Ref Shortage

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Mbilica

That is a regional opinion, not a national one. Soccer is huge in the Northeast. More kids play soccer than play baseball.

Keep in mind I did not say a single thing about baseball. Baseball is dying on many levels in this country with people from this country. If you are not in your 40s or 50 baseball is not the most watched sport amongst people in a younger age group. Yes there is a regional issue (and the article deals with a regional concern) but it is also related to the overall perception of the sport as well.

Originally Posted by Mbilica

Personally, I think the referee abuse and assault problem in soccer is a complicated one. I don't think soccer, as a youth sport, is any better or worse than another youth sport. If I had to rank them, I think I see more abuse in High School basketball than in any soccer games. Upper level youth and Amateur/pro adult soccer is actually better, in my opinion than the same level baseball games. Youth football is notorious and is the only for which I have seen officials requiring a police escort to safely get to their cars. So, I think society, as a whole needs to get on top of the problem of referee abuse and assault, and we shouldn't focus on one sport over another.

Youth sports in general is a problem. I think it is not any more of a problem in any sport when adults have little perspective of the overall picture. I think sports like soccer that involves judgment and not hard fast rules, there are issues with how parents or fans react to calls. Football for example has several different rules that it is clear fans do not yell about sometimes because they are not even clear what the rules that apply. But even in football fans try to yell about an NFL rule as opposed to the youth rules that actually apply. But when you keep hearing stories of assaults or confrontations it does not seem to come from one sport over another. At least locally the issue we have had big time happen in youth football and youth baseball. But soccer is big in this part of the state, but I am not as connected with that sport to know if they have more or less situations overall. I just know in basketball during the summer there is an interaction with fans that never happens during the season.

Peace