Soccer is a second tier sport at the high school, college and professional levels in America and as long as there are the big four it allways will be. Currently this is the second attempt at professional soccer in America. They tried it before with a group of big name hasbens at the end of their carrers and that failed as well. It was a niche effort but in the end it folded because no one really cared.

The trickle down effect from the telivision exposure from the big four major league sports dominates the descision making process of youth athletes. Once a kid who is an elite athlete reaches the end of middle school or junior high school he is more or less required to select a sport as a primary concentration.

Often there are duel sport athletes, such as Tony Gonzales or a Charlie Ward that are able to excell but for the most part, once you have a kid involved in club or select leagues and private coaches along with school participation there isn't much time left for much else.

Kids see players on TV and they want to be like them. Very few kids dream of growing up and being a star in Italy or England. They want to be famous in America. They want to play in front of their family and friends and they want to be able to turn on their TV and see their highlights. When was the last time you saw any Premier League highlights on ESPN?

As they progress through their athletic careers they make choices not only on what they enjoy most or are best at, but are also influenced by Nike, Addidas and the other companies that are sponsoring tournaments and programs.

And as those kids see the perks of participating in a high exposure sport they want the benefits. They posess a dream of playing big time sports, getting a college scholarship and playing in front of tousands of people and ultimately reaping the rewards of the ultimate big payday in professional leagues.

Right now the MLS or even college soccer for that matter, does not offer the same big time financial rewards offered by the other sports. In Europe and South America, soccer players are put on the same pedestal as our basketball, football, baseball and hockey players. That is just not the case here.

Soccer here is still viewed as an entry sport for parents to get their kids onto a sports field and into team sports. Kids can start young, there aren't a lot of intricate plays at the younger youth level and it doesn't require much skill to start at the youngest levels.

As those kids get older, it filters out the kids that really aren't into sports, aren't really athletic, don't posess the skills to be an excellent club elvel soccer player, or find another sport that they prefer.

If soccer was the number one sport in America, then you would have had a great number of guys that were prolific in other sports that probably would have concentrated on it.

Imagine if guys like Michael Vic, Charlie Ward, Emmet Smith, Eric Dickerson, Walter Payton,Isaac Bruce, Barry Sanders, Dion Sanders, Chris Carter, Rod Smith, Steve Largent, Steve Young, Derrick Fisher, Michael Jordan, Alan Iversen, John Stockton Ect. had decided to focus on soccer when they were 10 or 11 instead of football or basketball.

It would be a whole different story.