Mekhi Leak

Final Research Paper

Why is Soccer not as popular in the US, and what can we do to change that?
Its undeniable that soccer is the most popular sport throughout the
world. Given the nickname The Worlds Game for a reason, there is no
other sport that can connect so many countries the way soccer can.
However, for some reason America, which leads the way globally in a
majority of aspects, lags so far behind when it comes to soccer. In a country
that dominates when it comes to athletics, why do we trail most
other countries. Over the last few years we have seen a growth in
fan base in soccer in America, but what are some ways that we can
boost these even more.
If we want to build more interest in the sport were going to have to
start by developing our own league even further. The MLS (Major League
Soccer) started shortly after the 1994 World Cup that was hosted in America.
The only reason we were able to host this was because we promised FIFA
(International organization that runs pretty much all of the major
international events i.e. the World Cup) the establishment of a professional
soccer league in the United States. You have to take into account, that was
twenty years ago, the MLS has made great strides since then. It has doubled
the amount of teams from ten to twenty. One of the biggest reasons why we
have seen a recent jump in popularity was a new method of attracting fans.
This is to buy big name superstars who are now past there prime. This is

good for many reasons. The first time really saw this was when David
Beckham signed with the LA Galaxy in 2007. He signed for a record setting
250 Million dollars over a five-year span. For the following years, LA
constantly sold out games both home and away for years to come. The two
newest teams to join the league Orlando City SC and NYCFC have used
similar tactics to start their franchises, and they arent the only teams to do
this more and more teams are starting to spend huge sums of money for
these ex-superstars. This Is great initially, youre bringing experience and
most importantly talent to your team, which in turn equates to
entertainment for your fans.
However, there are many negatives to that method of ownership, most
notable when that big name player retires. All that money invested is gone in
the blink of an eye. I think a much better way to use that money is to spread
it out on more players instead of one big one. Dont get me wrong getting
these superstars is not something that we should stop. We will always be
able to attract the players to America. If you take soccer out of the equation,
then theres arguably no better country to live in. But what we need to do is
make the league more attractive, and more desirable to play in. A
tremendous element that distinguishes the MLS from most European and
even South American leagues is the average player salary. If you take the
most profitable league which is the BPL in England, it actually works out to
around sixteen times our average salary. Of course the MLS isnt going to
reach those numbers anytime soon, but we can at least set some goals. We

are currently ranked 22nd among professional soccer leagues when it comes
to salary, so maybe within the next ten years we can try to get in the top
fifteen in the world.
One thing that weve seen over the last few years is that, people will
come out to see good, quality soccer. A good example of this was shown
when Chelsea played PSG. Chelsea and PSG both won their respective
leagues the previous years, both of their leagues can be argued as the best
in the world. When these two teams came to play in the US for a friendly the
Bank of America Stadium here in Charlotte, people jumped at the
opportunity to watch these two play, completely selling out the stadium. I
think this clearly shows that the biggest problem for the MLS is talent. It is
pretty much a standard for all of the bigger European soccer clubs to have
Youth Academies. The big soccer clubs set up scouts all around the world,
constantly inspecting the young athletes, trying to determine whether or not
they can be developed into a skilled soccer player. They sometimes recruit
kids at the age of seven to try to mold them into superstars. The clubs put a
lot into these academies, the following quote is from an article I read that
describes the facilities of Ajaxs Youth Academy, , it consists of eight wellkept playing fields and a two-story building that houses locker rooms,
classrooms, workout facilities and offices for coaches and sports scientists. In
an airy cafe and bar, players are served meals and visitors can have a glass
of beer or a cappuccino while looking out over the training grounds.
Everything about the academy, from the amenities to the pedigree of the

