Ethan Buffalo
Reporter
Soccer in America is on the rise. As of 2018, soccer has been recorded to have already eclipsed baseball for the third most popular sport for men aged 24 and below.
North America is scheduled to host the World Cup in 2026, with American cities hosting 10 of the 16 continental venues, with the final being played in New York City.
While football remains top dog in the American sports food-chain, there are some cracks in the armor. With growing concerns for player safety in football with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) have led many families to opt towards their kids playing soccer.
The Aspen Institute reported in 2015 the number of players aged 6-12 for each sport. Soccer was reported with five million players, handily beating out football’s 1.3 million.
Something to play in soccer’s favor with this youth movement is the availability and ease to watch a game. America’s flagship soccer league, Major League Soccer (MLS) for a long time acted as a minor league for the European elite. Within the past five years, however, the MLS has expanded teams into major American cities like New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
Conversely the National Football League (NFL) has seen three separate teams be relocated to new cities after ownership demands for publicly funded stadiums weren’t met.
The NFL is no stranger to bad press. Cheating scandals, domestic violence issues and an internal culture clash revolving around the game being safer while keeping traditionalists’ interests has made for a lot of spinning plates for the league to balance. The looming gust to blow them over is the World Cup in 2026.
The last time America hosted was in 1994, two years before the establishment of the MLS. Now with an established pro circuit and an increasingly diverse population, soccer can seize America’s interest with an exciting world cup.
Finally, the average MLS game lasts approximately two hours, with commercials playing alongside the action with no stoppages besides intermission. Conversely, the average NFL game is three hours and 11 minutes, with 63 of those coming from commercial breaks alone, according to The Streaming Observer.
Football is currently the king of the American sports landscape, but soccer is quickly approaching and with the right breaks, it could seize the crown by 2026.
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