Soccer and money
I was struck by Christine’s comment that soccer is cheap to play, requiring only sneakers, a ball and a field. Certainly, it’s a lot cheaper than hockey. But that field can be hard to come by in urban areas, which is part of the conventional wisdom for why city kids play basketball instead of baseball these days. There’s a reason why "soccer mom" entered the lexicon as synonymous with suburban.
And yet, as Foer points out, in most of the world, soccer is not an upper-class pursuit. Working class children play this game, without benefit of organized leagues, and generally without lovely green fields. In Spain, we saw kids and young adults playing informal games on stone plazas, on the beach, pretty much anywhere there was an open space. You just don’t see that in the US. Is there such a thing as a pick-up game of soccer in America?
One of my friends also pointed out to me that the local kids soccer league is far more expensive than the local basketball league. I thought that the $80 registration fee (for Fall and Spring seasons combined) was pretty reasonable, a lot better than the gymboree type stuff in the area. But she told me that the basketball league only charges $5 a season. Is basketball really that much cheaper to run, or is it that they expect poor kids to play basketball, middle-class kids soccer, and charge what the market can bear?
PS. The rest of my trip photos are now up at Flickr.