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Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
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NoDak Offline
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Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
This has been a mystery to me. Apparently, a new club MLS team can attract all kind of allegiance from the hipster crowd but a university cant. What gives?

Are not soccer fans college grads?

The NFL, NBA, and arguably the NHL have all helped the popularity of those college sports. Don't see it in soccer.
04-17-2016 06:46 PM
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Cyniclone Online
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
It's running up against football. If attendance/support is the desire, soccer should switch to a spring schedule.
04-17-2016 07:04 PM
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Captain Bearcat Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
Good point.

MLS is practically a minor league anyways in terms of its talent level. So it's not like fans are favoring MLS over college soccer because they want to watch the best players in the world.
04-17-2016 07:11 PM
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jdgaucho Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
There are schools which draws those crowds. Akron, Louisville, Creighton, UConn, New Mexico, UNC. Of course UC Santa Barbara leads the pack.

But unfortunately we are the exceptions and not the norm. I wish it would pick up more across the country.
04-17-2016 07:12 PM
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DexterDevil Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
It's not just hipsters that are into soccer, well at least the Detroit City Football Club is kinda a rougher/rowdy crowd.
04-17-2016 08:26 PM
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chiefsfan Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
Hipsters? Soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

College Soccer operates off an unusual schedule, competes at the same time as College Football, and generally is not a very popular destination for top youth players, who can be far more successful moving to Europe and signing with a European club to play in their Youth system.
04-17-2016 08:42 PM
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NoDak Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
(04-17-2016 07:12 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  There are schools which draws those crowds. Akron, Louisville, Creighton, UConn, New Mexico, UNC. Of course UC Santa Barbara leads the pack.

But unfortunately we are the exceptions and not the norm. I wish it would pick up more across the country.

Those cities that draw college soccer crowds all are middling cities that aren't large enough to have pro franchises. Interesting.
04-17-2016 08:44 PM
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NoDak Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
(04-17-2016 08:42 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Hipsters? Soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

College Soccer operates off an unusual schedule, competes at the same time as College Football, and generally is not a very popular destination for top youth players, who can be far more successful moving to Europe and signing with a European club to play in their Youth system.

Top youth players don't go MLS either. MLS is where Europe players go before retirement. In Portland, Seattle and many other NA cities etc, MLS soccer is hip.
04-17-2016 08:48 PM
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chiefsfan Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
(04-17-2016 08:48 PM)NoDak Wrote:  
(04-17-2016 08:42 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Hipsters? Soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

College Soccer operates off an unusual schedule, competes at the same time as College Football, and generally is not a very popular destination for top youth players, who can be far more successful moving to Europe and signing with a European club to play in their Youth system.

Top youth players don't go MLS either. MLS is where Europe players go before retirement. In Portland, Seattle and many other NA cities etc, MLS soccer is hip.

It's not just MLS, it's soccer in general. Portland has a large soccer fan base, always has, same with Seattle.

If you really go out and look at this, you'll find that there are large groups of soccer fans throughout the country. There are some 2nd tier US Sides in the NASL producing average attendance numbers of 20K, and none of those are located in "Hipster towns" Hell Detroit has like a 3rd tier side that averages 4-5K per match, which is better than minor league baseball.

The sport is growing in the US by the day.
04-17-2016 08:56 PM
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chargeradio Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
I don't expect Louisville to be in serious contention for a Major League Soccer franchise, but there is at least an effort being made. Even if Louisville did land a team, I wouldn't expect the Cardinals' attendance to be affected significantly. I personally know several people who regularly make the trip to Columbus to watch the Crew play.

The USL Louisville City team has drawn better than 5,000 for every home match except one, and that was "only" 4,772.
04-17-2016 09:05 PM
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NJ2MDTerp Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
(This post was last modified: 04-17-2016 11:42 PM by NJ2MDTerp.)
04-17-2016 11:38 PM
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jdgaucho Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
(04-17-2016 08:44 PM)NoDak Wrote:  
(04-17-2016 07:12 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  There are schools which draws those crowds. Akron, Louisville, Creighton, UConn, New Mexico, UNC. Of course UC Santa Barbara leads the pack.

But unfortunately we are the exceptions and not the norm. I wish it would pick up more across the country.

Those cities that draw college soccer crowds all are middling cities that aren't large enough to have pro franchises. Interesting.

