I'm a few weeks late on this, but Mark Cuban and a bunch of other NBA owners are teaming up with some powerhouse soccer clubs like FC Barcelona to start a professional futsal league in the US. (For those who are not soccer fans but occasionally lurk other forums, Futsal is 5 player a side indoor soccer. It is a fast paced technical game with a lot of scoring - soccer with basketball's attitude). I think it's a bold idea because futsal could potentially become bigger than soccer in the US. It fixes a lot of the problems that soccer has.
- The scoring problem. Futsal is much higher scoring than soccer, probably a bit higher scoring than hockey.
- The arena problem. Futsal can be played in a basketball court. Which means that there are tons of arenas that are perfectly sized for Futsal, right now. Many civic centers and D-League arenas seat 5000 fans. I think that's why the NBA owners in particular are interested because Futsal could significantly increase their stadium revenue. As the game grows they could move futsal to their NBA arena.
- The best athletes problem I've always been annoyed by this criticism of soccer because soccer is an exception to the "bigger, stronger, faster" principle that governs the three major team sports. In fact, soccer players are probably getting smaller as futsal has been growing in popularity. The technical "first touch in small spaces" skills are becoming much more important than dominating in the air out of set pieces. Thus you are starting to see more skilled but less physically gifted players.
I think one of the reasons that US Soccer has been progressing slower than we'd hoped is because coaches are still winning by playing the long ball and relying on the most physical athletes to win the 50/50 balls, at the expense of more technical athletes who's skills require more nurturing. Having a significant development pipeline that structurally minimizes the long ball game would keep us from constantly shooting ourselves in the foot in terms of player development.
Finally, imagine how good a guy like Isaiah Thomas would be at Futsal. He's the perfect size for the game.
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