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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
"As of 2006, over 24 million Americans play soccer. There are 4.2 million players (2.5 million male and 1.7 million female) registered with U.S. Soccer. As of 2012, thirty percent of American households contain someone playing soccer, a figure second only to baseball."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer_in_the_United_States

"A Gallup poll released last week found that 7% of Americans named soccer as their favorite sport to watch in a survey completed during December. While that may not sound like much, the figure represents a significant, three-percentage-point gain from just four years ago. Soccer is the only sport to post such a large increase. Football (37%, down from 39%), basketball (11%, down from 12%) and baseball (9%, down from 13%) all showed declining numbers. Hockey was at 4%, up from 3%."  https://www.forbes.com/sites/filipbondy/2018/01/08/soccer-will-soon-be-americas-third-favorite-spectator-sport/#7f87c5cc3c53

Population of the US - 325 mn.  That means soccer is the favorite sport of 22.75 mn Americans (325 * .07).

In other words, there are more Americans into soccer than the entire population of countries like Chile (18 mn), Netherlands (17 mn), Belgium (12 mn), Portugal (10 mn), Sweden (10 mn), Serbia (9 mn), Costa Rica (5 mn), Croatia (4 mn) and Uruguay (3.5 mn).  http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/

Yet all those countries have open soccer markets, with independent clubs competing to get promoted or avoid relegation.  And all of those countries have fully funded youth academies, in many cases [b]even in their lower divisions[/b].  How many 2nd, 3rd or 4th division clubs in the U.S. even have a youth academy at all, let alone a fully funded one.  Yet in Europe and SA it is common.

[/quote]
Just because you have folks that say soccer is their favorite sport doesn't mean they are willing to pay to see a match. Most of the total soccer watching revenue here is in the MLS, and the revenue there is only 2% of the total revenue spread across the ten leagues above them. That means there is 50x more revenue in those top ten. And there are many more leagues with less revenue abroad that aren't counted there. So we have a massive population who say soccer is their favorite, but nobody pays to see it. It all boils down to revenue when it comes to the ability to support youth academies. You want academies, go see a soccer game.[/quote]

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