And they are all collectively decent in basketball
04-17-2016 11:50 PM
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jdgaucho Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
When we won the national championship in 2006, we celebrated by taking goalposts out of our stadium and putting it in the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=deskto...l8fRjDn5eM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-aOJzj0vX8
04-17-2016 11:59 PM
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chiefsfan Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
(04-17-2016 09:05 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  I don't expect Louisville to be in serious contention for a Major League Soccer franchise, but there is at least an effort being made. Even if Louisville did land a team, I wouldn't expect the Cardinals' attendance to be affected significantly. I personally know several people who regularly make the trip to Columbus to watch the Crew play.

The USL Louisville City team has drawn better than 5,000 for every home match except one, and that was "only" 4,772.

For most of the year, MLS does not conflict with College football, so it could only affect attendance for 1 month if Louisville had an MLS team, maybe 2 if that team made the playoffs.
04-18-2016 12:24 AM
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firmbizzle Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
The type of crowd that MLS attracts are people who want to get in on a sport from the ground up. You have to spend big money to have any kind of importance in MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL. MLS is so new that if you buy season tickets today, 20 years from if/when it becomes big you have first dibs on seating options, that train left 30 years ago in the other sports. I own MLS season tickets(2) just to try to be cool.
04-18-2016 08:21 AM
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arkstfan Away
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
While MLS isn't in the top group of domestic leagues during any given MLS game there is a very good chance that several players are on the field who are likely to be called up for the next round of international play either for the US or a variety of other nations.

No one involved in the English, German, Spanish, Italian, or French leagues is spending a lot of worry on the MLS because the money for players is so vastly different. There are of course people involved in each league taking a look at the MLS ownership structure since it is designed to prevent the flameouts into bankruptcy that happen too often.

The people worried about MLS are the Mexican and Brazilian leagues because MLS salaries are pushing into their territory.

As to why college hasn't developed a broad-based level of support similar to MLS?
First not a large number of schools even have men's soccer. Of the 38 schools in SEC, CUSA, Sun Belt that will be football members of those leagues after Idaho and NMSU depart only 13 play men's soccer. Of the 26 between MAC and B1G only 14 play men's soccer.

The first games that count take place Labor Day weekend, just over 5 1/2 months after the start of MLS and finishes one week after the MLS Cup.

MLS league-wide works aggressively building a supporters culture and can take advantage of generally nice to be outdoors weather April to mid-October, while college is going last weekend of August to mid-November. MLS is Saturday heavy in its schedule while college soccer tends to schedule a good number of Friday night and Sunday afternoon games. Friday doesn't lend itself well to spending much of the day tailgating and get primed for a game while Sunday conflicts with the number one beast of sports in the US, the NFL. Many of the people who might go to a game, are more likely at a bar or watch party checking out their favorite NFL team.

MLS gets roughly five months where the only regularly scheduled major professional team sport is baseball. The NBA and NHL are going early on but nearly half the teams are done and roughly half fall out every week to 10 days.
04-18-2016 08:22 AM
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Gray Avenger Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
Soccer is a social disease. I am an American - I don't wear a turban, eat with chopsticks or watch soccer. Except sometimes when my grandson plays (dammit).
(This post was last modified: 04-18-2016 09:03 AM by Gray Avenger.)
04-18-2016 09:01 AM
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5thTiger Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
College soccer is in a very similar position as College baseball. It is a vastly inferior product. Now with academies, that gap with further widen.
04-18-2016 09:13 AM
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Wolfman Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
Outside of the big 3 does any college sport draw much of a "crowd?"

If you want hipsters to come, lower ticket prices and sell micro-brews and wine coolers.
04-18-2016 09:15 AM
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Frank the Tank Offline
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RE: Why doesn't men's college soccer attract hip crowds like the MLS
I think successful MLS franchises also have a lot of attributes of the more successful minor league franchises: they're in the right locations with an excellent in-person experience (both in terms of atmosphere and the location of the stadium). Portland and Seattle are prime examples of this. It's also honestly where a large market team like my hometown Chicago Fire have vastly underperformed. Chicago is generally known to be one of the best overall soccer markets in the US (remember the images of throngs of people watching the World Cup in downtown Chicago), yet the Fire have poor attendance since it has a terrible stadium location that isn't anywhere close to downtown or any public transportation (even though the stadium itself is actually pretty nice). It feels like Seattle Sounders games actually feel strongly connected to the city, whereas the Fire are a distant appendage.

College soccer is simply just an entirely different species, similar to how there's very little correlation between MLB fandom and college baseball fandom. (Indeed, it's almost an inverse relationship on the latter since MLB fandom is strongest in the Northeast and Midwest, whereas college baseball fandom is strongest in the South.)
04-18-2016 09:16 AM
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