Saints plans for US initiative

Fair enough on your last point. I suppose the American connection is Krueger, the club has more ties to North America through him than with Asia.

As for the first point, I have no idea about that.

 

I think it's probably a secret to everyone here except yourself CBK. Every word that has come out of SFC has said that the Liebherrs are here for the long term. What they sow they most definitely want to reap themselves, long term. Saying that, every owner is a steward to some extent. If you're suggesting Katharina wants to sell in 10-15-20 years, that's probably true. But don't think she's out there just to make a quick substantial buck.

 

Say huh? You have no idea what you are talking about. Who says there isn't active sports here beyond college? Adults are much more actively involved in sports as here compared to most of Europe.

As for why US and not China or India, we have a better infrastructure. Plenty of pitches everywhere, in good shape. Large soccer complexes for kids already built in most populous areas. Lots of kids who have time to train instead of working on farms or in sweat shops. Stable government and economy. Good technology. We speak the same language.

Also, while we are by no means great, it's not like the US just totally sucks at soccer. We have made every World Cup since 1990 (unlike some other country) and we made it past the group stage at the last two cups (unlike some other country). There are US players playing in Premier League and Championship. We're pretty far ahead of China and India as a footballing nation.

 

And success raises interest....look how interested GB is in cycling and rowing......and briefly, curling Solely because we are good at it. America has had success with their women's team....the more success the men's team has, the greater will be the interest. And a lot of children play it....we mentioned the fact that they tend to stop when they reach the age they need to kick on (pardon the pun).....but you can't have millions playing a game without a few getting bitten by the bug.

 

And you don't go in for something this speculative to make a quick buck.

 

Well I'm not sure I'd call it speculative, if you mean the word in terms of taking a punt. Saints don't do that, remember? Being SFC [2009] this will be meticulously planned and they'll have done the research, sounded out the market, and realised the investment required. With Kruegar being able to open many more doors that would otherwise be closed, this seems like a natural progression when you think about it. Typically, Saints have thought of an alternative way of doing things and have utilised the things they are great at. Also typically, the football media, on the GB side of the water, will probably not have a clue what to make of it, and maybe even pooh-pooh it as something half-baked. Or ignore it completely.

Saints did tell us they were going to do this months ago, and no doubt they had been planning this months before that. It certainly wasn't dreamed up overnight.

 

By speculative, I meant that the outcome is unknown as it is a new venture. I'm sure lots of research has been done, but as we all know not everything works out. We are hoping for an increase in our profile in a world where a few teams are known worldwide. I see it as partly a financial venture and partly a case of having pride in the Southampton Way.

 

OK, I won't make a deal out of the speculative nature of it. Of course, every venture has its uncertainties, but this could be a real money spinner and I trust SFC to do it right.

 

Having been involved in project managing large developments in UK businesses, let me assure everyone that the business and financial planning prior to investing serious cash is immense. KL comes from a serious business background and would imagine she would not have sanctioned such a massive investment if there was anything speculative about it.
No doubt the likes of RK have their reputations on the line and they don't do that lightly
This is exciting

 

The difficulty for football as a growing sport in the US has always been luring the best young athletes away from basketball, American football, baseball and track and field. All those are way more established and historically have better funded programs in professional, college and amateur level. Even amateur wrestling and tennis are sports with similar stroke in competing for the attentions of young standout athletes who might have taken up football had the opportunity, coaching and pathway been available. However there are now emerging examples in minority/growth sports (MMA for example) of young athletes being diverted away from traditional sports and then excelling. Jon Jones and Luke Rockhold are examples of that, blue chip athletic prospects who would have been stars in any sport but were recruited to prize fighting. I feel like that's what we're shooting for here, trying to nab those 1%ers away from other, more visible athletic programs and building our reputation in the market while we do it.

It's a smart plan. Who knows how effective it'll be on the coaching side and the marketing side still needs the first team to perform at a high level to achieve its goal.

 

ISIRTP will probably know best but do any colleges offer Soccer scholarships like they do in Basketball & American Football.

I probably need to re-read the article as it could have been mentioned, but part of the battle to keep players in there latter teenage years is through education. Parents know that a talent in other sports will get an education to match and have opportunities outside of sport if the worst happens.

