Sporting KC New York Times | Soccer in the U.S. Heartland: Kansas City Transformed - Page 16

|Zach| · 07-23-2013, 12:23 PM

Soccer in the U.S. Heartland: Kansas City Transformed

There are, of course, no official records, but it is generally accepted that the introduction of the Zardmeister was the low point in Kansas City soccer history.

A high-strung gentleman with a memorably awful haircut, the Zardmeister roamed the paltry Wizards crowds at Arrowhead Stadium in 2003, ostensibly whipping his fellow fans into a froth. Since Tony Meola was the team’s goalkeeper, the Zardmeister shrieked, “Me Likey!” and then waited for fans to respond — presumably without choking — “Me-ola!” The Zardmeister also attempted to lead groups of fans in a clownish chant that went, “I’m a Zard, You’re a Zard, We All Are Zards!”

“I actually heard him misspell ‘Zard’ one time,” Mike Gaughan, a season-ticket holder since 1997 and a former president of the team’s supporters’ club, said recently. “It was a disaster.”

There was no anger in Gaughan’s voice though, only a bit of mirth a decade later. In a reversal that Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber calls “one of the great sports turnarounds in the history of soccer in America,” Kansas City — which will host the M.L.S. All-Star Game on July 31— has become a seemingly unlikely hotbed for professional soccer. The rise of the sport in the heart of the United States has been so sharp, observers say, that it now rivals the standard set by the league’s two most prominent success stories in Seattle and Portland, Ore.

Attendance at Kansas City’s new soccer stadium, Sporting Park, is at capacity. The United States national team has made the area a regular part of its rotation for important international matches. Even television ratings, which have long been disappointing for M.L.S., are at least increasing on a relative scale.

The turnaround has been startling: as recently as seven years ago, Wizards merchandise sales ranked dead-last in M.L.S., behind even the sales of items featuring only the league’s generic logo. As recently as four years ago, the team played on a field that was shoehorned into a minor-league baseball stadium. As recently as three years ago, the number of people watching games on TV frequently came in at numbers one might think would be only slightly above public-access shows.

“I’ve seen a lot of teams get new stadiums, including the Red Bulls in my own backyard and it’s no guarantee that everything gets fixed,” said Meola, a New Jersey resident who played 10 years in M.L.S. “But in Kansas City they’re pushing the right buttons.”

‘A Lot of Screaming Kids’

The history of soccer in Kansas City is not particularly auspicious. Yes, there was a time when the local indoor team, the Comets, actually outdrew the city’s N.B.A. team (the Kansas City Kings subsequently moved to Sacramento in 1985), but St. Louis was typically seen as the region’s more soccer-crazy city, primarily because of its concentration of high-quality youth clubs and high-school teams.

Soccer participation in Kansas City, though, was always prominent. When Lamar Hunt, who owned the N.F.L.'s Chiefs, purchased the right to operate an original M.L.S. team in 1996, the thinking was simple: tap into the large number of families involved in youth soccer and get them to Arrowhead.

“What I really remember is a lot of screaming kids,” said Laura Hendricks, a longtime fan whose family has attended games since the team’s first season. “There was no real investment. They were there because it was something to do.”

Often, the team’s performance on the field felt secondary. In the early years, team executives met each Thursday before a Saturday game to discuss that weekend’s promotional gimmick. One official recounted a day when heavy rain began near the end of the first half, prompting another anxious executive to screech over the team’s in-house walkie-talkie system that “whatever we do, don’t cancel the mini-ponies!” that had been rented to give rides to fans at halftime.

“To be fair, a lot of that was happening all across the league early on,” said Chris Klein, who played for the Wizards from 1998 to 2005 and is now the president of the Los Angeles Galaxy. “Everyone was trying to figure out where M.L.S. fit into the American culture and how to make it work.”

In the standings, the Wizards actually had a measure of success. They even won the M.L.S. championship in 2000 but the club still struggled to embed itself in the community. Rob Thomson, the team’s executive vice president for communications, recalled driving home from work once in the early 2000’s and seeing another car with a Wizards bumper sticker. Thomson excitedly sped up to try and wave at the person in the other car. “I pulled up alongside and it was someone I worked with,” he said.

By 2004, with attendance languishing despite good results from the team, the Hunts — who also owned M.L.S. teams in Dallas and Columbus, Ohio — began exploring a possible sale. Given the commercial struggles of the club, there was persistent speculation that the team might be moved (Philadelphia was often suggested), and Garber admitted that relocation was considered.

