US Soccer 10- year goal for youth participation

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Recently released, to increase youth playing ranks by 60% to 12 million.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021/...lans-goals-agm

No details of how they plan to do this or how they came to that number, and any time I ever hear anyone from there talk about increasing participation, it all comes down to, more free soccer—like in Europe!

Does US Soccer make a difference? Do they know what they’re doing in youth soccer? The whole age / birthday change thing didn’t exactly go smoothly. The Aspen Institute study on youth sports attributed a big DECLINE in youth soccer participation to the policy. They have the money, courtesy of their national team matches and tournaments. Can they make a difference?

LOL....Those numbers a re due to COVID. Pre-COVID youth soccer numbers were in the 11million range. Basically, he wants to look good with a huge increase that is nothing more then **** going back to normal.

The dumbest one is getting the USMNT to top 8....Yeah, good luck with that. Over the next 10yrs you'll be lucky if the WNT doesn't drop out of top 8.

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Not the poster and yes some sports have seen decreases, others did not. Over the last tenish years soccer has fallen from 10.4% of all kids playing some organized soccer to 7.4%. The age issue doesn't help a sport that already struggles with other issues like popularity (not much) cost and travel (both too much). Participation in any sport fell across all income groups, but lower income groups fell the hardest and now are half that of higher income families. I suspect Covid and economic uncertainty will take another blow at youth soccer

https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/you...cipation-rates

I agree with this. I would also add a guess that the demand by all sports for year-round specialization at younger and younger ages might lead to a drop off. Kids who were previously being counted for soccer, baseball, and basketball may now only be one of those.

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Regardless of what factors caused the original drop, a bigger question may be what will soccer participation look like post-Covid? While older, better club teams might not be affected (every kid came back to play for my daughter's team), the impact on younger teams in travel, rec leagues and lower level clubs may turn out to be significant.

A lack of quality may be one issue (if younger kids who never play might have turned out as strong players), but overall numbers matter too. Kids playing become fans, provide jobs for coaches, justify investments by clubs in facilities.There doesn't seem to be anything in the US Soccer statement that even acknowledges that challenge, and how to confront it. And this is the organization that deep-sixed the girls DA as soon as it saw the financial hit they were going to take from covid....

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The school vs borth year change is used pretty often but I have never seen any real proof it decreased participation. Didnt every other sport saw similar or worse decline over the same 10 year period and none had that issue, which is proof that its just a societal shift more than anything?

It didn't impact the super clubs. It killed participation at the smaller local based clubs.

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It didn't impact the super clubs. It killed participation at the smaller local based clubs.

Yes. Friend in town used to run the travel program. Fairly big town, would have sometimes two teams in an age group. After the age change, lost whole teams, in some cases two teams. A neighbor's daughter was a 2005. The next year they had to combine with the 2004's just to have one team. My friend said the mess started at tryouts the May before the fall season when the age changes took place. Kids started showing up at tryouts and realizing they would be on different teams, in different groups than they expected.Players just melted away.

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How about they look into what REALLY goes on instead of turning a blind eye? If you can not afford thousands of dollars a year your child is not playing at a big club. If you don't play at a big club you are looked down on. If you have the money to pay for a big club it is ALL POLITICS! Anyone who says different is lying. Your kid will play if your mom is friends with the coach or your daddy makes big donations. Its all a scam and its really a shame. PAY TO PLAY! end of discussion...

So the issue is people looking down on not playing at a big club. But for the large majority of players who play for enjoyment, that is really not an issue at all.

If the goal is to increase the number of kids playing soccer, then what needs to be done is to increase the popularity of the sport. This means doing more to get people interested in watching soccer, whether it be pro or college or whatever. Promote MLS/NWSL players more, make a bigger deal out of the MLS/NWSL playoffs, do something similar to March Madness, etc. That is the kind of stuff that gets kids excited to play the game, not some "development academy" strategy.

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They need to stop crapping on school sports. That is the one place anyone that is in the school can play if they make a team. That said it was bad and inferior and useless. Not smart.

