How to grow youth soccer in B.C.

Change season: Moving playing time to spring and summer from September to March would benefit sport

Soccer is experiencing a rebirth in this province. BC Place will host the final of the Women’s World Cup this summer, the same venue where the Vancouver Whitecaps are enjoying a good start to the MLS season, consistently bringing in 20,000 fans to their home games.

Soccer used to gain attention only during big events, like the World Cup (52 per cent of British Columbian men followed it “very” or “moderately closely” last year). Soccer fans in B.C. tended to gravitate toward European teams, finding it easy to follow matches on cable or via web streaming.

But the Whitecaps are growing in popularity, which is good for business. Earlier this year, Insights West found that 12 per cent of British Columbians own at least one piece of gear from the MLS franchise, practically the same number of those who own clothing with the Seattle Seahawks logo (13 per cent). That’s a lot of jerseys that have been slowly supplanting Premier League shirts at friendly pickup games.

Soccer’s governing body will look at how Canada handles this year’s Women’s World Cup with interest. If they keep their pledge to rotate the hosting duties for the men’s event, Canada would be considered — along with the United States and Mexico — as a strong candidate for 2026. Yes, we may lack big stadiums, but developing new facilities was one of the reasons that saw Russia edge out England for 2018, and Qatar emerge out of nowhere to host in 2022.

The economic impact for a World Cup host is enormous. In 1994, the World Cup final alone brought $623 million to California. Estimates from the 2010 event in South Africa point to a direct GDP value of $21.3 billion. Compared with other nations, Canada is only scratching the surface when it comes to the economic potential of embracing soccer.

Still, as sports fans in B.C. are beginning to warm up to homegrown soccer, there seems to be a discrepancy in the way kids are establishing a connection with the game. In the rest of Canada, soccer is played primarily in the spring and summer. Here, however, we play in what amounts to be our rainiest months.

Anecdotal evidence collected from parents and grandparents who hold umbrellas for two hours every Saturday points to some children gradually growing disenchanted with the sport.

Training in the rain and playing on soggy fields is not the best way to emulate the exploits of Lionel Messi or Christine Sinclair. The game is not enjoyable for anyone under such conditions. Rain should be a rarity during a soccer match — in B.C., it is the standard.

Another difficulty in playing soccer during December and January has to do with freezing morning temperatures. If the field is frozen, games are sometimes cancelled. Nothing is more frustrating for a young sports enthusiast than being sent home because of poor weather.

In order to test some of these perceptions, Insights West asked British Columbians and parents of kids who play sports about their views. Across the province, 70 per cent voiced support for moving the soccer season to the spring and summer months, instead of the current schedule that usually runs from September to March.

One of the purported hindrances of enacting this change is the effect it would have on enrolment.

We found that only nine per cent of parents who have children enrolled in soccer would walk away from the sport if the season was moved. However, 75 per cent of parents whose kids play other sports say they would consider soccer for their children if the season were played in the spring and summer. This would constitute a massive net gain for soccer as a youth sport in our province.

Moving the season would not be detrimental to the thousands of kids in B.C. who play soccer. It would provide them with other opportunities for recreation and skills development during the rainy months, and afford them the chance to enjoy soccer with warmer weather. Equipment would last longer and cities would not need to spend as much money resodding fields.

The rest of the country already enjoys soccer as a spring and summer sport. Young players in Toronto and Montreal watch the home games of their MLS teams at the same time they play their seasons.

Now, as the Whitecaps are showcasing their skills, most B.C. kids have moved on to other sports and are unable to enjoy the game in the sunshine.

One of the best ways to ensure that soccer continues to grow in our province is to allow the children who play the game to do so in the best circumstances. The business of soccer has changed dramatically since Canada’s last — and only — World Cup trip in 1986. Becoming the host nation, which is a possibility, would bring an economic impact to the country 10 times larger than the 2010 Winter Olympics. B.C. has one of the best soccer venues in the country. It is now a matter of growing the game to make the bid more attractive to decisionmakers.