Pay to Play: Politics, Money, and the Business of American Sports With Marc Edelman

It's interesting.

Uh, yes, we train our athletes to be successful, but you know, it's, uh, you, you look at a, a country like Cape Verde that has a population a fraction of the size of the United States, as do, do the, the Scandinavian countries.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and of course we're looking at this World Cup, a number of the Scandinavian countries have now made it advance to the, the quarterfinals, yet with a smaller population.

Why is it that we have such a large population but have not been overly successful on the men's side of soccer in the World Cup?

Well, Michael, I just back from three weeks in Norway, uh, which is really interesting because even before the World Cup began, uh, just about everybody I was speaking with in Norway said that this team was going to be uniquely good.

Uh, in many of the countries, including throughout Europe, throughout Scandinavia, throughout South and Central America, uh, they live and die by the sport of soccer.

They'll call it football.

Uh, and this is a sport that young people are trained to play and play almost exclusively from a very young age.

Uh, while America's population is so much larger, uh, we, um, even with the specialization in sport, uh, if we look at the young population, uh, many of those who are perceived as being top athletes very quickly specialize in American football, in basketball, in baseball.

Uh, what stands out most to me is that in the American school system, beginning from Peewee sports straight through high school, uh, American football and the sport we choose to play, soccer, are played during the same season.

Uh, which means that, and I think this affects the male athletes a lot more than the female athletes because there's no full counterpart to American football for women right now.

Uh, but a young boy is often forced to choose, "Do I want football or do I want soccer?" Uh, and even with the increasing understanding of the risks that emanate from playing the sport of football in terms of health, uh, football has historically been the sport that's had the glory in the United States.

Uh, football has historically been the sport that has led some young boys from underprivileged populations to believe it's their way out and their way to move money.

And consequently, we have not had as many of our elite athletes concentrate on the sport of soccer as we may see in other countries.

Let me propose an alternate view.

Mm-hmm.

Um, soccer has become more and more popular in the United States, certainly since we last hosted the World Cup in the 1990s.

Uh, there are more children playing soccer now in the school, primary schools-

Mm-hmm

... uh, than there are playing baseball.

Um, but whereas in countries like Norway that you referenced, uh, m- many of their athletes are judged specifically on merit, here in the United States, uh, the wealthy are given, uh, advantages.

I'm talking now about sports, and their children are giving advantages of, of, o- o- over others.

For example, in soccer, travel teams are critically important, but they're expensive.

It can cost thousands of dollars for young, youngsters to be able to qualify for the more advanced travel teams where, where the best players are supposed to be.