The Super Bowl, gridiron’s crowning spectacle. Last year’s Super Bowl had a record setting viewership of around 115 million viewers, and this year’s event was expected to top that. Across the pond it is estimated that 450 million viewers watched Manchester City lift the Champion’s League trophy, the highest achievement in club soccer, last year. Obviously 450 million is a lot more than 115 million, but of those 450 million viewers, only about 2.6 million were Americans.
Interest in professional soccer has grown immensely over the last 10-15 years in the United States, but if we as a nation want to one day compete with the best, we have a long way to go.
Now, I will admit that the Champion’s League final as a weathervane for the American public’s views is a bit skewed as it is a notably Eurocentric competition and neither team in the final featured an American player on their roster. But on the other hand, the Champion’s League final is the most important annual game in the sport and is only eclipsed as the most important game of the year during a World Cup (every fourth year).
I watched that final in Istanbul last May, but I am a bit of an anomaly among Americans. I love soccer. I come by it honestly. All five of my elder siblings played and four went on to coach too. Even my dad was in on the action, regularly refereeing. As may be expected, therefore, I was taught to kick a ball as soon as I could walk. Between watching an older sibling or playing myself, I practically grew up at the field and played competitively for over 15 years.
My first exposure to pro soccer was in my older brother’s room in the mid to early 2000s when he would play Nike or Pepsi ads featuring the likes of Ronaldinho (still my all-time favorite player and the only reason I chose Brazil for the Geography Fair), David Beckham, Francesco Totti, Kaka, Ronaldo (the eyebrow haircut Ronaldo, not Cristiano), Edgar Davids and many others. During the 2010 World Cup, we went to my godparents’ house (they had cable) nearly every day to watch games. Either then or during the 2012 Euros, my love for professional soccer took root and it has only grown since then.
I say all that to illustrate, one, my love of soccer and two, my knowledge of the sport.
It has been with great joy that I have witnessed a blossoming interest in my beloved sport among the American public. Recent studies show that soccer has supplanted Ice Hockey as Americans’ fourth favorite sport and catching baseball soon is not at all out of the question. There are a lot of factors that have boosted that growth in recent years. First, soccer is one of the most popular youth sports in the country. Second, there is a better infrastructure for those that want to learn the sport in the US than ever before. Finally, Major League Soccer, better known as MLS and the top division of the sport in the US, has grown and improved a lot in the last 15 years and is pulling in consistently strong attendances.
However, for all that is good and to be praised though, there are still a lot of issues with the American soccer picture.
Americans like to be the best. Unfortunately, we are not even close to being the best, either in our league system or in our national team (at least, in our men’s national team. The USWNT bolstered by Title IX reforms is of the best women’s teams, though even they could not retain their crown in the most recent Women’s World Cup). Our national team is much improved compared to the 2017 team that failed to qualify for the World Cup by losing to Trinidad and Tobago, but even still, we do not currently crack the top-10 best national teams in the world. This, unfortunately, makes it harder for casual American fans to be invested.
A bigger problem for the growth of the sport is the MLS. Before I trash it, I will say there is much to praise MLS for. It did what none of its predecessors could: survive as a soccer league in a country that didn’t care. Furthermore, since David Beckham’s unveiling for the LA Galaxy in 2007, MLS has grown up a lot. Youth development is better than it ever has been at MLS Academies, attendances have improved and the addition of several new teams means more people can attend a local team’s game. MLS academies are free for any player good enough, finally moving past the Pay-to-Play system that has kept America’s low income children out of the sport. It is vital for the growth of the sport that MLS thrives, and fans continue to go to games.
However, MLS’s international reputation is that of a joke and a retirement home for washed up and practically retired former stars. This keeps a lot of American fans away.
I do not want to wade too far into the weeds here, so I will summarize the MLS’s issues as either an unwillingness or incapability of the MLS Board to address the actual issues with the league (like adding promotion and relegation). Even many of their solutions are either disliked by fans or simply aren’t good ideas. They are determined to run the league as if it were the NFL or NBA, but without the money behind it and while competing with much better leagues.
MLS continues to hold a draft, even though every team already has its own academy where it should be investing. MLS continues to have a wage cap, even though its cap of only 5.2 million annually means that it is blown out of the water by other leagues’ payrolls. MLS’s refusal to add promotion and relegation means that there is a lack of intensity in MLS games compared to any other league in the world. Compounding all this is the United States Soccer Federation’s (USSF) struggles with nepotism and passivity.
Yet I have hope. Both MLS and USSF have shown an ability in the past to learn and improve, even if there are many growing pains before they get it right. And despite their best efforts, the sport is still growing in the US.
Growing up, it was a rare treat for a TV channel to play a soccer game on a Saturday. Now it almost seems commonplace. 2.6 million Americans tuned into the Champions League final last year, which seems small, but compared to a few years ago when that number was closer to 1.6 million, it looks pretty nice. Three major competitions (the Copa America, Club World Cup and most importantly the actual World Cup) will be hosted on American soil in the next three years, giving Americans access to the best of the sport in their own backyard.
The future is bright for American soccer and I am ready for many of my compatriots to join me in my love for the beautiful game.
