Pay to play. Everyone's favorite excuse as to why US soccer is failing. To be clear... It's expensive. And not only are underprivileged families incapable of engaging, but it's also a massive strain on families that "can."
But what are you paying for? How do you value the spend? What's your goal? What's the expectation at the end of the day? All of those questions are individually measured.
What isn't as clear, and certainly debatable, is whether or not pay-to-play has a direct correlation to everyone's negative analysis of US Soccer coming out of the World Cup. Don't forget... out of 211 countries in FIFA, we just finished in the top 16, ahead of countries like Germany and Italy, one disappointment, the other not even there.
If it were "free," ask yourself a few questions:
- who would pay?
- who would coach that isn't already (think current results)?
- how would you manage a population 58X larger than Norway, and they're pretty good?
- would free actually result in kids caring more when they're true idols are in the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB?
Lot's to unpack. Worthy of a part 2... Let's go!
#soccer #paytoplay #youthsoccer #usmnt #pathway #usysa #mls #usl
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