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Mr. Jabbar, I hate to say this, but soccer is on the ascent in the USA for the following reasons:

1. We have a generation of people who grew up playing the game and really enjoy it.
2. It's cheap to learn and play, so participation is quite strong across demographic lines.
3. The increasing demographic and political influence of Latinos--most of whom grew up die-hard soccer fans--will make the sport far more popular in the near future.
4. The issues of long term injuries from playing American football is starting to make mothers steer their male children away from taking up American football to alternatives--and soccer is a big alternative.
5. Basketball is starting to suffer because many American players drafted into the NBA only know basketball by playing the AAU circuit plus only one year in college. As such, rookies in the NBA don't have the mature playing skills of rookies of 20 years ago.

In short, soccer is here to stay, and could within 15 years become one of the Big Four American sports besides American football, baseball and basketball.

Last year was the first time I ever saw local TV news sports reports showing Premier League highlights.....That’s highly significant.

And now that Tim Howard is a household name, my Everton is about to get a lot more US fans.

In short, soccer is here to stay, and could within 15 years become one of the Big Four American sports besides American football, baseball and basketball.

I have no doubt that, as the world homongenizes, it will become big in the US. But the ones who don’t like it now, and those in the future with the same historical context upon which their lives are based, will never like it. It will be popular partly because of marketing but mostly because of a growth in the demographic that already likes it.

It is a form of evolution. But it can evolve back.

I would argue that it is already in the top Four. Hockey had its brief chance in the early 90’s, but it went nowhere. Hockey is pretty irrelevant nationally in the sports conversation. Even in Canada, the sport on the grassroots level has become a sport of the well to do. It is so expensive to play, that a large percentage of NHL draft picks today come from the upper middle class or wealthier. In the next 15 years, I predict soccer will be in the Top Three, passing baseball. Baseball’s over 55 nursing home fan base is not healthy for MLB’s long term prospects, plus on the grassroots the sport has collapsed. In my area, towns that fielded 10 teams on the LL level are having trouble fielding even one team today. I say this with no pleasure, as someone who played baseball at a high level.