[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by gravey101:
>You asked why soccer is being marketed to kids.

No, I didn't. I said that is what I see most of them playing when I walk past playgorunds. You said, "They buy what is marketed to them".

>And I would hope that you realize that this is just a debate, not a point of any real importance to the world. So my comments are intended to bait and solicit responses, not to cause any undue anger.

Of course. I'm not angry at all... Just replying to your comments and pointing out where I disagree.

Well, I can’t really say much about what you see; it’s not within the bounds of my experience. But here, kids are not allowed to play football in school until they get to high school. And then only in an organized, supervised situation. So the vast majority of schools have no football. There is some peewee and youth football, but prolly not as much as soccer. And there is a big push to restrict that to kids 13 and older. At the high schools, soccer is a poor step child when compared to football. Soccer games are not played in the lighted stadiums that are built for football. And while football squads run into the 100’s at many schools, you won’t find any varsity soccer programs anywhere near that large. I should note that during the 80’s there was a shortage of soccer fields, so the county tore out a large park of baseball fields and built a huge soccer compound. It was a “Political necessity” they said. It would “support itself” the politicians said. Now it sits largely unused, and costs 1.5 mil to support in this years budget. The soccer mom voting block is seldom mentioned these days. Of late, it is the cyclist voting block that gets all of the lip service. And now there is a shortage of ball diamonds, so they are talking about tearing out some of the soccer fields.