{"id":379356,"date":"2025-12-31T12:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T12:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379356\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T12:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T12:25:12","slug":"growth-of-soccer-in-philadelphia-will-take-more-than-mini-pitches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379356\/","title":{"rendered":"Growth of soccer in Philadelphia will take more than mini-pitches"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the backdrop of the excitement surrounding the FIFA World Cup<\/a> coming to Philadelphia is the question of what impact the tournament will have on soccer in the region. <\/p>\n

World Cups have long had the potential to be transformative for the nations that host them. The last men\u2019s edition in the United States, in 1994, helped spur Major League Soccer. The women\u2019s editions in 1999 and 2003 also spawned leagues, but more importantly, they fueled the grassroots growth of the game, benefiting both girls and boys. <\/p>\n

Over the course of those years, the youth game has morphed into a pay-for-play structure in which the best clubs are generally the ones that come at a high price, giving youth athletes whose parents have expendable cash \u2014 many times in the thousands \u2014 the opportunity to play consistently and thus reap the benefits of year-round exposure through tournaments and showcases. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: FIFA slashes price of some World Cup tickets to $60 after fan backlash<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Youth Soccer<\/a> is a network that oversees more than 10,000 such clubs, with local branches such as the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association, which govern clubs and leagues across regions under the umbrella of USYS. The thing is, many of those clubs and leagues don\u2019t come from inner-city areas like Philadelphia, where the next great American star could be waiting to be discovered. <\/p>\n

But to find that kid, they need a place to play, and in Philadelphia, finding a spot to play organized soccer at times can be equally as tricky. <\/p>\n

It is a need that the city, alongside several foundations and organizations, is working to address, recognizing that the World Cup\u2019s visit to Philadelphia may lead more kids to give futb\u00f3l a try. <\/p>\n

If you build it \u2026<\/p>\n

Ahead of the World Cup, the U.S. Soccer Foundation installed five mini-pitches across Philadelphia in late fall as part of a $2 million nationwide sustainability effort called the 2026 Legacy Project. The foundation, which was also created after the 1994 World Cup, has a goal to leave a lasting legacy in inner cities. It believes these mini-pitches offer not just a place to play but a place for local organizations to host programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our current president and CEO [Ed Foster-Simeon] came into the role in 2008, he did a landscape analysis and showed it had grown \u2026 but in the suburbs and more affluent communities,\u201d said Jen Arnold, vice president of communications and marketing for the U.S. Soccer Foundation. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo from the foundation standpoint, we want to make sure it\u2019s growing equally across the ground. We\u2019re here for the underresourced communities, communities that might not have been part of that boom after 1994. We\u2019re here to make sure that everyone can access the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnold spoke after the installation of one of the latest mini-pitches added to Philly\u2019s soccer landscape, behind Swenson Arts and Technology High School in the Far Northeast. The installation was in collaboration with Independence Blue Cross, the School District of Philadelphia<\/a>, and FIFA Philly 26, the local collective tasked with organizing Philly\u2019s place in this summer\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: The USMNT, USWNT, and your kid\u2019s youth team are all different. U.S. Soccer is fine with that.<\/a><\/p>\n

The fields, which cost $150,000 apiece to install, according to Arnold, are the latest additions to Philly\u2019s sports landscape. They could be considered an addition to the city\u2019s massive Rebuild program, a reported $500 million restoration project<\/a> for area parks and playgrounds, of which $3.5 million was allocated to create 15 mini-pitches and two signature soccer fields across the city<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The idea is that these mini-pitches offer an opportunity for more children to be introduced to the game. They also offer a welcoming environment, unlike the scores of fields around the city that are fenced and kept under lock and key. Or recreation centers in which both indoor and outdoor surfaces get gobbled up often by other sports, or even pay-to-play youth and adult league soccer organizations, which serve to add to city coffers in exchange for monopolizing much-needed field time<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But soccer organizers across the region believe that it\u2019s not simply \u201cIf you build it, they will come.\u201d It\u2019s more like: \u201cBuild it and add programs and they might come.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the big challenge lies when it comes to introducing more city kids to soccer. <\/p>\n

