Chicago Soccer is Illinois’s Fastest Growing Sport

Chicago Soccer is the fastest growing sport in Illinois today, but not many people have joined the moving train.

It could be because of their love for other sports, or it may just be that they don’t understand the game of soccer quite as much as they thought.

According to a 2016 Nielsen Scarborough survey, almost 16 million people in the U.S play soccer, professionally or informally, growing from 11 million in 2009.

In this post, we will be looking at what makes soccer so unique, and why it is the fastest growing sport in Chicago today.

Soccer is an eleven-player per-side game, with three or sometimes four umpires: the referee, and two or three assistant referees.

It is a game mostly played in open areas, until we started watching beach soccer with 5-player sides played behind closed doors. Like every team game, the number one goal is to win by outscoring your opponent

It is, however, an act of sportsmanship to lose or draw.

Americans have been open to various sports more common to the rest of the world, and soccer is the best.

Teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Barcelona have joined the train, all in a bid to capture a size of the market audience America provides. Countless tours are being held in America, including Chicago, with the world’s best players like Messi and Ronaldo on parade.

Soccer stars like David Beckham, Stephen Gerard, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba have graced our soccer pitches.

More recently, a renowned German World Cup winner, Bastian Schweinsteiger, signed with Chicago’s Soccer Fire earlier this year. It was a landmark achievement, and hopefully it will boost the popularity of the sport and the size of the audiences at the stadium.

He didn’t bring the same effect Beckham brought with the MLS, however, he is in a good place in his career.

It should come as no surprise that Chicago soccer is fully accepted here.

I think the reason it took so long is due to the timing of various European matches on television. Some of these games are played as early as 2AM—5AM local time, both on weekends and at midweek. That has a negative effect on its stateside popularity.

In the same vein, the NBA is not quite as popular in other parts of the world because of the same timing issue.

Soccer is still a lucrative sport, so I can see why Chicago is becoming a hub. Top footballers are among the highest paid sportsmen in the world, so it is only natural that a city like Chicago and its sporting heritage will choose to associate with such a beautiful game.

Since soccer is an outfield sport, parks and open places are always subject to be used as pitches.

Chicago parks that double as soccer fields are Abbot Park, Ada Park, Addams/Medil Park, and many others.

Soccer academies are also close to such open places where the round leather game is played, such Chicago Soccer Academy, Chicago Fire Soccer Academy, and many more up-and-coming camps for new and seasoned players alike.

These Chicago soccer academies cater to both boys and girls, starting as young as 10-years-old (U10-U14). The aim is to start them young in order to shape them into tomorrow’s soccer stars.

The KICS cup, popularly called the International Youth Soccer Tournament, is a competition that brings different academies together in the spirit of sportsmanship to compete for the coveted trophy. It is a fiercely contested competition.

Another such competition is the Chicago International Soccer Club that offers immense opportunities to participants to represent their city locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

These youth programs are growing in leaps and bounds to accommodate the rising popularity of soccer as a noted sport in Chicago.

Chicago, unfortunately, can’t boast of any referee soccer academy in the city. However, there is a referee academy to be found within the state of Illinois, called the Illinois Soccer Referee Committee.

It is an avenue for young referees to showcase what they can do under the tutelage of experienced professionals.

Some major investments that have helped grow Chicago soccer over the years have been carried out by Andrew Hauptman, the Chairman of the Chicago Soccer Fire Club, and Andell Inc., a private investment firm. These generous investments have created such advances as:

• Private Bank Fire Pitch — a $22 million, 150,000 square-foot community soccer facility.
• Increased the number of players in its youth club program from 400 to more than 16,000 across six states.
• Expanded an elite, fully-funded Fire Academy.
• Launched Chicago Fire Rec Soccer League, Chicago’s largest adult league, with more than 14,000 players.
• Created new marquee assets including Pub to Pitch, the Second Star Club, and Pub97.
• Built an in-house media property generating more than 100 hours of linear television broadcasts, and 16,000 hours of content for more than 350,000 followers.
• Expanded the award-winning Chicago Fire Foundation and its cornerstone program, P.L.A.Y.S. (Participate Learn Achieve Youth Soccer), which is committed to enhancing the academic performance and development of social and emotional skills.
• The Foundation has been honored as the 2016 Beyond Sports Team of the Year, the 2015 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Sports Team of the Year, and is a Chicago Charity Challenge Helping Hand honoree two years running. From https://tinyurl.com/ly6uead.

Chicago Soccer fans are in for a great time anywhere they step out to catch a game.

With the state-of-the-art facilities at some of these grounds, it’s difficult not to catch so much fun, even if you are not a soccer fan.

Currently, the only professional soccer team in Chicago is the Chicago Fire Soccer Club playing in the Eastern Conference of the MLS.

Plans are in the works by Former Chicago Fire General Manager Peter Wilt to include another team from Chicago in the Professional Football League.

If that plan finally follows through, it will afford Chicago fans the pleasure to see another of their darling teams in the famous MLS. It might also ignite a form of rivalry like we see during Inter Milan versus Ac Milan games, or Chelsea versus Arsenal games in Europe.

Hopefully, someday a team from Chicago will lift the MLS and CONCACAF Champions’ League, so Chicago will have a championship title to celebrate again. The CONCACAF tournament is an avenue where champions from different parts of North America compete for a coveted trophy and title. It was founded in 1962, and consists of 24 teams from 12 soccer associations.

No team from the MLS has won this competition.

They have only been finalists twice after the format was changed.  Furthermore, soccer can become another huge employer of labor, as it is with other sports.

It can also generate massive revenue for the government of Chicago as well. Imagine some of the sport’s most famous players and the huge bonuses they receive competing for a spot on Chicago’s roster, with a large chunk of their salaries going to paying Chicago taxes.

Whichever way you look at it, soccer is a win-win investment for the government. 

The private sector can also leverage the opportunities soccer can offer in Chicago. Depending on how popular the local teams become around the world, banners, mufflers, logos, and even jerseys can be sponsored by private companies who wish to partner with the top soccer brand in Chicago.

Endorsement deals will be signed, and a certain percentage of each will be paid every year to the football club. Rights and images of the clubs can be sold to exclusive companies, with each handling a particular aspect of the brand.

Soccer team experts can be sponsored to Europe and China, to learn how their teams succeed and thrive in the sport.

In the past year, Chinese firms have invested a lot in the round leather game—so far a staggering $3 billion has been spent. Today, a vast majority of Europe, African, and South American players are moving to China.

Chicago can benefit in many ways from soccer if we continue to support and grow the sport.

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