Soccer in America has had a number of landmark dates that have brought it to the point where it is now most certainly a “major” sport in the country.

• Soccer in the U.S. was not fully recognized until June 29, 1950, when the U.S. Men’s National Team defeated England, 1-0, in a World Cup group match played in Brazil.

• But then soccer didn’t really take root until 1968 when the North American Soccer League (NASL) was formed, as a result of the merger between the United Soccer Association (USA) and the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL).  

• Next came 1994 when FIFA brought the World Cup to the U.S.

• Then soccer blossomed when Major League Soccer was founded in 1995. The league began play in 1996 with 10 teams and in 1998 grew to 12 teams.  It now has 29 teams.

• Now, there’s the Women’s Professional Soccer League, which has 14 teams.

• Speaking of women’s soccer, it certainly received a boost when the U.S. Women’s Olympic team won the gold medal at the recently completed Summer Olympic Games in Paris. It was the fifth Olympic gold medal won by the U.S. Women’s Olympic soccer team, but the first since 2012. (The U.S. women won the Olympic silver medal in 2000 and the bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics in Japan.) The only Olympic Games which the U.S. Women’s Olympic soccer team has not won a medal was at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

And the sport continues to thrive at the high school level. According to the latest participation figures from SFIA, there are 13 million soccer players in the U.S. — and 828,293 are high school players, based on the most recent research from NFHS.

And, of those high school players, 54 percent are boys and 46 percent are girls. At the high school level, boys’ soccer is the fifth most popular high school sport; girls’ soccer is the third most popular for girls.

One of the unique challenges for soccer in America is that it does not have a universally agreed-upon time of the year for its regular season. Most states play high soccer in either the fall or the spring and a few states, including Florida, play in the winter. That causes conflicts for players who often have to choose between playing in a travel tournament and playing for their high school team. In most cases, the high school soccer programs end up on the losing end of those decisions. And, in some situations, players are choosing not to play high school soccer at all, opting instead to be exclusively committed to playing for a local club/travel team.

Nonetheless, outdoor soccer is a strong category for most team dealers across America and in Indiana, where Coaches Corner GM Doc Claussen points out that all local soccer teams are buying soccer balls, uniforms, shin guards, socks, nets and corner flags. The hot beds for travel soccer in Indiana are Bloomington, South Bend and Indianapolis.

In Holyoke, MA, grassroots soccer is being nurtured and promoted beginning at a very young age. In the spring and the fall, recreational soccer leagues are being organized for children as young as two-years-old, according to Betsy Frey, owner of Holyoke Sporting Goods.

“Our two-year-olds who play soccer are called Little Kicks and the next age group is called Side Kicks for children ages three and four,” she explains. “We have age group soccer up to the eighth grade. After that, it’s high school soccer.”

Frey has always sold soccer uniforms, cleats and apparel, but it’s not easy getting shoes and apparel that are small enough for the young children’s small feet and bodies.

“I sell a youth size 7 in shoes and I’m ordering double extra-small short, shirts and socks,” she reports. Then after children graduate from the local youth leagues, many transition into playing high school soccer, returning to Frey’s store again and again.

“We do everything for the local high school soccer teams,” she notes.

Out in Battle Creek, MI, travel soccer is fueling the business for Jack Pearl’s Sports Center. “Travel soccer is driving our soccer business here in Michigan,” says the store’s manager John Miller. “We are selling everything to travel soccer clubs and high school teams with the exception of cleats.”

Miller acknowledges that it helps his soccer business that travel soccer teams must buy new uniforms every year, while high schools are waiting every four or five years to make a purchase.

In Glendive, MT, the soccer business for Squad Sports is limited to local recreational youth soccer leagues and a small travel club, where they sell uniforms, socks and shin guards, according to owner Lara Crighton.

In south Florida, Bob Webster of Webster Sports, Equipment, and Apparel in Coconut Creek, has a vibrant year-round business in soccer. “I provide uniforms for local recreational soccer programs for boys and girls that play both in the spring and the fall,” says Webster.

And, during the winter in Florida, high school soccer is played by boys’ and girls’ teams at both the junior varsity and varsity levels. “High school soccer programs are buying uniforms, soccer balls, socks, shin guards and nets for goals,” adds Webster, who doesn’t sell to travel soccer programs.

INSIDE SOCCER NUMBERS

According to the SFIA’s Soccer (Outdoor) Single Sport Report, of the 14.1 million outdoor soccer participants in the U.S., nearly 60 percent are male.

Of those 14.1 million, 5.4 million of them are considered core participants (playing 26 or more days a year).  

And of those 5.4 million, 56 percent are male; 67 percent are between the ages of six and 17; and 41 percent come from households whose annual income is at least $100,000 a year.

The largest geographic concentration (20 percent) of these core participants is in the South Atlantic section (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware).

Fun Facts‍

Soccer’s popularity will continue to soar as the country inches closer to the 2026 FIFA men’s soccer World Cup, which will be held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The tournament will feature 104 games played by 48 teams. In the U.S., the host cities will be Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia,  Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area.