Ultimately, the club stayed put after the Hunts found interest from a six-man, locally based group led by the co-owners of an electronic medical systems company. The sale of the team was completed in 2006 and the goal, Garber said, “was an immediate sea change” in approach as the new group set out to rejuvenate operations with a stadium designed for soccer at the heart of the plan.

New Owners, New Approach

During the summer of 2010, Robb Heineman, the team’s president and one of the six new owners, knew the coming six months would be crucial. The Wizards had spent the previous four years playing in a minor-league baseball stadium, essentially treading water while waiting for their transformation.

As the 2011 season approached, however, the new stadium was nearing completion and a rebranding — including the team’s name, colors, logo and uniform — was imminent. With those tangible changes nearly in place and a financial outlay that ended up being close to $300 million on the line, club officials talked often about the need to find a lasting relevancy in the community.

“In a lot of ways, that summer of 2010 was really a tipping point for us,” Heineman said in recent interview. “It was a combination of good timing and good planning.”

First, the team organized watch parties for the World Cup matches that summer, taking over the popular Power & Light District area downtown and attracting young professionals as opposed to the families that had been the focus of marketing efforts for so many years early on.

The team hoped for a decent turnout at the parties as a way to build a presence ahead of the rebranding; instead, thousands of fans went to the outdoor plaza area, and for games involving the United States team the crowds swelled to as large as 12,000. When ESPN showed highlights of American fans watching games back home, Kansas City was often portrayed as the hub; the crowd’s histrionics after Landon Donovan’s last-second goal against Algeria were captured in a plethora of YouTube montages.

Then, less than a month later, the Wizards played an exhibition against Manchester United at Arrowhead Stadium. More than 50,000 fans bought tickets but a majority appeared to be wearing the English team’s colors and cheering for the visitors at the start.

That situation was standard for a match between an M.L.S. team and a European power at the time and yet, despite the crowd and despite having a player ejected after only a half-hour, the Wizards pulled off a stunning upset, beating United by 2-1. At the final whistle, the fans — many still wearing Manchester United gear - exploded with glee. “The next day our phones literally went down because so many people were calling,” Heineman said.

Determined to capitalize on the soccer surge, the club increased its attention on attracting younger fans. Its approach was simple: in a city where the Chiefs and Royals play in older stadiums and have played poorly for a long time, “the 18-to-35 demographic here didn’t grow up with much success from those brands,” Heineman said.

He added, “We thought we could give them something different.”

The connection was multilayered. Greg Cotton, the team’s general counsel and chief of staff, had been a longtime member of the team’s main supporters’ club, known as the Cauldron, so during the transition Cotton was a constant voice for the fans. Team executives even enlisted help from the Cauldron when designing areas for the supporters’ groups in the new stadium. Like many European teams have done, a members’ bar for the supporters’ club was built at the stadium to encourage more time on site.

Technology was critical, too. Two of the team’s new owners, Cliff Illig and Neal Patterson, were the co-founders of Cerner Corporation, a leading provider of electronic medical systems. With that software background, it was not surprising that Sporting Park came with a strong Wi-Fi presence, constant social media connections among fans, and the stadium’s video boards and advanced camera systems that made for more entertaining replays.

The team also embraced social media away from the stadium, with Heineman often asking questions of fans on Twitter to help guide club decisions.

“It was like apples and oranges from before,” Gaughan said. “There was a deeper commitment to building a connection. It wasn’t just a ‘you-buy-tickets’ thing. It was more.”

That thinking went into the team’s name change as well. As the club approached its rebranding in the winter of 2010, it mulled a number of traditional American sports team names proposed by a consulting agency. Among the top suggestions was the Kansas City Bees because, the consultants said, the bee is the official insect of both Missouri and Kansas.

Instead, the club opted for Sporting Kansas City, a European-sounding name that was emblematic of its hope of becoming more than just a soccer team. The Sporting name also dovetailed with the club’s European-style soccer stadium and concerted effort to appeal to the serious soccer fan.

For the most part, it has worked. In 2011, the first year at Sporting Park, the team’s average attendance was 17,810. In 2012, it was 19,017. This season, it is 19,709 and Sporting has a streak of 27 consecutive league match sellouts as it has surged to a four-point lead atop the Eastern Conference.

