Sam Gregory
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And you think, okay, what is the motivation for that kid?
What is the motivation for that parent?
And so it's not as easy as, yes, we need to lower the cost, but there's a bunch of costs that have nothing to do with what the clubs are charging.
There's just the size of the country, where players are located.
So there's a lot of challenges, and
If I had an answer to that question, I think we would have done it because there's people who are motivated to do it, and I think there's a bit more momentum now where U.S.
soccer, I know, is trying to get involved in different ways to lower the cost to entry.
Some of the teams have, so Sporting Kansas City will have an academy, and they'll have players in that academy who won't be paying anything to play for the academy.
And so there's some pathways, but again, that's a small group of very, very elite kids, so that's not...
hundreds and hundreds of kids, which you need because you can't tell at 14 who the best kid is going to be.
But I think what you just highlighted there, that's not something that you can spend overnight and it changes.
That's got to be a cultural shift.
That's got to be kids who say โ There's got to be a demand first.
Yeah, it's got to be kids who say โ not who grew up saying, I want to be the next Steph Curry.
It's kids who grew up saying, I want to be the next Kristen Pulisic, right?
That's got to be the change that happens.
And I think when you look on the women's side, that's what's happened is now you have all of these girls who grew up watching โ
Megan Rapinoe, Carly Lloyd, and that's who they want to be, and that's the pathway that they take.
And I think a big part of that is, yeah, shifting that culture and giving kids the opportunity to have something to dream towards.