Posted by

Aaron Nielsen ,

July 28, 2014 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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@ENBSports

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For many, soccer in United States and Canada is a summer game with the pro leagues such as MLS, NASL and USL Pro all playing most of their games during this period. If you visit any field around dusk you’re bound to see either a youth, adult or some other type of league game being played. Despite living in a number of places over the past decade or so, many without any local club, I try to make a road trip each year to catch a few games, be it professional or a PDL/Acadamy game to get a sense of the atmosphere that is connected to the game. In England there are stories of soccer supporters going to 200 games a year or trying to visit all 92 of the professional teams in one season. The size of Canada and United States makes it almost impossible to offer anyone this option, but I have spoken to some both in the industry, and just fans, who have seen almost 100 games in a season. For me, it's more like a handful per year, and I have had chance to see MLS games in Boston, New York, and Toronto. In the lower divisions I’ve made it out to NASL/USL Pro games in Montreal, Rochester and the old pro Toronto Lynx, and more than a dozen PDL and NCAA games across mostly Northeastern United States. For the non-pro teams, the circumstances are usually the same. A club will be located in a suburban part of the town or city that the club name represents, and most play in a High School or small College American football stadium. However, some have academies and own their own playing facilities, some with stands and some without. The experience is similar, with crowds ranging from 100 or so, to the most popular teams just over a 1000. These crowds often consist of a number of children connected to a youth section of the team and die hard soccer fans either with a connection to the club or the game in general. Once you arrive to the game, there is no difference from other sports. Whether it’s minor league or semi-pro baseball, or across Canada Junior and other forms of Hockey, on a nice summer night it is a great way to spend a few hours. Like the other sports it is a chance to see a competitive game and the beginning of players’ careers, who in a few years time could be drafted and playing for a pro club. What seems to be missing, compared to other sports, is a general connection to the city the club represents with very little press in the local paper or even online. If you talk to locals at the diner or coffee shop mentioning you're in their town to watch a soccer game, they kind of give you a funny look. Now part of this, of course, is the is the popularity of soccer. Although the people I have encountered in town before the game might regard themselves as sports fans, you get a sense most of their knowledge is what they get from the local television or newspaper. However, as a soccer audience, before we start blaming the media or the soccer illiterate, I think there is an additional self-created problem that has existed around soccer for many decades: "the suburban soccer mom culture". Growing up in a major downtown urban city, and not part of any after school programs or day camps, I'm a little foreign to this. I understand it's a great organized activity for boys and girls during their summer holidays to spend time getting exercise, making and spending time with friends, and who doesn't forget the epic road trips hanging at nights four to a bedroom in some town's Motel Six. You add to the fact in suburban North America this service is almost advertised as a quasi-babysitting/daycare service, it's a win/win situation for everybody with over 2,000,000 children partaking in it each summer. Not as popular, other sports take advantage of this camp/developing service as well, with Little League Baseball, Hockey for all ages and now Basketball AA programs are becoming quite popular through the summer months. The difference is, within the other sports there is a huge gap between children participating and pro development. With soccer there is a connection all the way up the ladder, with even USL Pro (North American 3rd Division Professional League) having academies participating in the league. Added, almost all pro teams in North America offer these day camp services as part of their revenue generating model. This summer I have been to a KW United PDL match, which to be honest, seemed to be more of a professional sports team than a youth academy. On a grey evening approximately 300 people watched KW United perform very well against the Chicago Fire Academy side who had some projected homegrown players in their roster. I also have had a chance to attend a handful of League One Ontario games, which as I have mentioned before has been great value, especially when you take into account that tickets are half the price of most PDL games at $5 apiece. League One Ontario is heavily academy influenced, with most providing youth soccer programs. However, when the league was developed there was a vision to try to make the league as professional as possible with a table and cup structure equivalent to a professional league. With clubs representing Vaughn, Woodbridge, Durham and Windsor in name, while all teams playing games in in what could be regarded as home stadiums, represent additional regions such as Downtown Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, and Kingston. With every new league you are going to have growing pains, and League One has its own. Most of the stadiums with seating in the 416 region of Toronto are old, without amenities, and there is a dependency on the city who own them, which creates additional issues. There was also the recent folding of one team, Internacional de Toronto, who were scheduled to play their home games at Lamport Stadium - the only team who plays close to Toronto Downtown core. The smoothest games have been held at soccer specific training facilities such as Toronto FC Acadamy in Downsview, but it has limited capacity for fans and is difficult to get to for most people who attend Toronto FC MLS games in the downtown area. I did attend Internacional’s only home game against Toronto FC Academy. The game had a real league feel, one where you can convince the media or even the average sports fan who was attending that they were at a sporting event and not watching a training activity. However, with the folding of the only downtown team, my fear is if League One chooses to become a suburban league, it will put itself in the exact same picture as many PDL clubs I have attended in the states. Being, this is not an event that represents the community attached to the club name, but a weekend activity people do in the suburbs instead of going to the movies. In many ways, especially in Canada, soccer could be in its boom period over the next few years. Unfortunately, at all levels, the sport has yet to grab constant interest of the media, or the people who are influenced by them. I've always considered this in my work as a statistician and through these columns, to attract the attention of the non-soccer people instead of writing for or arguing with people who love the game. However, it is difficult when the people who love the culture of the sport might be the biggest issue. Soccer is not looked down upon because of the cliche "it's a foreign game”. Who doesn't like the drama of biting, fighting, and 100 million dollar transfer deals? It's looked down upon because, for example, when we look at all thing suburban, it chooses the safe solutions to problems instead of taking on the risks and challenges that could pay off the most and truly make it influential.