Brad Rothenberg

We produced events in 41 cities, youth clinics, coaching clinics, tournaments, and it was all free to these kids.

One thing we did was this open tryout, which very quickly became the voice of the program.

you know, a small percentage of those 25,000 people were coming to try out.

But very quickly, we found some super, super talented kids.

Many of them went on to play pro in Mexico, a few here in the U.S., a couple went to the English Premier League.

But the real story we learned was there were a lot of kids good enough to go to college, never good enough to be pro, even if they were dreaming about it.

And that's why AccessU was born, to help them parlay their soccer skills into college education, get scholarships, and graduate debt-free.

I remember, as I said, growing up in my dad's business world, it was really about the NBA.

And I remember he was on the board of governors before Magic and Larry.

There were only five teams making money, at least in California.

We had to watch the NBA finals on CBS after the 11 o'clock evening news.

Then Larry and Magic showed up, followed by Michael Jordan.

And, you know, David Stern, the commissioner, had everything set in place to succeed.

But the same kind of thing is going to happen with soccer one day.

That's part of the objection I had to the pay-to-play system is that it really prevents those kids playing in the inner cities.

African-American kids in L.A., Kansas City and Atlanta aren't being scouted and seen and developed because they don't have the money to play into the system.

The next Lionel Messi, the next Maradona or Pele might very well be living in like the 10,000 block of East Olympic Boulevard in L.A.

We just don't know.

I feel like soccer is doing a lot right.

The league is on its feet and they're ready for Michael Jordan to show up and change everything.