coaches several of them former players for the powerful Dutch national
team signifies quality. These are multi-million dollar facilities, but if they
can manage to accomplish their goal they can sell their players for even
more money. Im not saying we go and dump millions of dollars into extra
facilities. Even though the Professional level teams could probably afford it I
think there are better things that we can do with that money.
I definitely think we need to invest money into the sport and the
league, just not all that into one thing. Building these youth academy
training grounds is going to be crucial to development of the sport, but not
the next step. We have to develop much more interest in soccer to make the
youth academies pay off. That being said, what can we do to improve the
MLS? Well, the first idea that comes to mind is the creation of another
league. Eventually we should try to create a league below that one, but that
is much further down the road. I think this is the next step in the process of
league improvement. This will not be a completely separate league, this new
league will function as a developmental league. Seeing as we just recently
added two new teams in the 2013 season, which brings our total to twenty.
This is a good number when compared to other big leagues around the
world. If we want to be the worlds finest league why not take a look at the
current best league in the world. That is unquestionably the Barclays
Premiere League in England, we should use their qualities and manipulate
them in our own way. The most notable thing of course is that the BPL isnt
the only league in England. There are currently 4 leagues in England that all

conjoin with one another. England isnt the only country that has secondary
leagues. Pretty much all European countries maintain some form of
secondary teams.
You dont even really have to look overseas for this. The MLB has 3
minor league divisions and even the NBA has its own D-League. Now all of
the leagues in the country are separate, each comprised of different teams.
However, theyre also all related because the last three teams from each
league (Varies for each league), starting at the highest one will be relegated
to the following lower league at the finish of each season. This might not be
good if your team is doing poorly, but it is good for so many reasons. It gives
incentives to do good for all the teams, because even for the mid-level
teams with no hopes of title contention still want to fight, so they can have a
place in the league for the next season. This is in my opinion the biggest
problem for the MLS, the formatting of the league. Currently, the MLS is
unlike any league in any country. Its basically an American style
configuration. It resembles all of the other professional leagues by splitting
all the teams into two conferences, in this case, the eastern conference and
the western conference. After the regular season where they play a total of
thirty-four games, the top six teams with the most wins from each
conference gets to advance to the playoffs. Dont get me wrong this format
isnt bad, especially for basketball, football, and other sports. However I just
dont think this is the way to go for soccer. I think we should switch to the
more common layout; where each team play each other twice over the

course of a season (once at home and once away) and whichever team has
the most points or better goal difference after 38 games, wins. Simple. The
playoff systems drawbacks is that the regular season lacks the feeling of
importance, at least until the end of the season closer to actual playoff time.
Plus I dont think its fair to the team that preformed the best for seven
months to not be able to lift the trophy. There is something called the
Supporters Shield, which is given to the team with the best record, but its
nothing more than a merely consolation award. However with the non-playoff
format, every game is pivotal, rivalries are built, and if a team beats you the
first time youre guaranteed a chance at revenge.
I think the tournament style that the playoffs are should be used only
in actual tournaments. This brings me to my next topic. There are two stages
of soccer, international and club. There is no bigger stage then the world cup
for soccer, but there are big tournaments for the club level as well. The
biggest stage for club level would have to be UEFA Champions league.
Champions league is basically a tournament for the best clubs in Europe. It is
one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world and the most
prestigious club competition in European football, played by the national
league champion (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of each
UEFA national association. What UEFA stands for is Union of European
Football Associations, they for the most part run everything club related in
Europe. Now since this is an established European tournament ran by
Europeans, I dont see the MLS ever getting allotted spots in the tournament.

This should be what we strive for. This is the highest level of competition,
and at the moment we arent even allowed to compete. My proposal is that
we start our own versions of the Champions League on this side of the
Atlantic. The Champions League is a huge inter-league tournament taking
the best teams from the best leagues. So if we were going to start our own
version of the Champions League, where would all the competing teams
come from? Well, the professional league in Mexico is actually a pretty well
established league with very respectable talent levels. But still, just two
leagues arent going to be enough, so I suggest we expand more and try to
include South American leagues. Currently there is a league in every country
in South America with the exception of a few smaller countries, so that would
be more than enough to create a competitive and entertaining tournament.