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[QUOTE="cuseinchina, post: 1076741, member: 3079"]
You are anecdotally noticing a trend that is actually good for soccer in a perverse way.   Youth sports participation is plummeting.  looking at 2012 compared to 2008, basketball is down -6%, football down -5%, little league -7%,  baseball bat sales -18%, and youth sports participation overall - 4% - this compares to a population change of -0.6%.     And you can bet hat 2008 was a down year given the financial crisis so the numbers are probably worse than this in reality.       But soccer participation was flat over the period and climbed 5% at the high school level.    lacross grew triple digit but off of a tiny tiny base and remains insignificant.  The point is kids are doing more interent and less sports, and parents are afraid to let their kids do anything where they might be hurt.   That said, the athletic kids are always going to be doing stuff and getting the weak links out might improve the level of competition in some ways in all these sports.  But in the face of an overall decline in participation, soccer is taking share from the other sports.   It's growth rate has petered out, but it's a very close 2nd to basketball and catching up fast.
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