UCF joins the Sunbelt for Soccer

[ManAboutTown]

The reason there’s not more Mens college soccer programs is Title IX. Plain and simple. It’s all about numbers

Exactly correct

[LouisianaB]

Anyone saying to drop basketball is either a fool or just joking. There are other priorities within the athletic department that are much higher than adding any new sports. I've been hearing for years that soccer is the fastest growing sport in the US. There's a reason no D1 programs are in Louisiana right now, it's not big enough to invest in a program financially. People bring up the high school soccer in Louisiana. Here's the number of men's programs currently in the LHSAA.

Soccer: 170
Football: 302
Basketball: 341
Baseball: 383

Plus, each year the LHSAA admits a few new members which many do not have soccer programs but have the other sports. Now, I'm saying this as someone who is working with a group to build up soccer in our local area. However, now is just not the time to add another sport that will drain the budget.

With regards to the high school numbers, I think it comes down to demographics of the schools. Domestically, the sport is predominantly white. Northside doesn’t field soccer teams.

Does that make it bad or racist? I personally don’t think so. I think you’ll find proportionate numbers in other states

[CajunVic]

The reason there’s not more Mens college soccer programs is Title IX. Plain and simple. It’s all about numbers

It's definitely about numbers, but I suspect it is more about $$$ than IX.

[ManAboutTown]

With regards to the high school numbers, I think it comes down to demographics of the schools. Domestically, the sport is predominantly white. Northside doesn’t field soccer teams.

Does that make it bad or racist? I personally don’t think so. I think you’ll find proportionate numbers in other states

Exactly correct.

And the other part is, the sport alone doesn’t tell the entire story. If you’re looking to expand your brand as a business, you cultivate new markets. You also want to make relationships with institutions that will raise your profile. You also want to compete in a top tier league with a chance to win a Natty.

This opportunity checks all of those boxes. Look at where SB started..

[CajunT]

With regards to the high school numbers, I think it comes down to demographics of the schools. Domestically, the sport is predominantly white. Northside doesn’t field soccer teams.

Does that make it bad or racist? I personally don’t think so. I think you’ll find proportionate numbers in other states

Your point concerning demographics makes sense when trying to project if soccer can be successful and a revenue sport at UL, which is extremely unlikely. From the arguments being used here, using a model like FAU is questionable at best. Why, because the demographics in population show South Florida has a much larger Latino population than the state of Louisiana. The interest in the game is culturally significantly different than South Louisiana and that certainly helps when building a new program.

Building a winning culture is entirely different than finding revenue sources to pay for scholarships, and other internal cost associated with a college sports program. The claim that it can be a revenue neutral, or even add revenue to the athletic program is speculative at best and not a fact-based argument. Why, because there is not s single revenue neutral sport currently in UL Athletic program. In fact, the last two years have seen significant reduction in budgets across the board, and transfers from the UL Foundation to be paid back by RCAF and other sources.

While there seems to be a love for the sport, especially in the younger demographics in this board, the suggestions that dropping basketball would be a path in financing a soccer program, are comical at best and idiotic. Regardless of the current status of the Ragin' Cajun program, college basketball still brings in the second highest amount of viewership and television revenue in college sports after football. If someone can show me what kind of television revenue college soccer is generating today, and if it's greater than baseball or softball, I might be willing to listen.

[CajunT]

I don't understand why you people don't realize that Dr. Maggard has been and is working on this. Sheesh.

If by "working on this" you mean finding ways to fill in the gaps of our current budget concerns and raising money for the stadium renovation, then I completely agree with your statement. That's what he told a group of people and myself last week. There was no mention of adding additional programs to the athletic department.

[ManAboutTown]

Your point concerning demographics makes sense when trying to project if soccer can be successful and a revenue sport at UL, which is extremely unlikely. From the arguments being used here, using a model like FAU is questionable at best. Why, because the demographics in population show South Florida has a much larger Latino population than the state of Louisiana. The interest in the game is culturally significantly different than South Louisiana and that certainly helps when building a new program.

Building a winning culture is entirely different than finding revenue sources to pay for scholarships, and other internal cost associated with a college sports program. The claim that it can be a revenue neutral, or even add revenue to the athletic program is speculative at best and not a fact-based argument. Why, because there is not s single revenue neutral sport currently in UL Athletic program. In fact, the last two years have seen significant reduction in budgets across the board, and transfers from the UL Foundation to be paid back by RCAF and other sources.

While there seems to be a love for the sport, especially in the younger demographics in this board, the suggestions that dropping basketball would be a path in financing a soccer program, are comical at best and idiotic. Regardless of the current status of the Ragin' Cajun program, college basketball still brings in the second highest amount of viewership and television revenue in college sports after football. If someone can show me what kind of television revenue college soccer is generating today, and if it's greater than baseball or softball, I might be willing to listen.

Well, all of this is speculative at this point, no matter what side you fall on.

While we’ve run a deficit the last two years (mainly impacted by covid and staffing costs), softball and baseball have been net neutral over the last 15 or so years. If not neutral, pretty close.

[sportsfanatic21]

Is winning a “natty” worth anything at all if nobody cares?

I’m as big a sports fan as anyone and I couldn’t tell you who won any college soccer national title in the history of the world. Am I’m far from alone.

And as for soccer being the fastest growing sport, or however its being hyped now (the same thing has been being said for the last 2 decades), its a sport in America for little kids. It doesn’t move the needle whatsoever after about 13 years old in this country.

And this is from someone who played soccer spring and fall from the time I was 6 years old until I was 13…and then the major American sports took over full time.

[CajunT]

Well, all of this is speculative at this point, no matter what side you fall on.

While we’ve run a deficit the last two years (mainly impacted by covid and staffing costs), softball and baseball have been net neutral over the last 15 or so years. If not neutral, pretty close.

You can check the last two state audits, nothing I said about our budget is speculative. You can Google college sports television revenue and viewership, and nothing I stated about college basketball is speculative. Everything else is speculative, but a few things are more projectable in concerns of revenue streams historically.

[ManAboutTown]

You can check the last two state audits, nothing I said about our budget is speculative. You can Google college sports television revenue and viewership, and nothing I stated about college basketball is speculative. Everything else is speculative, but a few things are more projectable in concerns of revenue streams historically.

I’m saying the impact of soccer and how feasible it would/could be is speculative. Not the budget.