World Cup could increase soccer fandom among U.S. children

LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Jude Cornell joined a crowd of toddlers crawling after a soccer ball, throwing training cones in the air and moving a goalie net that turned out to be very portable.

“He’s just starting to walk,” laughed his mother, Kyla Cornell, 27. She’s already planning her son’s soccer career, attending a World Cup-themed event for young children at a library in suburban Kansas City, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the stadium where six games will be played.

Experts across the country are paying attention to whether the World Cup will bring results. Enliven youth soccer — and will be a Mint fan for decades to come.

Soccer already ranks as one of the most popular youth sports in this country. According to one study, 7.5% of 6- to 12-year-olds played youth soccer in 2024, down slightly from a decade ago, but only baseball and basketball had higher statistics. report From the Aspen Institute.

Youth soccer already has a track record of converting players into fans.

Take Hayley Garbowski, a midfielder who has played in more women’s professional soccer games than you can count.

Days after her private high school in Kansas City, Missouri, won the state championship game, the 18-year-old was helping out at a summer camp on the Kansas side of the metropolitan area, leading a group of elementary school girls on a circuit of sports that included rugby, tennis and, of course, her favorite, soccer.

“We had a lot of fun,” Garbowski exclaimed, recalling the title game victory in the small school division. In the fall, she plans to major in business at San Diego State University and consider a career in sports marketing.

Are her grandparents soccer fans? She laughed at the thought. Her mother became a fan, but she didn’t start out as a fan and didn’t know her high school had a soccer team until Garbowski peeked through an old yearbook.

None of this is surprising to Emory University professor Michael Lewis, who focuses on the intersection of sports analytics and sports marketing.

“Football is a story that is built across generations, and it takes a long, long time,” Lewis said.

Changes in the American sports landscape

Overall, soccer doesn’t have the same appeal as baseball, basketball, or the tackle-heavy American brand of the Big Three. According to an Ipsos Sports survey, only one in 10 Americans consider themselves a fan of U.S. soccer or international soccer.

Boomers in particular grew up playing in the Big 3, and that’s influencing what they see now, Lewis said. Ipsos data shows that people over 65 are especially likely to call themselves fans of the popular trio.

But market researchers believe there is promise among Millennials and Gen Z (ages 14 to 29).

The American sports landscape began to change in the 1970s. That’s when the now-defunct North American Soccer League signed some great players. Pele the winner Appeared in three World Cups with the Brazilian national team.

By the 1980s, children in the United States were playing it, too, thanks to Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sexual discrimination in education. A girl was among them.

However, the gym teachers and parents who guided this first group had little experience to draw on. Some learned the rules from books. And people in towns where soccer was the mainstream sometimes resisted soccer, fearing that it would draw talented players away from the field. The players were subjected to heckling, name-calling, and even accusations of being communists.

“I can’t repeat what I was called to do,” said Darin White, 58, who played and then coached at the collegiate level before becoming executive director of the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University in Alabama.

But the children continued to play. In 1994, the World Cup was held in America. major league soccer was played The first season two years later. Parents today often find themselves playing. There are competitive travel teams. MLS has participated in player development efforts with the MLS Next program. The players are growing and viewership is rising.

According to Ipsos data, when you ask American sports fans in general why they became a sports fan, about half say it was because their family had a connection to the sport or because they grew up being a fan of a particular team.

According to Professor Nicholas Watanabe of the University of South Carolina (author of “The Beautiful Game?”), the women’s game is also spurring the rise of soccer. It’s about the future of football. Girls who played with it as children become fans. Their registration will help keep the youth league large and financially viable, Watanabe said.

“I don’t think you can have these side effects without success and long-term growth. I think it helped the men’s team as well,” Watanabe said.

Consider the Kansas City Currents, a team in the NWSL. first stadium built For the women’s soccer team. Owners include Brittany Mahomes, a former college football player and wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Current, who plays for the Dutch national team during the World Cup, sent staff to help out at the camp where Garbowski was working.

Where is soccer headed here in America?

Please make no mistake. Experts were quick to add that soccer is not the biggest player in the saturated U.S. sports market, the NFL.

“The question is not, ‘Why aren’t we as big as soccer?’ Well, we’re not, but we’re a lot closer than we were the last time we had a World Cup,” said White, who studies how Americans fall in love with the sport.

There are challenges. Most of the best players still play in the historic European leagues. White said there is less money to grow the sport in the U.S. because American hardcore fans more frequently follow European teams rather than MLS teams. But on the plus side, White said, more and more American players are entering these top European leagues. And he noted that the sport’s young fan base in the United States is one that marketers are eager to recruit.

“I’m more hopeful right now than I’ve ever been in my life,” White said, adding, “And I’m also a football evangelist.”

Back at the library in Lenexa, Kansas, a mother was holding the hand of her 1-year-old daughter as she toddled toward the ball, kicking it with her thick bare feet.

“Messi” and another toddler were practicing repeating the last name of the star player of Argentina’s national team, whose tournament is based nearby.

Meanwhile, Jude had gone from throwing cones to pulling ears, suffering from the same ailment that put several toddlers on the chamber’s version of the injury list. Teeth grow.

“Do you want to play soccer?” his mother asked the 17-month-old, pointing out that some programs in town allow children as young as 2 years old to participate, but he didn’t answer.

“You don’t know,” she said. “We’ll probably start trying next spring or summer.”

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Associated Press writer Lynley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here