I think it's time for Mizzou to find a way to start a men's soccer program. We already have a women's program, so the capital infrastructure is in place. It's just a matter of making things work with Title IX and funding the scholarships.
My reasoning for this statement is vaguely tied to this short piece by Sam Mellinger of the KC Star talking about how some people are trying to brand Kansas City as the 'Soccer Capital of America'.
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article26580235.html
Obviously that's entirely subjective. St. Louis has a ton of history with American soccer; Seattle has the largest fanbase, etc. If you scroll down a bit in the link, you'll see a tweet that lists the ratings for the recent Womens World Cup final, with KC and StL vitrually tied at the top.
It's becoming clear that Missouri as a state is more soccer crazy than almost any other state in the country. St. Louis has had players on every World Cup squad the USA has ever fielded, so it's not new on the eastern side of the state. They have the history but no MLS team, while KC has one of the top teams in MLS but little history (yes ... the team is in kansas, but the whole metro is nuts for soccer. Just look at the crowds at P&L). Columbia is right in the middle of both cities -- both of which have fertile youth programs that are churning out national team players at every level from USMNT to U-20, U-17, etc. Sporting KC has 4 defenders all from the KC metro, all of whom played elsewhere for college. There's no reason Mizzou couldn't recruit those kids, along with starting to steal some of the StL kids away from SLU.
I'm sure people will jump in and tell me soccer stinks and it'll never happen. They're probably right about the second part. But hey ... a guy can dream.
My reasoning for this statement is vaguely tied to this short piece by Sam Mellinger of the KC Star talking about how some people are trying to brand Kansas City as the 'Soccer Capital of America'.
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article26580235.html
Obviously that's entirely subjective. St. Louis has a ton of history with American soccer; Seattle has the largest fanbase, etc. If you scroll down a bit in the link, you'll see a tweet that lists the ratings for the recent Womens World Cup final, with KC and StL vitrually tied at the top.
It's becoming clear that Missouri as a state is more soccer crazy than almost any other state in the country. St. Louis has had players on every World Cup squad the USA has ever fielded, so it's not new on the eastern side of the state. They have the history but no MLS team, while KC has one of the top teams in MLS but little history (yes ... the team is in kansas, but the whole metro is nuts for soccer. Just look at the crowds at P&L). Columbia is right in the middle of both cities -- both of which have fertile youth programs that are churning out national team players at every level from USMNT to U-20, U-17, etc. Sporting KC has 4 defenders all from the KC metro, all of whom played elsewhere for college. There's no reason Mizzou couldn't recruit those kids, along with starting to steal some of the StL kids away from SLU.
I'm sure people will jump in and tell me soccer stinks and it'll never happen. They're probably right about the second part. But hey ... a guy can dream.
