer across the country. There are local U8 and U9 teams here in Seattle that require parents to pay almost $2K annually (preadolescent level!). If kids progress through the local development flow charts, the registration fees go up. Not only that, tournaments where "talent scouts" show up, and college showcases are held, come at huge costs for families who have to pay out of pocket for roundtrip flights to cities all over the country, hotels, etc.
The USSF needs to stop trying to find ways to make the Beautiful Game work with our culture, but instead modify our culture to become relevant and evolve within the Beautiful Game.