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Retired US Soccer / World Cup Thread (RIP)

You can play for cheap in this country but not at a club. I'm talking something like Optimist where there are parent coaches and not trained staff, which hinders proper development.

Clubs do scholarships though, so that helps out those that are less financially able to pay for joining a club.

For instance, look at the following link to see prices for Twins here in the Triad: http://competitive.twincitysoccer.org/fee-structure/

Holy shit. How long is the season??
 
Mid-August to early/mid November for the Fall

Mid-January to mid-May for the Spring

U15 and above only one season, Fall for girls, Spring for boys.

There is also a small tryout fee to make a team, IIRC.
 
Is soccer a rich kids' sport? It certainly isn't in other countries and to the extent that it actually is in America, that's pretty baffling.

I don't think it's a rich kids' sport. It's generally regarded as a sport anyone can play since you just need something to act as a ball and space.

I'd say it is in America
 
Plus Select teams do one tournament a season minimum -- and if that tournament is out of town, then parents are on the hook for the hotel costs -- or driving back and forth.

Classic teams do two tournaments each season at a minimum and one will definitely be outside of the immediate area.
 
I'd say it is in America

It 100% is at least a middle income sport in America. There are exceptions with scholarships and/or payment plans, but those just prove the rule.

I've bought a player new cleats after theirs had a blowout because all their families "soccer budget money" was already taken up.
 
By the way, our goal scorer plays for NCFC in Raleigh - he's gonna be a good one.
 
A 100% middle income sport in a country with a shrinking middle class and rising inequality is not a recipe for success.
 
Good conversation here. I wasn't really thinking about the costs associated with travel clubs and whatnot. Great points.
 
my experience raising two boys was that if they wanted real coaching in any sport it would be expensive

Academy soccer / travel baseball / lacrosse / swimming

all around $2K per year to be on the team with travel costs extra
 
My parents made huge sacrifices for me to be able to play classic and premiere (dunno if that's still the nomenclature) in NC. We weren't rich per se but that shit is so expensive, I know parents who couldn't make it happen when our team was promoted to the highest level and traveled out of state for tournaments. Equipment isn't even a drop in the bucket. We practiced on some pretty shit fields too.

Honest question - how do they do it in other countries? Send the promising kids to full time academies that are paid for by the national federation?
 
Dempsey needed help from teammates' families to keep playing back in the day. Otherwise parents had decided to back his sister's tennis career over his soccer exploits
 
My parents made huge sacrifices for me to be able to play classic and premiere (dunno if that's still the nomenclature) in NC. We weren't rich per se but that shit is so expensive, I know parents who couldn't make it happen when our team was promoted to the highest level and traveled out of state for tournaments. Equipment isn't even a drop in the bucket. We practiced on some pretty shit fields too.

Twins do have an amazing complex now with 14 (could argue 15, but I'd disagree) really great fields to train on each and every week.

Premiere is still a thing and is the upper echelon of Classic teams. Then you have Academy above that where kids that play that aren't even allowed to play in High School, so kids have to choose between the two.
 
Hopefully within the next few years the US Soccer can implement a soccer development program on par with those programs apparently already in effect in Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and Iceland. Hope that's not too high a bar.
 
Yes pay for play is a major hinderance for many promising youth players, however I'd argue our youth programs have never been in better shape. We are competitive at the U-17 and U-20 level, however that doesn't seem to be transferring over to the MNT or the U-23's who have missed the last two Olympics.

Why you ask? Because 80% of MLS teams do not play the promising youth players who have come through their academies. Instead of giving their 16-21 talent a chance to grow into professional soccer, they buy cheap proven Central and Southern American talent instead. Those players are marginally better in the short-term and they enable coaches and front office staff to stay employed.

However it is ruining a majority of out talent who appear to be headed for greatness in the youth ranks, but end up missing out on playing time during their most important formidable years. England is currently experiencing a similar problem in the EPL. They just won the U-20 World Cup and the kids are barely getting a sniff in the EPL. Its why I'd encourage every current US U-17 to do what Pulisic and now Sargent have done, and move to Germany. They bombed out of Euro 2000, realized that their needed to make systematic change, and the Bundesliga and national federation agreed to make playing youth a priority (among other things)
 
Up until this fall I had two kids playing Charlotte United. Shit's expensive. Now it's one at Charlotte United and one at Charlotte Ambush (field hockey). Same deal.

Those costs don't include summer camp either.
 
Honest question - how do they do it in other countries? Send the promising kids to full time academies that are paid for by the national federation?
Kids at young ages sign contracts of varying forms at professional clubs in their area, and the clubs then can profit off the players development later on (when they are transfered to a bigger team, etc).

This encourages the clubs to focus on development of the players, since their income stream is tied to producing good players. US clubs revenue streams are largely based on having enough players paying money to belong, and that's just ass backwards.

Take for example Toni Kroos in Germany. He started as a kid playing for Griefswalder SV 04 in his tiny hometown near the Polish border. When he was 12 he moved to Hansa Rostock, a bigger club. When he was 16 he moved again to Bayern Munich and Rostock got a cool €2.5m (Griefswalder then received a portion of that for developing him as a child).

Everyone on the chain had a financial incentive to make sure Kroos improved and maximized his talent, not to just get paid by his parents.
 
Oh, and I'm under no illusion that my son is playing college or USMNT soccer. Just giving him a chance to develop and enjoy the game.
 
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