GOOD

Hope Solo Believes The High Cost Of Youth Soccer Is Hurting The State Of The Game

Club soccer can cost families $17,000 a year, according to a recent report.

 Tod Perry
06.29.18

As the 2018 World Cup captures most of the globe’s attention, the U.S. is sitting on the sidelines because its men’s team failed to qualify for the tournament. Former U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo says a major reason the U.S. men’s team failed to qualify is because soccer has become a “rich, white kid sport.”

Photo by Global Sports Forum/Flickr.

At the Hashtag Sports conference in New York on June 26, Solo argued that the high cost of youth soccer is hurting the state of the game. “That obviously alienates so many communities, including Hispanic communities, the black communities, the rural communities, and under-represented communities,” she said. “My family would not have been able to afford to put me in soccer if I was a young kid today.”

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During the conference, Solo claimed the average cost for a child to play soccer in the U.S. was $15,000. While that figure may seem like an exaggeration, a September 2015 Money report on youth soccer highlighted a family that spent roughly $17,000 a year on club soccer expenses.

Solo spoke about the issue of underrepresented youth in soccer to GOOD earlier this year. “After running for the president of U.S. Soccer, I was heartbroken to see all of the kids that we are neglecting,” she said. “We’re alienating entire populations throughout America. We’re not welcoming them to the global game of soccer.”

Solo believes the issue can be solved, but the help should come from all levels of the sport. “It’s not enough to change the dynamics of soccer in America unless somebody from the top helps us,” she told GOOD, “which means U.S. Soccer and the $100 million in surplus funds needs to be distributed throughout amateur soccer.”

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A Kenyan inventor's niece was born deaf so he made a glove that turns sign language into speech

via Honor Africans / Twitter

The problem with American Sign Language (ASL) is that over 500,000 people in the U.S. use it, but the country has over 330 million people.

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Bill Gates explaining the internet to a smug David Letterman in 1995 is hilarious in hindsight

Looking back, the year 1995 seems like such an innocent time. America was in the midst of its longest streak of peace and prosperity. September 11, 2001 was six years away, and the internet didn't seem like much more than a passing fad.

Twenty-four years ago, 18 million U.S. homes had modem-equipped computers, 7 million more than the year before. Most logged in through America Online where they got their email or communicated with random strangers in chat rooms.

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Imagine what those poll numbers would look like if the question was asked today.

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"Late Night" host David Letterman had Microsoft founder and, at that time the richest man in the world, on his show for an interview in '95 to discuss the "the big new thing."

During the interview Letterman chided Gates about the usefulness of the new technology, comparing it to radio and tape recorders.

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Gates then tells Letterman he can keep up with the latest in his favorite hobbies such as cigar smoking or race cars through the internet. Letterman shuts him down saying that he reads about his interests in magazines.

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The discussion ends with the two laughing over meeting like-minded people in "troubled loner chat room on the internet."

The clip brings to mind a 1994 segment on "The Today Show" where host Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric have a similar discussion.

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We're finally starting to take climate change seriously, survey finds

Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash

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