To be sure, everything is not perfect. While the team trumpets its significant television ratings increase, the numbers are relative: ratings this season have generally been around 1.1 or so, which is up from the 0.1 that was standard in 2010 but still far below, say, the 5.8 that the Royals are averaging this season despite being six games under .500.

Still, Sporting’s relevance cannot be denied. Segments on local sports talk radio are now dedicated to soccer — something that was unimaginable in the past — and Thomson, the executive who recalled his excitement (and subsequent disappointment) at seeing a Wizards bumper sticker on the car in front of him years ago, said he was especially heartened when he pulled up at a drive-thru window recently and was immediately serenaded with one of Sporting’s fan chants from the employees inside. “They saw the logo on my shirt,” Thomson said.

Hendricks, the longtime fan, said that she too has reveled in the way Sporting has moved into the mainstream consciousness, but she also occasionally wonders what will happen if the team, which has won its division each of the past two seasons, begins to struggle.

Sports are cyclical, she said, and there will surely come a time when Sporting begins to falter. Will the interest wane then? Will the crowds diminish? Could there even come a time when the Zardmeister, or at least a distant relative, resurfaces?

Hendricks laughed. “I think those days are long gone,” she said. “It’s not manufactured here anymore. It’s real.”

AussieChiefsFan · 07-25-2013, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guru

You really are a whiny ass lately. That time of the month?

That's funny. Frazod just neg repped me, saying that I'm a whinny vag for calling him narcissistic. Guess it takes one to know one then.

blaise · 07-25-2013, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aturnis

NBA and NHL Get the Boot: MLS Is the 3rd Most Attended Sports League in Americahttp://m.bleacherreport.com/articles...gue-in-america

You were saying? 3rd most popular sport in America. Nobody watches basketball.

Right, no one watches basketball. I'm sure MLS's TV ratings are much higher than the NBA's.

AussieChiefsFan · 07-25-2013, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blaise

Right, no one watches basketball. I'm sure MLS's TV ratings are much higher than the NBA's.

It just shows that when a sport that isn't one of the big four, the few fans that sport has, tend to be pretty dedicated. Whereas, as we all know too well, there's a lot of fairweather NFL fans.

blaise · 07-25-2013, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AussieChiefsFan

It just shows that when a sport that isn't one of the big four, the few fans that sport has, tend to be pretty dedicated. Whereas, as we all know too well, there's a lot of fairweather NFL fans.

I know what it shows. I was responding to the ridiculous statement that "nobody watches basketball." The NHL draws almost as many fans as the NBA but I wouldn't pretend the NHL is as healthy as the NBA.

**Reaper16** · 07-25-2013, 10:58 PM

"Nobody watches basketball" is the whitest thing I've heard all day.

-King- · 07-25-2013, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reaper16

"Nobody watches basketball" is the whitest thing I've heard all day.

SPATCH · 07-25-2013, 11:20 PM

One reason why soccer will continue with its upward trajectory in America is due to the fact that it is a fairly safe sport. More and more parents will be steering their children away from football and towards a "safe" sport like soccer as the concern over head injuries increases. In fact, it's already happening.

I am not saying that soccer will overtake football in popularity anytime soon, but more and more kids are growing up playing soccer; and I see no reason why soccer won't continue its trend upward.

*Edit: I love football. I played organized tackle football from 3-12th grade. I had one diagnosed concussion and multiple undiagnosed concussions. I'm not sure how much my mind was affected (or will be) but it scares the shit out of me.

I do not have any children, but when I do I will strongly considering nudging them toward soccer instead of playing football.

SPATCH · 07-25-2013, 11:25 PM

Soccer captured my imagination about 10 years ago. Soccer seemed like the final frontier of American sport, and that fascinated me.

Beating the rest of the world at their own game is a huge undertaking, but it is just so American to go ahead and do it.

**morphius** · 07-25-2013, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_spatula

One reason why soccer will continue with its upward trajectory in America is due to the fact that it is a fairly safe sport. More and more parents will be steering their children away from football and towards a "safe" sport like soccer as the concern over head injuries increases. In fact, it's already happening.

I am not saying that soccer will overtake football in popularity anytime soon, but more and more kids are growing up playing soccer; and I see no reason why soccer won't continue its trend upward.

*Edit: I love football. I played organized tackle football from 3-12th grade. I had one diagnosed concussion and multiple undiagnosed concussions. I'm not sure how much my mind was affected (or will be) but it scares the shit out of me.

