In my last column of the semester, I want to look at the future of soccer in the U.S. and what needs to happen for the sport to become more mainstream. After all, if soccer doesn't get more popular, I'll still be the only guy waking up at 7:45 on a Saturday morning to watch a grainy Internet stream of the English Premier League. And that's no fun. So, without further ado, my top three keys to soccer's popularity in the States:
1. Develop the Youth
For soccer to really become a sport Americans care about, it has to start with young children, more of whom need to be taught to follow and play the game. Just imagine if, instead of a dad teaching his son about the Red Sox and the finer points of the national pastime, the focus were on the New England Revolution and the art of the free kick.
There are two main ways to achieve this utopic vision: Increase investment in academy and development teams and continue to market the sport aggressively. The fruits of this strategy have already started to show themselves: There is a wealth of young, American talent in the MLS (for example, 18-year-old striker Juan Agudelo of the New York Red Bulls), while thanks to the 2010 World Cup, more young people are interested in the game than ever before. If that trend continues, American soccer will be of a higher quality, and the fans of the game here will be stronger in number and intensity.
2. Access, Access, Access
This is where my grainy Internet stream comes in. If you're a soccer fan in the U.S., you know how difficult it can sometimes be to watch your favorite team play in Europe (or South America). If the game's not on TV or espn3.com, you basically have no option except to resort to a low-quality (read: illegal) Internet stream on an obscure website. Meanwhile, MLB.com boasts the most advanced video streaming system in pro sports, offering a yearlong, high-quality streaming service to fans at a fixed rate, accessible anywhere in the world.
It's as simple as this: Soccer, and the Premier League in particular, need to set up a similar, legal streaming service. For a league that is so international and widely followed, the Premier League is the equivalent of a caveman when it comes to Internet exposure. Just imagine how many millions of people, particularly in the U.S., would be willing to pay for legal, high-quality streaming of the Premier League, enabling them to watch any game they wanted. The technology exists — it's just a matter of putting it all together and making soccer more accessible for U.S. viewers.
3. The Big One
This is most difficult of the three: The World Cup needs to come to the U.S. I know what you're thinking: Didn't the U.S. just lose a World Cup bid for 2018? But despite that disappointment, getting the World Cup to the U.S. should the most important priority for the U.S. Soccer Federation. It would be so different from 1994 — more people are interested in soccer in the U.S. now, and seeing the world's best on home turf would lock in a generation of fans to the sport. When Sepp Blatter finally retires and FIFA comes to its senses about where to place the World Cup (hint: not in Qatar!), the U.S. should be poised to bid for the 2026 tournament. I know it's a long way away, but if we could get the World Cup, it would be a dream come true for every soccer fan in the country.
