Why Soccer's Popularity is Growing at Such a Fast Clip in the United States

There are so many reasons:


1.  You don't have to be a giant to play the sport.
2.  More kids play soccer than football or baseball.
3.  Soccer is easier to understand than football or baseball.
4.  Climate change has made watching baseball difficult given the length of the game.
5.  Commercial breaks have made football and basketball much less watchable than they have been in the past.
6.  Kids play the FIFA Soccer video game, which is the best team sports' video game out there. 
7.  You can get most major European leagues' games live in the U.S.
8.  Those games require a time commitment of less than two hours.
9.  It is a global game.  The winner of the World Cup is the best in the world; the winner of the World Series is the best in the U.S.
10.  Baseball's post-season games usually go past most people's bed times and sometimes start after potential young fans' bed times.
11.  The violence within football that potentially maims the participants for life is disturbing and not a positive factor for the NFL.


There are many other reasons.  The average age of a fan of MLB is 55 years ago.  My family went to one game this year -- to say goodbye to Chase Utley -- whom we watched in his prime -- in July.  My 19 year-old son says that baseball was the game that I went to with my father; he goes to basketball and soccer games with me.  My 21 year-old daughter likes baseball; it's a dad-and-daughter thing, and we go a couple of times a year.  We like the sounds, the smells, the sight lines, and all of the things that go into the atmosphere of a baseball game.  Besides, with the ball's being in play for only 15 minutes out of the three hours plus you are at the stadium, you can catch up on life.


And soccer is diverse.  The fans are diverse. and what a better way to bring people together than to celebrate a truly international game?  Basketball at times can come close, but you cannot make the same arguments about football or ice hockey. 


Baseball and football have serious issues.  Their leadership should remember that about 45 years ago among the most popular sports were boxing and horse racing, the latter because the track was the only place one could place a bet legally outside Nevada.  Fast forward to today, and whither boxing (a shadow of its former self and suffering in comparison to MMA) and horse racing (you can bet anywhere, and tracks are fewer and farther between; the sport lives for its major events)?  This is not to argue that football and baseball could suffer the same fate, but it also is not to argue that such a fate is impossible.  Baseball should consider shortening its games; football should consider all sorts of technology to protect its participants.  And both should do it fast.


Just look at Atlanta -- the soccer team there is more popular than the Braves, and the Braves had a great season with some of the game's rising stars.  And yet. . .


Pick a soccer team, learn the game, relate better to your neighbors and co-workers, and your kids.  You will be glad that you did.