I do not have any children, but when I do I will strongly considering nudging them toward soccer instead of playing football.

I believe there are actually a lot of head injuries in soccer from all the heading of the ball, not sure where I heard that, but I know it came out in the last couple years.

blaise · 07-26-2013, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morphius

I believe there are actually a lot of head injuries in soccer from all the heading of the ball, not sure where I heard that, but I know it came out in the last couple years.

I tell my 9 year old not to do it unless it's just a throw in or something. They don't really know how to judge where it hits their head and how fast it's going so they'll just let it smash their face thinking they're doing something good. But they're so little and some of these kids actually kick very hard.
It can really rattle them if they catch it wrong.

Chest Rockwell · 07-26-2013, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by |Zach|

That's DCU in it's essence this year. Sloppy in the defensive end and midfield. Poor passing/situational awareness followed by complete lapses in anything resembling competency. Also they can't ****ing score. Mainly because they do shit like that through the midfield and back end constantly.

But the unis are sweet and starting in 2016 at least I get to see shitty product in a sweet new stadium. Vamos United!

Also, Zach, you sir, are a dick for posting this. It's not enough I have to see it once? I get to relive these moments on the planet too? Eeeeeeffff Yoooooouuuuu.

AussieChiefsFan · 07-26-2013, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reaper16

"Nobody watches basketball" is the whitest thing I've heard all day.

Demonpenz · 07-26-2013, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reaper16

"Nobody watches basketball" is the whitest thing I've heard all day.

reminds me of that episode of Wings...

Demonpenz · 07-26-2013, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morphius

I believe there are actually a lot of head injuries in soccer from all the heading of the ball, not sure where I heard that, but I know it came out in the last couple years.

In little kids because they don't know proper technique.

**007** · 07-26-2013, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frazod

Ahem

And seriously, have you never made that drive? It's horrible. They should sentence child molesters and ax murderers to making that drive.

The only thing worse would be.... watching soccer.

I dread that last 250 miles because it is just boring as hell. There is more to see in Kansas. Until I see Denver and the mountains right behind I just don't care.