Obviously football will never complete with the AF & Basketball programs which can offer a lot more than just a good education to the elite athletes, but if the colleges have programs which can be soccer centric like our academy then inroads can be made.

 

Soccer is not even close to as popular as NCAA basketball or football but yes, they do give soccer scholarships. I believe NCAA Division I schools have 10 scholarships they can award.

But it is still much different in terms of fostering talent. You can be a complete idiot with absolutely no chance of attending college, but if you can play football someone will give you a full scholarship (and more than likely some additional illegal money on the side). And they will provide you with tutors and sign you up for easy classes (and allow you to cheat beyond that). They really don't care about how you do academically at all.

They won't go that extra mile for soccer players. The other sports are run stricter. Few schools will stick their neck out for soccer players. You will get a full or partial scholarship, and you might get cut a bit of a break where your soccer skills get you into a better university than you otherwise would. But you still have to do the schoolwork. The institutions maintain good graduation rates. They kind of have to, so they can use soccer and other sports to paper over the sham of their basketball and football programs and claim that the NCAA is about producing scholar athletes instead of generating $$$.

 

Most aren't 'full ride' scholarships, however; those 10 scholarships often get apportioned between many more kids. Having known someone who had one in the US, a soccer scholarship is useful, but you had better hope that you have an additional source of funding (or good post-uni job prospects).

 

Right. They are allowed to grant 10 free rides worth of tuition, but in general they divvy it up amongst more than ten students so you get say, 20 students all with partial scholarships rather than 10 students with full scholarships and the rest nothing.

I know someone who actually did procure the one full scholarship given at my university (which was ranked top ten in soccer) and still quit the team and gave it up. He wanted to be a doctor, and it was pretty tough trying to do pre-med while attending practice everyday and often traveling on the weekends.

I'm not saying the guy was all about money but at some point any responsible adult has to think about their career prospects. He makes probably 2-3x as much as a pediatrician than he would as an average MLS soccer player. If he even made the MLS which he probably wouldn't. And if he just went all-in on the money path he could probably make twice as much as does now.

It's just one of those things. Steve Nash could have been a pro soccer player like his brother. Or for that matter maybe a pro skateboarder, or doctor or businessman or TV personality. Sky was the limit for that guy, it is good for basketball that Nash became an NBA hall of fame point guard just like it is probably good for English soccer that JWP pursued a pro soccer career whe he quite clearly could have been successful at other endeavors. But long-term is it good for the sport or society at large? I'm not in a position to judge.

 

I suspect there will still be enough footballers who don't want or can't get into a college programme....after all it is a big country with a lot of South American immigrants (with a football background). A good football academy with an education programme could provide another choice.

 

Steve Nash is the exemplar of the weakness of the American college system as a developer of talent; he could have gotten partial scholarships in soccer or an academic pursuit, but his future was determined when Santa Clara offered him a full ride to play basketball, which wasn't available in his other possible directions. He then went on to be good enough at the sport to do precisely nothing for the Canadian Men's National Basketball Team despite winning a couple MVPs in the NBA, because we're really that bad.

 

I wonder if the coming rash of lawsuits about long-term brain damage in gridiron (and boy there's going to be a flood) will change the balance of sports in the USA? I'd expect that insurance premiums will rocket and at school level it might force a move to safer games like soccer. That might be something we'd benefit from (remember that Saints have a long-term result in mind here so the wait might not matter).

Vin

 

The reliance on US colleges to develop footballers is probably the weakness, most of our footballers give the impression that they are not the most educationally talented people who wouldn't get anywhere near a six form college let alone a US College/Uni.
If an American kid is not the brightest but a talented and determined footballer, Saints new system will surely attract him

 

Previously the education, prestige and money made American football a no brainer for those athletes which had a choice. Despite professional careers lasting 5-6 seasons on average.
with the evidence that you could become a no brainer. There will a few who would now be reluctant, but they would have to be in a privileged enough position to be able to make that choice. The reward is still going to be worth the risk for most.

 

True to some extent. But America is vaste, and nothing if not culturally diverse. The South West has a Hispanic population of 70 million plus. Not sure how many of them olay gridiron.