| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Karl |
Posted - Sep 17 2004 : 11:42:34 AM
Soccer participation in the United States has grown nearly 15 percent since 1987. In 1987, there were 15,388,000 players on adult and youth soccer teams in the U.S. By 2002, there were 17,641,000 players on teams. By contrast, basketball saw only a 2.4 percent increase in team participation, while baseball actually experienced a decrease in team play (31.1 percent decrease) as did touch football (26.6 percent decrease). Basketball still has the highest total of team players in the U.S. in 2002 with 36,583,000 players on teams. Soccer is the second highest with 17,641,000 followed by touch football (14,093,000) and baseball (10,402,000).
In 2002, there were 12,530,000 total youth soccer participants and 5,111,000 adult soccer players. Over 44 percent of players said that they played 25 or more days per year, while 23 percent of players said they played 52 or more days per year and 32 percent of players claimed that they were "aficionados" and that soccer was their favorite overall activity.
Of total player participation, 57 percent of players were male and 43 percent were female. The average amount of days spent playing soccer also increased from 1987 to 2002, from 30 days spent playing per year to 40 days spent playing per year. Perhaps the strongest statistic indicating soccer's immense growth in the U.S. over the past decade and a half is the fact that there are now 5.1 million adult soccer players in the U.S., up from 2.8 million in 1987-- a 79 percent increase.
All data comes from a 2003 Superstudy conducted by Sporting Goods Manufacturers (SMGA) which presents a comprehensive overview of sports participation in the U.S. every year. Copies of the complete study may be found at:
www.sportlink.com. |
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