\u2026 Will they come?<\/p>\n

For the better part of a decade, Dom Landry has made it a mission to bring soccer to North Philadelphia<\/a>. A Philly native who played at St. Joseph\u2019s Prep and St. Joseph\u2019s University, Landry has dedicated time, intuition, and even his own dollars to introduce the sport to as many children in the city\u2019s Fairhill section as possible. <\/p>\n

Landry founded AC Fairhill, the neighborhood club created in 2015 with just \u201cthree kids and an old bag of balls,\u201d according to Landry. It has since become a recognized club that competes in tournaments across the region. His is one of a few clubs directly from the inner city that have funneled children from North Philly streets to top clubs and academies. <\/p>\n

His desire mirrors what the U.S. Soccer Foundation says it\u2019s looking to do in developing the infrastructure, but Landry notes that it goes way beyond plopping a shiny new field in the middle of an underserved neighborhood. <\/p>\n

\u201cPutting infrastructure in for play is critically important, but it\u2019s not the United States Soccer Federation or its foundation\u2019s job to provide programming,\u201d Landry said. \u201cI know it\u2019s part of their mission [at the U.S. Soccer Foundation], too, but it\u2019s really the job of local organizations to bring the programming to those fields. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the soccer culture here in America where kids are just going to grab a soccer ball and go to a soccer pitch because it was made; there has to be enough people to bring in that level of interest to them. It\u2019s very much a multiprong approach, and these mini-fields are great, but they\u2019re only scratching the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Here\u2019s what ticket prices are looking like for World Cup games in Philly following FIFA\u2019s latest presale<\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike other countries where soccer reigns supreme, in America it\u2019s viewed as a sport for children, residing in the backdrop of football, baseball, and basketball. In other parts of the world, all that\u2019s needed is a ball to get a game going, but here, it\u2019s rare to see the sport being played without an organization tied to it.<\/p>\n

\u2018We need to do more\u2019<\/p>\n

For Landry, it\u2019s a simple thing that has been made to feel quite complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to teach kids how to love the sport,\u201d Landry said. \u201cNot necessarily just, like, go get cones and train, but have fun with the sport. Who\u2019s going to be that coach, that parent who\u2019s going to show a kid how to have fun with the sport, so they can go out with their friends and play it? To me, if anything, that\u2019s the next step in the legacy and evolution of soccer here. But that ideology also tends to upset these clubs who spend a great deal of time in generating a living from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A host of organizations, both in the city and out, have taken soccer programming into schools, taking over gym classes or creating after-school outlets. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: When it comes to how the World Cup shook out, these are our picks of the early winners and losers<\/a><\/p>\n

To introduce the sport directly to more Black and brown youth, the annual Odunde Festival created a soccer pitch in the middle of South Street at this past summer\u2019s event to get children and their families playing soccer, coupled with education on where they could find programs close to home. <\/p>\n

Jeremiah White III, a former professional soccer player turned entrepreneur, says he presented the idea to Odunde leadership and already has plans to grow Odunde Sports to align with this summer\u2019s World Cup. <\/p>\n

\u201cA big thing missing from soccer programming here is the importance of connection,\u201d White said. \u201c[When it comes to soccer in America], we tend to overvalue structural training, and in some cases disconnect training from culture entirely. It makes the game robotic and sucks out all of the passion. What kid is going to want to pick up a soccer ball over a basketball or a football, when that\u2019s what they\u2019re walking into?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a well-known challenge, even one recognized by top youth organizations as a change agent. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fields are great, but yeah, we need to do more,\u201d said Chris Branscome, president and CEO of EPYSA, the organization that oversees club programming in the area. \u201cOnce they are built, you\u2019ve got to get the kids there, you\u2019ve got to program them. That\u2019s perhaps the bigger piece of the puzzle: ensuring we have the opportunity to train more coaches and to deliver regular, consistent programming at these locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, that\u2019s the big challenge we have over the next year.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s one that feels pretty integral once the noise the World Cup brings finally fades.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Follow the Inquirer’s complete coverage of soccer right here!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the backdrop of the excitement surrounding the FIFA World Cup coming to Philadelphia is the question of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82,161760],"class_list":["post-379356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-philly-sustainability-fields-play-union-fifa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}