That map to the right is England. Not the big British island that houses Scotland, Wales, and England; just England. It’s where the vast majority of the soccer you and I watch takes place; amongst other things, that means that all twenty-odd tiers of the English Soccer Pyramid are housed in that space, which is about 50,000 square miles.
Put another way: that’s almost eight hundred different teams, all housed in a space that’s roughly the size and shape of Louisiana.
Let’s break down those numbers a little more. First of all, the exact area is a 50,346 square miles, and this year 762 teams entered the FA Cup (Newcastle Blue Star entered and then pulled out, but we’ll leave them in for our purposes here). That means that, for every 66 square mile area, there’s a team.
66 square miles might sound like a lot, but it really isn’t. It’s probably bigger than your city, of course, but it’s likely a lot smaller than your county. For example, I’m from Cuyahoga County in Ohio; this county is about 1,246 square miles, which would be enough to populate about 19 different teams. Every day, I drive from the northwestern end of the county to the southeastern end; assuming traffic’s alright, I can make that drive in about an hour’s time. If I lived in England, I could halve that drive time and probably be within driving distance of ten teams.
Obviously, that’s not how it works over here. For one thing, we’re a much bigger country; the U.S. clocks in at about 3,794,066 square miles, which is substantially larger. On the flip side, we have a significantly smaller soccer pyramid; five tiers encompass 183 teams, from your MLS heavyweights all the way down to Region IV of the USASA. That comes out to be one team per every 20,732 square miles; if England and the U.S. had the same area and team distribution, England would have two and a half teams.
What that means is that, for your average Englishman, it’s insanely easy to follow your local side. Sure, that side is more than likely not going to make Sky Sports every night; after all, most of the English football clubs are lower league clubs. Still, those lower league clubs charge lower league prices to get in, and they come with the added bonus of being able to support your local team.
This also gives soccer fans the ability to actually follow their club, both away and home. Say I was a local Sunderland fan and wanted to travel away to watch Sunderland rip Portsmouth apart in their ground; I could probably get there by car in around eight hours, or take a train and get there in six. I know plenty of people who drive five and a half hours or so to watch the Browns play the Bengals in Cincinnati; that train ride doesn’t really sound all that bad.
The only thing that the U.S. has that provides that level of community interaction is high school sports; fans will travel long distances to watch their local high school play, and the ticket prices for a lower-league soccer game are probably comparable to the price for a local high school event.
I’ve tried to be a Fire fan, but the MLS is crap and now I have to drive to the stadium in the ‘burbs. I’m sure I could find some bus/drinking deal, but it’s more trouble (and money) than it’s worth.
Everything is about the Car in the US, though. My buddies and I wanted to take a train down to DC to see the DC/Real Madrid friendly, but we would have had to drive to Albany (2 hours from Utica (think Syracuse)), then make a stop in NYC for some reason, then continue the trip to DC. It would have taken 9 hours by train, 12 hours by car. It’s just not as easy.
I’m a Red Bulls fan not because of some intense feeling I have for them, but because they are on MSG (which is on everywhere in NY). Watching a game in front of a computer stinks, so that’s how they became my choice.
We have just opted for local. Living in Vegas, we are 5 hours or more from any major team. The UNLV men’s and women’s teams are both pretty good. Hopefully this year the men’s team will live up to their roster’s capabilities.
This has actually done more to instill a love of the game in my son, as the players are always available after games (win or lose) to sign autographs, talk to the kids, and pose for pictures.
They also offer summer camps every year so he gets to “train” and “play” (Zeke’s words) with the men’s team.
This past year two players from UNLV have been selected by MLS teams (Danny Cruz to Houston and Lamar Neagle to Seattle) and that has given Zeke the attitude that he can play professionally too if he works hard and learns new skills.
I don’t know that we would have any of this if we lived in LA or Salt Lake.
In the same boat here, where I have to watch the New Mexico men’s team if I want live soccer – which isn’t so bad, I guess, since they are now perennial contenders in the MPSF.
There’s an NPSL team here as well (Albuquerque Asylum), but they’re on hiatus for the foreseeable future due to lack of competition in their division.
It would just be nice to have the option to follow a higher-level team without having to invest several hundred dollars in travel and lodging expenses every time I wanted to attend a game – or to have a lower-division local team to tie my loyalties to.
Green Eggs writes: “since they are now perennial contenders in the MPSF.”
Yes, we know. They are consistently in and around the top 25 nationally too, aren’t they? That’s what we’re hoping for in the coming years at UNLV!
Actually Kevin, BYU’s soccer team is already a “professional” team as their men’s team is in the PDL. Provo is only about 40 minutes south of Salt Lake City. While I’m not sure any of the BYU players have gone on to be starters at RSL, they are often on the RSL reserves squad.
How do they do that without running afoul of NCAA rules?
I actually read up on this a couple years ago when we got our first UNLV season tickets. Apparently not too long ago BYU dominated all their opponents and was having a difficult time recruiting players because the players weren’t being challenged.
So the BYU coach decided to play the team as part of the USL (I believe they are in the PDL league). They do not play college teams in any competitions that count. They actually came to Vegas last Spring for an exhibition game (which UNLV won!).
There is good article about the BYU program on the ESPN site. The article explains some of the benefits of BYU doing this and asks if other powerhouse college soccer teams would go the USL route as well. But the BYU coach didn’t think so because the BYU campus has “built in” fans all summer long because the LDS church runs many youth progams there all summer long, whereas most other Universities are empty during the summer.