Title IX


We gave a crap about women's sports a long time before the rest of the world.

It's easy - Title IX and the rest of the world doesn't throw neatly as many resources into women's sports as we do. Europe is catching up, but college soccer is actually a huge advantage for the development of women's soccer that the rest of the world is unlikely to match. For men, playing college soccer is actually a negative because of the fact the rest of the world views teenagers as professionals in men's soccer and they dump significantly more resources into that.

The usa has been the best cultivator for women, women sports, lgbt and so on. In a world where women are discouraged from participating in sports and where it is laughable for a woman to pursue professional athletics, the usa went the opposite way and changed their laws to promte women athletics.

Essentially, the uswnt has always been at the top.

The usmnt is playing catch up and probably always will be. We were playing baseball when everyone else was playing soccer. Then football took over. There is no soccer culture here (i rarely see pick up soccer in a park, it is usually basketball, football or ultimate frisbee.) American Kids gravitate to other sports and pay to play doesnt help the situation.

In short, for men baseball/football is in our psyche while soccer still exists outside of it. For women, the usa is/was the best place for women athletes and the rest of the world is playing catch up.

It's not the talent gap between the women's team and men's team that matters.

It's the talent gap between the women's and the women in the rest of the world. Between our men, and the rest of the world. Most countries don't put the resources we do, towards their women's teams. But the #1 sports concern, internationally, is the men...for soccer, not soccer and other sports. That's not the case yet in the USA.

It's a night/day comparison really.

I'm in Houston, soccer is very common. Never once seen anybody playing lacrosse in a park in my entire life.

in the rest of the world, every boy plays soccer because they love the game and it's free - there's a futsal court at every apartment complex in europe and south america and there's a field with goals in every neighborhood. The super-talented kids get noticed young and brought into club academies, where the club pays for everything - living, education, and training - in hopes that they develop a few of them into revenue generators in the future.

In the US, parents of female athletes pay big $ for clubs to develop their daughters so they can get scholarships, while parents of male athletes pay big $ for clubs to develop their sons just because they love playing and maybe the slim chance that they can get a contract somewhere or play in college because they love it, but the scholarships are quickly disappearing for men due to title IX. I've been told that they expect the number to drop to zero for soccer scholarships for men in the next few years. ..the US mentality towards youth sports - paying big $ to get your kid an athletic scholarship - does not sync with the rest of the world. College sports aren't a big deal. American dads are the worst at this. Take for example Baseball - they can pay over $100k in the 10 year span from the time their son is 7 yrs old until 17 - with select clubs, private hitting coaches, private pitching coaches, tournaments, travel, etc. -- all in hopes of getting little johnny either drafted to the minor leagues or else maybe a partial scholarship to a state school. Now, if little Johnny loves soccer and not baseball - you might spend nearly as much for club dues, tournaments, private trainers, etc. --- for no scholarships. The 'pay to play' scheme/ US youth sports mentality not only keeps opportunities away from lower income families, but also the burning desire for "athletic scholarships" combined with title IX makes soccer a bad option for boys. I think right now basketball is the only sport where our US mentality somewhat works for the rest of the world - where coming to the US to play college basketball still might be the best option for development and playing professionally in the US is the pinnacle in terms of earnings -- so foreign players are trying to play in college at 18 years old rather than trying to get a pro contract at a much younger age.

Most of the MLS clubs have established academies similar to European clubs - they will recruit top talent and pay for their development. The fallacy is that if they're taking the most skilled players to their academy starting at around U12 (mostly 11 year olds), those are kids who have already been paying big $ to the clubs for their development, and the lower income families are still excluded unless they were on a club scholarship at 7, 8, 9, 10 years old.