Assignment 7A - Testing the Hypothesis

Helping to reduce the costs associated with youth club soccer

• Opportunity: The United States trails other countries in youth soccer development because of the costs associated with playing the game. Playing for a club team can require thousands of dollars. My idea is to connect club teams with sponsorship from foreign teams to help reduce membership costs in order to get more kids playing.
• Who: Youth soccer clubs
• What: Have high membership costs which deter young talented kids from participating
• Why: Lack of sponsorship in relation to other sports
• Testing the who: For a country as developed as the United States, we are the only ones who suffer as extensively from this issue. Although one can argue that there is a general lack of interest in soccer as a sport because of the popularity of sports like football and basketball, research proves that the popularity of soccer has been increasing. The U.S., Mexico and Canada are set to host the 2026 World Cup and many experts hope that the game reaches a breakthrough by then. Thus, it is crucial that we somehow reduce the admission costs of youth club teams so that we may take advantage of the sports peak popularity when the World Cup comes around.
• Testing the what: There have been efforts to reduce costs by people individually sponsoring players but that is very inefficient. Other efforts have centered around creating academies and new soccer clubs, but those too have branched towards elitism and become expensive.
• Testing the why: AAU basketball teams and other non-soccer club teams often have Nike or Adidas sponsorship which help reduce membership costs. Admittedly, other sports such as volleyball can be even more expensive than soccer, but the targeted family is middle class and can afford the fees. Soccer is mostly played by minority populations who are usually less wealthy than white populations. Thus, the high membership costs of soccer are even more detrimental to their participation and the sports growth in the U.S.

• Interview #1: Leg A-Z Soccer Academy
• I spoke with the manager of the club and his answers were more negative than I expected. He does not share in the general optimism that soccer's popularity in the United States will continue to rise. In fact, he only seems to think that places with a huge Latin America influx such as Florida, would be suitable for investment. He does not see foreign teams as being interested in investing in U.S. teams because of the general lack of development. He told me that soccer clubs are all trying to get investments from major companies and that perhaps aiming my business focus towards incoming foreign businesses would be a better use of my time.
• Interview #2: Twin Lakes Park Keystone Youth Soccer Club
• I spoke with one of the coordinators of this soccer club who along with her husband, runs the program. She was not as knowledgeable as my previous interviewee on the macroeconomic concerns of club soccer. She mostly concerned herself with local matters. However, she did raise an important point that in comparison to other clubs, hers was cheaper because it centered around volunteering and not profits. She made a point that general costs could be lower if the people involved with the clubs were more interested in the development of the kids and not their pay.
• Interview #3: Driftwood Soccer Club
• I spoke with a coach of one of the youth teams. This is a club with lower prices than most and they reinforce the ideas that I heard from my previous interview. The coaches do not demand high pay, but they perhaps do not treat it as seriously as they can. This brings the question of does increased pay result in increased effort. They are already sponsored for the most part, so then would more sponsorship go toward paying the coaches? And would that increase their participation and commitment to youth development? All of these questions stem from their involvement in other jobs and if they would quit those to focus more on soccer.
• Interview #4: Orlando City Youth Soccer Club
• I spoke with a representative from the club since it was late and the higher ranking persons were either busy or not there. This club which sees itself as more of an academy already has several sponsors and high level equipment. Yet their costs remain high and they explain that this is due to the product which they offer. They also offer several scholarships for kids who try out and are talented enough to join the team. I am confused by this program, I could not figure out how a younger underdeveloped soccer player would be able to join the team if they could not afford their costs. My guest is that this type of team would not be the focus of my program, they already have sponsors and aim their efforts towards developed players.
• Interview #5: Clay County Soccer Club
• I had to speak with yet another representative because of the same reasons as the last interview. This club is very similar to the previous one. They offer somewhat of the same product and aim their efforts towards developed players. However, this club is located in an affluent community and are therefore not as worried with providing players with financial assistants. This is the type of club which my business would try to help young players bypass. The current system is pay-to-play and this club feeds into that mindset. I did not learn that much from this interview except that this club was sponsored by the areas local businesses. This has then made me think that local sponsorship would not be valuable in the low income areas that talented minority players live in.

What I have learned from the interviews: 

     Most of the interviews were not very productive in presenting me with any new information. In fact, a lot of the representatives that I spoke with were not very knowledgeable on the opportunities that exist to lower costs and increase the growth of soccer in the U.S. This is expected, the high level people do not have a lot of free time, and who knows if they are truly invested in seeing players succeed. The most informative interview was the first one, although he was very pessimistic, he presented me with a lot of ideas for new sponsor avenues. The next interviews sort of showed me how some of these sponsors are integrated in local teams and how they probably would not work if I tried to implement them in lower income communities. 

     The main challenge for me now is to figure out what exactly my business plan should be. Should I conduct more professional style interviews with teams and continue exploring the possibility of foreign teams investing into our current system? Or, should I shift my focus to try and get major brands and foreign companies to support the smaller clubs that minority players participate in? If I were to take that route, then my business would essentially be a middle men to negotiate sponsorship deals for smaller clubs. I would then have to research the logistics of this, and see if that would be a profitable venture. Unless I decide to turn it into a non-profit. On the other hand, if I were to continue with the original business idea then I would have to contact small foreign teams and see their level of interest in investing in U.S. based clubs. These are all ideas for how I probably should continue with the idea, and the decision comes down to which one I feel would be most successful.