Soccer is popular because its the cheapest sport to play and requires almost no effort or time commitment by parents. You buy a set of cleats and some shin guards for maybe $50 total (for an elementary school kid), you take them to the field down the street on the weekend and maybe once during the week for a practice, and watch them run around for an hour.

Any other sport requires a lot money spend on gear and a much bigger commitment in time (except maybe baseball but they also dont get to run around as much).

I can understand it being cheaper.
 

I dont know about your city but in Warren Parents are fanatical about their kids sport so time isnt an issue.

Posted by swamphawk22 on 12/20/2012 12:36:00 AM (view original):

I can understand it being cheaper.
 

I dont know about your city but in Warren Parents are fanatical about their kids sport so time isnt an issue.

Thats obviously not true everywhere.

Another reason that soccer is more popular at the youth level than professional is because its tons of fun to play but not as much to watch. You have to really care about the game to watch it on TV but you can have a lot of fun playing no matter who you are. When I was in college I had a lot of friends who didn't give two ***** about watching soccer on tv (exception being the World Cup because thats awesome) yet they still signed up every single season to play intramural soccer.

you are so lying, blackdog...no way you had any friends in college!

Soccer wins! If this is a socialist plot I am in!

ISUFTAM