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I don't agree that it's all political (through there can be some of that) but you hit on a very important point - kids are looked down upon if they're not playing in a fancy league. They quit and play another sport or do something else. There's also the attitude that by HS if you're not playing to get recruited why are you bothering? Gee I don't know, maybe for fun?

So in part there's a huge psychological shift that needs to happen with youth soccer. But unless the school age issue is fixed, costs come way down, and this nonsense multi-state travel crap ends then they're smoking crack with those forecasts. Sixty percent?! Plus the higher leagues and clubs that are making bank will fight any return to more local/state level competition like it was not that long ago. Good luck to them.

Well, just sampling how many sick parents brag about "winning" for a 8-year-old or 10-year-old and lying coaches touting "pathyway".

That tells me why US Youth Soccer is nothing but a business.

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How about they look into what REALLY goes on instead of turning a blind eye? If you can not afford thousands of dollars a year your child is not playing at a big club. If you don't play at a big club you are looked down on. If you have the money to pay for a big club it is ALL POLITICS! Anyone who says different is lying. Your kid will play if your mom is friends with the coach or your daddy makes big donations. Its all a scam and its really a shame. PAY TO PLAY! end of discussion...

+100000

totally agree.

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We Are The Shore! Tryouts March 31st - April 7th. Come see why people are saying this club is the future of soccer!

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From the Aspen project play study:

https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/tom...ia-data-column



"Soccer is now paying a heavy price for underestimating kids’ desire to play with friends. In an effort to develop better prospects for its national teams, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) two years ago began mandating that affiliated organizations down to the community level stop forming teams based on birthdates that fell within the school year. Instead, teams at every age level were reorganized based on calendar year birthdates, in which kids are less likely to play with same-grade peers. That broke up teams who have been playing together for years. Only 14.8 percent of children played soccer last year, down from 17 percent in 2015.

During that period, soccer lost more child participants than any other sport – about 600,000 of them. Or enough to fill every stadium on any given match day during the 2026 World Cup the USSF will co-host with Mexico and Canada.

A downturn in a sport as large as soccer, in turn, depresses number of kids who are “active to a healthy level” through sports. That’s another key SFIA metric that we track, one that reflects the percentage of the population (in our case, 6- to 12-year-olds) who engage in high-calorie-burning activities a minimum of 151 times during the year. In 2017, that number fell for the fifth consecutive year, to 23.9 percent. In 2011, 28.7 percent were considered active to a healthy level."

I agree with 100% and have seen this first hand with my kid and her third grade friends. Two kids went to lacrosse because they can now play with friends. Lacrosse really does it right with graduating class. All kids are together, but I do get it’s not perfect as Lax is known for holding kids back, but the pluses outweigh the minuses.

Showcases would also make more sense as a college coach attending. And don’t give me NT garbage. That is such a small amount of kids and to rework the age changes to help NT coaches has hurt overall participation and ultimately your NT pool.

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My son is a January birthday so either way he is fine with the birth year change, but they really do have to fix this issue. Will they ever revisit this?

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They need to stop crapping on school sports. That is the one place anyone that is in the school can play if they make a team. That said it was bad and inferior and useless. Not smart.

Great post

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Great post

If they want to grow soccer beyond the country club set that can play in the expensive high-travel leagues, they should stop berating the most affordable soccer option out there.

But they have crapped on school ball for so long - you have to believe they are just not interested in mass market players or fans.

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LOL....Those numbers a re due to COVID. Pre-COVID youth soccer numbers were in the 11million range. Basically, he wants to look good with a huge increase that is nothing more then **** going back to normal.

The dumbest one is getting the USMNT to top 8....Yeah, good luck with that. Over the next 10yrs you'll be lucky if the WNT doesn't drop out of top 8.

I think you are underestimating the USMNT. If you look at how many 18-20 year olds are playing in top teams in europe you could easily build a top 8 team. In 2002 the US reached the quarterfinals of the WC with far less talent. Let's check back in 5 years to see who talking out of their...