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The rebirth of American soccer could be happening right now - in the ATL

Don’t we need a birth before we get a rebirth of American soccer? :p
 
The Atlanta United games are really fun for fans. You see Atlanta United gear everywhere now.
 
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Similar things going on here in Cincy (albeit not so much within the African-American community just yet). FC Cincinnati is playing its final season in the minor leagues (USL) before moving up to MLS and they are once again outdrawing most of the MLS teams. Average this season is over 25,000 a game, and the only MLS teams with higher attendance are Atlanta, Seattle and Toronto. Despite this being only its third season in existence, FCC has six different officially recognized fan clubs, each of which meets at a different watering hole before every game. They then march en masse to the stadium, picking up each group along the way. The end where they all sit (The Bailey) is nuts during games. Similar to the student section at a college football game, but on steroids.

CINvLOU_8.0.jpg

WCPO_fc_cincinnati_fans_1532025074959_92809324_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
 
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TheOriginalHappyGoat said:
Forget the Hawks and Falcons. Soccer is taking over Atlanta. It's a long read, but very interesting.

Thoughts, @Sope Creek?
Click to expand...

Two more fields will open next month, this time on top of the West End MARTA station. My guess this focus on developing soccer fields on top of urban train stations has both a recreational purpose and an environmental sustainability purpose, because the green space - when grass isn't torn up by the amount of use the fields get - is cooler than the concrete that otherwise would be there. That's about all I can say about that.

Soccer has been a pretty big deal in the Atlanta area for about 30 years now, at least in the non-football and non-baseball suburban culture; we did the soccer travel team gig for about 6 years, traveling all around the southeast, from Florida to west Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina and most places between.

That said, lacrosse has become a big sport in suburban Atlanta too . . . kids who used to play soccer in rec leagues now have the choice to play lacrosse and many of them are moving to lacrosse because they can use their hands to play. Rugby is making a bid for permanence here too, in part fed by the success of Life University's nationally ranked rugby program. And the southern Asia populations have started robust pick up games of cricket on some of the lesser used suburban baseball and soccer fields, so there's that competition, too.

As far as how much soccer is being adopted as someone's primary sport here . . . I can say that Atlanta has a large community of immigrants. For example, that same Clarkston community that the article talks about feeds a high school in which over 100 languages are primary languages for students there. And with folks coming from countries where soccer is the dominant sport, they tend to want to play that when they find other good players even if they're from someplace other than where they're from - they've taken over tennis courts in apartment complexes as primary places to play pick up games, too. Some of those immigrants are from Latin America, some from Africa, and some from Europe - we had a few Scottish and English kids on the travel team, one Brazilian kid and a few from Central America.

How much Atlanta-born inner city kids are taking up soccer, I have no idea. I can say this: you see Atlanta United gear pretty much anywhere these days, at work, at football and baseball games, in restaurants . . . and in pretty much every area of Atlanta, along with a lot of Falcons gear and some Hawks gear . . . and the nearly ubiquitous Braves hats.

My sense if that the author of your linked article found an interesting policy being implemented and blew it up a bit beyond what actually is happening . . .

. . . but if the overseas skills sets and game IQs start cross-pollinating over into the local populations, Atlanta is big enough - 6 million people and growing like crazy still - that it could become another source of high quality talent like older immigrant populations have made cities like St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas into soccer talent producing meccas . . .

. . . unless the TrumPence immigration policies kill the trend, of course . . . .
 
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Sope Creek said:
That said, lacrosse has become a big sport in suburban Atlanta too . . . kids who used to play soccer in rec leagues now have the choice to play lacrosse and many of them are moving to lacrosse because they can use their hands to play. Rugby is making a bid for permanence here too, in part fed by the success of Life University's nationally ranked rugby program. And the southern Asia populations have started robust pick up games of cricket on some of the lesser used suburban baseball and soccer fields, so there's that competition, too.
Click to expand...
Soccer? Lacrosse? Rugby? Cricket? WTFF???

Ingraham was right. The culture is no longer American.
 
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Sope Creek said:
Two more fields will open next month, this time on top of the West End MARTA station. My guess this focus on developing soccer fields on top of urban train stations has both a recreational purpose and an environmental sustainability purpose, because the green space - when grass isn't torn up by the amount of use the fields get - is cooler than the concrete that otherwise would be there. That's about all I can say about that.

Soccer has been a pretty big deal in the Atlanta area for about 30 years now, at least in the non-football and non-baseball suburban culture; we did the soccer travel team gig for about 6 years, traveling all around the southeast, from Florida to west Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina and most places between.

That said, lacrosse has become a big sport in suburban Atlanta too . . . kids who used to play soccer in rec leagues now have the choice to play lacrosse and many of them are moving to lacrosse because they can use their hands to play. Rugby is making a bid for permanence here too, in part fed by the success of Life University's nationally ranked rugby program. And the southern Asia populations have started robust pick up games of cricket on some of the lesser used suburban baseball and soccer fields, so there's that competition, too.

As far as how much soccer is being adopted as someone's primary sport here . . . I can say that Atlanta has a large community of immigrants. For example, that same Clarkston community that the article talks about feeds a high school in which over 100 languages are primary languages for students there. And with folks coming from countries where soccer is the dominant sport, they tend to want to play that when they find other good players even if they're from someplace other than where they're from - they've taken over tennis courts in apartment complexes as primary places to play pick up games, too. Some of those immigrants are from Latin America, some from Africa, and some from Europe - we had a few Scottish and English kids on the travel team, one Brazilian kid and a few from Central America.

How much Atlanta-born inner city kids are taking up soccer, I have no idea. I can say this: you see Atlanta United gear pretty much anywhere these days, at work, at football and baseball games, in restaurants . . . and in pretty much every area of Atlanta, along with a lot of Falcons gear and some Hawks gear . . . and the nearly ubiquitous Braves hats.

My sense if that the author of your linked article found an interesting policy being implemented and blew it up a bit beyond what actually is happening . . .

. . . but if the overseas skills sets and game IQs start cross-pollinating over into the local populations, Atlanta is big enough - 6 million people and growing like crazy still - that it could become another source of high quality talent like older immigrant populations have made cities like St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas into soccer talent producing meccas . . .

. . . unless the TrumPence immigration policies kill the trend, of course . . . .
Click to expand...
I hope IU soccer is recruiting the talent in Atlanta.
 
Aloha Hoosier said:
I hope IU soccer is recruiting the talent in Atlanta.
Click to expand...
IU is not. They tend to get kids from Indiana - which has a very good soccer scene - the St. Louis area and Chicago, plus a sprinkling of kids from other places like Colorado and Texas.

When I took SopeJr#2 and some other club soccer kids from the ATL to IU's summer soccer camp, they pretty much said there isn't good enough talent in Atlanta to recruit there . . . this was 17 or 18 years ago. They're the experts and know far more than I, so I didn't argue with them then nor would I argue with them today.

I do credit SopeJr#2's experience at IU's camp with motivating him to become a very good rugby player on a state runner up team.
 
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UncleMark said:
Soccer? Lacrosse? Rugby? Cricket? WTFF???

Ingraham was right. The culture is no longer American.
Click to expand...

In Evansville a I heard a couple powerhouse football programs couldn’t field freshman teams this year. Lacrosse seems to be gaining popularity in Evansville. With the injuries in football I wonder if soccer and lacrosse might both overtake it some day high schools?
 
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