#esp if it's so crowded that moving away isn't really an option

[vitinhaball]

Imo if you really want football to be popular in America that ship sailed when the OG American Soccer League (ASL) folded (which is an amazing story btw), but even if it's possible yeah it DEF needs to be a very long, very involved process and isn't gonna happen by having Messi play in NYC & LA a couple times a season. (1/?)

everything under read more:

Like I don’t know what’s going on in Canada so I can’t comment on them but A LOT needs to be done to reform and clean up the US federation. Personally if I were in charge I’d nuke the league system too. People forget/don’t realize this but America is almost literally the size of the European continent (3.8m sq mi vs 3.9m).

Just in terms of area, the state I live in is roughly the size of Bulgaria (it’s actually a couple thousand sq mi larger, but it’s the closest match in Europe). We currently have only four clubs in the entire state that the USSF considers professional (only one in MLS). Two of them are 69 miles apart (and one is officially the other’s reserves), the next is 115 miles away, then 203. The 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th & 10th largest cities in the state don’t have pro clubs

And in other states it can be even worse. If you wanted to recreate Texas in Europe you’re combining Ukraine, Moldova, and like a quarter of Poland. Texas has a single club in each of its major cities, but LONG distances between many of them (esp El Paso, all the way out west). Montana is the size of Norway and has 0.

I’ve seen first hand and from afar what having a club can do. I don’t expect football to be people everywhere (even in Europe it’s not the most popular sport in every country) but here’s the thing. My city didn’t get a club in MLS until I was 18. I saw people go from being actively derisive about the sport to getting REALLY into it, going to games constantly, trying to learn the rules and culture. That interest waned after the 1st season b/c we’re shit but it didn’t go away

And if you’d asked me before what region would’ve been least likely to accept football I’d have said the South, except for Florida and Texas. But Atlanta has been posting capacity crowds in their 72k stadium time and again. The market is there. America is just so fucking big and the clubs are so spread out so many people can’t get to it.

So I’d nerf everything and move to state-based leagues (maybe regional in the case of New England & Mid-Atlantic). I’d like to see an Aug-May season personally but you could keep it starting spring, do state leagues like March-June, July off, then essentially domestic Champions League Aug-Oct/Nov. I didn’t even know football was a thing until I was like 8 bc there wasn’t a club around me. Giving more kids exposure will be good even if their club is shit in the near term 

i generally see your point and tbh i’d don’t know much about american soccer i just try to look at football everywhere else + how sports work in the us so thank you so much for your insight

tbh the mls is a mess and the fact that there’s no relegation and nothing like the champions league or the libertadores in south america means that you’re either fighting to win it all or you don’t rly have anything to fight for aka it turns real boring real quick

what you say about the market i’ve actually seen in a lot of in like copa90 us videos, it came across as there truly is an interest if people have something to support and for that yeah you need more teams - making smaller teams that don’t compete professionally but have an organized league is a huge basis cause they give the chance for anyone to play + for kids to train there + for people to take some interest in the sport

the fact that a state like montana has no football clubs is insane to me, obviously portugal is wild football wise but i live in a city of about 45k people and we have 10+ clubs, only 2 of which are professional, but the smaller amateur ones are great cause they allow kids to train for much cheaper (many of them get scouted to professional clubs real quick) + give a huge sense of community

and yeah having “regular” season state wise (with many league that can be professional, semi professional or amateur - if you can’t have a 20 team league right away do a 16 or 14 club league) + a champions league type of competition nation wise would probably be the best option specially considering play-off type of competitions are way more appealing when you try to sell the game

i still think it’s honestly impossible to get even close to american football or basketball levels in america though because the us are gonna need to get real good at it to get to the general public, however smaller teams in more places + having a decent league with decent mostly north or south american players would help and with all that done i think a huge incredibly talented and marketable player would rly help it make it more mainstream

a big investment in football academies and scouting (the impression that i get is that most people will play soccer in like primary school or wte for pe - interschool championships with the kids are great to both create interest and find raw talent) is also rly rly important, china started doing that and now everyone and their mothers is opening football academies in china - obviously in china you’re much more likely to find raw talent no one else ever recognized while in the us because there’s such a sport culture you’re bound to steer them if not into football then into something they’ll put their athletic prowess into something else