07-23-2013, 12:23 PM
\|Zach\| For The Glory Of The City Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $5206768	New York Times \| Soccer in the U.S. Heartland: Kansas City Transformed Soccer in the U.S. Heartland: Kansas City Transformed There are, of course, no official records, but it is generally accepted that the introduction of the Zardmeister was the low point in Kansas City soccer history. A high-strung gentleman with a memorably awful haircut, the Zardmeister roamed the paltry Wizards crowds at Arrowhead Stadium in 2003, ostensibly whipping his fellow fans into a froth. Since Tony Meola was the team’s goalkeeper, the Zardmeister shrieked, “Me Likey!” and then waited for fans to respond — presumably without choking — “Me-ola!” The Zardmeister also attempted to lead groups of fans in a clownish chant that went, “I’m a Zard, You’re a Zard, We All Are Zards!” “I actually heard him misspell ‘Zard’ one time,” Mike Gaughan, a season-ticket holder since 1997 and a former president of the team’s supporters’ club, said recently. “It was a disaster.” There was no anger in Gaughan’s voice though, only a bit of mirth a decade later. In a reversal that Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber calls “one of the great sports turnarounds in the history of soccer in America,” Kansas City — which will host the M.L.S. All-Star Game on July 31— has become a seemingly unlikely hotbed for professional soccer. The rise of the sport in the heart of the United States has been so sharp, observers say, that it now rivals the standard set by the league’s two most prominent success stories in Seattle and Portland, Ore. Attendance at Kansas City’s new soccer stadium, Sporting Park, is at capacity. The United States national team has made the area a regular part of its rotation for important international matches. Even television ratings, which have long been disappointing for M.L.S., are at least increasing on a relative scale. The turnaround has been startling: as recently as seven years ago, Wizards merchandise sales ranked dead-last in M.L.S., behind even the sales of items featuring only the league’s generic logo. As recently as four years ago, the team played on a field that was shoehorned into a minor-league baseball stadium. As recently as three years ago, the number of people watching games on TV frequently came in at numbers one might think would be only slightly above public-access shows. “I’ve seen a lot of teams get new stadiums, including the Red Bulls in my own backyard and it’s no guarantee that everything gets fixed,” said Meola, a New Jersey resident who played 10 years in M.L.S. “But in Kansas City they’re pushing the right buttons.” ‘A Lot of Screaming Kids’ The history of soccer in Kansas City is not particularly auspicious. Yes, there was a time when the local indoor team, the Comets, actually outdrew the city’s N.B.A. team (the Kansas City Kings subsequently moved to Sacramento in 1985), but St. Louis was typically seen as the region’s more soccer-crazy city, primarily because of its concentration of high-quality youth clubs and high-school teams. Soccer participation in Kansas City, though, was always prominent. When Lamar Hunt, who owned the N.F.L.'s Chiefs, purchased the right to operate an original M.L.S. team in 1996, the thinking was simple: tap into the large number of families involved in youth soccer and get them to Arrowhead. “What I really remember is a lot of screaming kids,” said Laura Hendricks, a longtime fan whose family has attended games since the team’s first season. “There was no real investment. They were there because it was something to do.” Often, the team’s performance on the field felt secondary. In the early years, team executives met each Thursday before a Saturday game to discuss that weekend’s promotional gimmick. One official recounted a day when heavy rain began near the end of the first half, prompting another anxious executive to screech over the team’s in-house walkie-talkie system that “whatever we do, don’t cancel the mini-ponies!” that had been rented to give rides to fans at halftime. “To be fair, a lot of that was happening all across the league early on,” said Chris Klein, who played for the Wizards from 1998 to 2005 and is now the president of the Los Angeles Galaxy. “Everyone was trying to figure out where M.L.S. fit into the American culture and how to make it work.” In the standings, the Wizards actually had a measure of success. They even won the M.L.S. championship in 2000 but the club still struggled to embed itself in the community. Rob Thomson, the team’s executive vice president for communications, recalled driving home from work once in the early 2000’s and seeing another car with a Wizards bumper sticker. Thomson excitedly sped up to try and wave at the person in the other car. “I pulled up alongside and it was someone I worked with,” he said. By 2004, with attendance languishing despite good results from the team, the Hunts — who also owned M.L.S. teams in Dallas and Columbus, Ohio — began exploring a possible sale. Given the commercial struggles of the club, there was persistent speculation that the team might be moved (Philadelphia was often suggested), and Garber admitted that relocation was considered. Ultimately, the club stayed put after the Hunts found interest from a six-man, locally based group led by the co-owners of an electronic medical systems company. The sale of the team was completed in 2006 and the goal, Garber said, “was an immediate sea change” in approach as the new group set out to rejuvenate operations with a stadium designed for soccer at the heart of the plan. New Owners, New Approach During the summer of 2010, Robb Heineman, the team’s president and one of the six new owners, knew the coming six months would be crucial. The Wizards had spent the previous four years playing in a minor-league baseball stadium, essentially treading water while waiting for their transformation. As the 2011 season approached, however, the new stadium was nearing completion and a rebranding — including the team’s name, colors, logo and uniform — was imminent. With those tangible changes nearly in place and a financial outlay that ended up being close to $300 million on the line, club officials talked often about the need to find a lasting relevancy in the community. “In a lot of ways, that summer of 2010 was really a tipping point for us,” Heineman said in recent interview. “It was a combination of good timing and good planning.” First, the team organized watch parties for the World Cup matches that summer, taking over the popular Power & Light District area downtown and attracting young professionals as opposed to the families that had been the focus of