"A couple of world titles?" That's more than England has and they seem to sell it just fine. There are only about 4 teams that have ever even won it twice.

Yes, that is what it will take for the world's super power to be considered a DOMINANT force in the sport.

Soccer is the most participated sport in elementary school because its easy to learn and no one gets hurt. When they hit middle school almost 75% of the kids drop out. Why? Because they figured out they are not that good and running around chasing a ball is no longer fun.

It use to be baseball was king in elementary school but now when little Johnny gets hit with a pitched baseball its all of a sudden not fun anymore.

Football? Very few kids try that more than one year. Again, people are hitting you and it can sometimes hurt.

Look for tetherball championships soon.

My son was like that at first, but once he figured out he could just wait a few plays and give it back, he suddenly liked football... A LOT.

Last year was his first year, it will be interesting to see if he wants to do it when it comes time to sign up again. Hopefully I can pack a few pounds on him this offseason :)

DT

football makes kids violent, it's not appropriate. :thailor:

No one gets hurt?

Let's see, I've seen a concussions, broken arm, broken ankle, fractured leg just from kids that I know who have played varying in age from 10-16. I'm talking premier to High School level. NOT Rec soccer.

Then perhaps Johnson County should offer up an incentive package.

Technically, it's 90+ minutes.

And no, we're not being "taken over by foreigners." But like it or not, immigrants are coming here and will probably continue to come here and their entertainment dollars will start to help dictate what gets covered in this country.

To me, soccer is more consistently interesting than baseball and football. Non-stop action for 45 minutes. There are commercial time outs or people waiting around for a ball to fly over home plate every 45 seconds. It's infinitely more interesting than NASCAR, but people each have their own idea of what they like.

I'm not saying that anyone HAS to like soccer. I really don't care if you do or you don't. But it being here will help bring entertainment dollars to this city and that can only be a good thing.

I wish they would. It sure beats driving to MO and giving them our $. But, I digress, the last initiative was bad though I still supported it. It lost badly.

They also want the city to own the stadium. I think the mayor is right in this case.

Not likely to happen in our lifetimes. I'd just be happy with consistently being able to move out of the group stage in the WC and win 1 or 2 games in the semis.

Of course, I never thought I'd see England fail to qualify for Euro 2008, either.

I think it's quite likely they'll win one. Think of how far they've come in a relatively short time. They are serious contenders now. That is the first step.

This marks the end of soccer in KC.

Good riddance.

Not at all. We'll be considered a force in the sport when we consistently have our starting 11 players playing overseas and STARTING in their leagues. Currently, the only real *star* we have is Tim Howard, and he's a keeper. Dempsey is impressing at Fulham, as did McBride. Bocanegra is okay, but still wouldn't start on one of the better teams in the EPL. Freddy Adu could be great, as could Altidore, but the jury is still out on them.

Until the US develops a great striker and a couple of midfield players who can actually link up with that guy, we won't ever do anything in international soccer.

No, people drop out of soccer because there's not the promise of full-ride scholarships followed by multi-million dollar pro-sports contracts. If pro soccer paid as well as the NFL or MLB, I guarantee you people wouldn't drop out so quickly. And people aren't dropping out as quickly as they used to.