marketing efforts for so many years early on. The team hoped for a decent turnout at the parties as a way to build a presence ahead of the rebranding; instead, thousands of fans went to the outdoor plaza area, and for games involving the United States team the crowds swelled to as large as 12,000. When ESPN showed highlights of American fans watching games back home, Kansas City was often portrayed as the hub; the crowd’s histrionics after Landon Donovan’s last-second goal against Algeria were captured in a plethora of YouTube montages. Then, less than a month later, the Wizards played an exhibition against Manchester United at Arrowhead Stadium. More than 50,000 fans bought tickets but a majority appeared to be wearing the English team’s colors and cheering for the visitors at the start. That situation was standard for a match between an M.L.S. team and a European power at the time and yet, despite the crowd and despite having a player ejected after only a half-hour, the Wizards pulled off a stunning upset, beating United by 2-1. At the final whistle, the fans — many still wearing Manchester United gear - exploded with glee. “The next day our phones literally went down because so many people were calling,” Heineman said. Determined to capitalize on the soccer surge, the club increased its attention on attracting younger fans. Its approach was simple: in a city where the Chiefs and Royals play in older stadiums and have played poorly for a long time, “the 18-to-35 demographic here didn’t grow up with much success from those brands,” Heineman said. He added, “We thought we could give them something different.” The connection was multilayered. Greg Cotton, the team’s general counsel and chief of staff, had been a longtime member of the team’s main supporters’ club, known as the Cauldron, so during the transition Cotton was a constant voice for the fans. Team executives even enlisted help from the Cauldron when designing areas for the supporters’ groups in the new stadium. Like many European teams have done, a members’ bar for the supporters’ club was built at the stadium to encourage more time on site. Technology was critical, too. Two of the team’s new owners, Cliff Illig and Neal Patterson, were the co-founders of Cerner Corporation, a leading provider of electronic medical systems. With that software background, it was not surprising that Sporting Park came with a strong Wi-Fi presence, constant social media connections among fans, and the stadium’s video boards and advanced camera systems that made for more entertaining replays. The team also embraced social media away from the stadium, with Heineman often asking questions of fans on Twitter to help guide club decisions. “It was like apples and oranges from before,” Gaughan said. “There was a deeper commitment to building a connection. It wasn’t just a ‘you-buy-tickets’ thing. It was more.” That thinking went into the team’s name change as well. As the club approached its rebranding in the winter of 2010, it mulled a number of traditional American sports team names proposed by a consulting agency. Among the top suggestions was the Kansas City Bees because, the consultants said, the bee is the official insect of both Missouri and Kansas. Instead, the club opted for Sporting Kansas City, a European-sounding name that was emblematic of its hope of becoming more than just a soccer team. The Sporting name also dovetailed with the club’s European-style soccer stadium and concerted effort to appeal to the serious soccer fan. For the most part, it has worked. In 2011, the first year at Sporting Park, the team’s average attendance was 17,810. In 2012, it was 19,017. This season, it is 19,709 and Sporting has a streak of 27 consecutive league match sellouts as it has surged to a four-point lead atop the Eastern Conference. To be sure, everything is not perfect. While the team trumpets its significant television ratings increase, the numbers are relative: ratings this season have generally been around 1.1 or so, which is up from the 0.1 that was standard in 2010 but still far below, say, the 5.8 that the Royals are averaging this season despite being six games under .500. Still, Sporting’s relevance cannot be denied. Segments on local sports talk radio are now dedicated to soccer — something that was unimaginable in the past — and Thomson, the executive who recalled his excitement (and subsequent disappointment) at seeing a Wizards bumper sticker on the car in front of him years ago, said he was especially heartened when he pulled up at a drive-thru window recently and was immediately serenaded with one of Sporting’s fan chants from the employees inside. “They saw the logo on my shirt,” Thomson said. Hendricks, the longtime fan, said that she too has reveled in the way Sporting has moved into the mainstream consciousness, but she also occasionally wonders what will happen if the team, which has won its division each of the past two seasons, begins to struggle. Sports are cyclical, she said, and there will surely come a time when Sporting begins to falter. Will the interest wane then? Will the crowds diminish? Could there even come a time when the Zardmeister, or at least a distant relative, resurfaces? Hendricks laughed. “I think those days are long gone,” she said. “It’s not manufactured here anymore. It’s real.”
Posts: 53,468

07-25-2013, 11:20 PM	#232
SPATCH birth of spatch Join Date: May 2008 Casino cash: $10006207	One reason why soccer will continue with its upward trajectory in America is due to the fact that it is a fairly safe sport. More and more parents will be steering their children away from football and towards a "safe" sport like soccer as the concern over head injuries increases. In fact, it's already happening. I am not saying that soccer will overtake football in popularity anytime soon, but more and more kids are growing up playing soccer; and I see no reason why soccer won't continue its trend upward. Edit: I love football. I played organized tackle football from 3-12th grade. I had one diagnosed concussion and multiple undiagnosed concussions. I'm not sure how much my mind was affected (or will be) but it scares the shit out of me. I do not have any children, but when I do I will strongly considering nudging them toward soccer instead of playing football. Last edited by SPATCH; 07-25-2013 at 11:32 PM..*
Posts: 4,569

07-25-2013, 11:25 PM	#233
SPATCH birth of spatch Join Date: May 2008 Casino cash: $10006207	Soccer captured my imagination about 10 years ago. Soccer seemed like the final frontier of American sport, and that fascinated me. Beating the rest of the world at their own game is a huge undertaking, but it is just so American to go ahead and do it.
Posts: 4,569