re: Does LSU have a men's soccer team?

Losing millions?
How expensive do you think soccer is?

They just renovated the multipurpose SAC fields. Add some nice bleachers and there you go, no need to build a soccer stadium. Add in game/practice gear, travel expenses, and scholarship/ meal plan for probably 5-10 athletes and you are still well, well below a million.

If all that matters is turning a profit then why not just cancel all sports except football, baseball and basketball, while having the minimum number of women's sports to satisfy Title IX?

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Or Rowing, Water Polo, Women's rugby, or Equestrian. Hell, add all 4.

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Equestrian would be the easiest to add. The Farr Park and Horse Activity Center is very close to campus, right off River Road, just past Brightside Ln.

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297.0 Acres - BREC's Farr Park Equestrian Center and RV Campground is one of the areas largest and most versatile centers for horse enthusiasts. It features a newly renovated indoor arena and an outdoor arena (both lighted), 256 stalls, a cross-country event course, horse trails and RV campground.

The facility is located only two miles from the LSU campus and six miles from downtown Baton Rouge attractions

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Just to be clear....I am not suggesting that LSU start another sport that does not pay for itself. Hell...the NCAA is going through so much turmoil right now, who knows what the sports scene will look like in 10 years. I played club soccer at LSU way back when. We drove our own cars to games hours away. Played on whatever open space we could find, sometimes the parade grounds. We had players from several countries and from around the US. We won a couple unofficial SEC championships for LSU. It was great.

You may not be but I am saying that LSU should add a new varsity sport. Being a former rugby player I would like it to be rugby, but soccer is much more realistic. The funds to finance this new sport would be pocket change to the athletic department.

Besides, this is LSU. If you build it, they will come.

A quick check of stubhub has the average starting price for tickets around $30. That is certainly not "giving them away"

I play D1 Mens Soccer, so I feel like I'm pretty equiped to clarify some of the myths that are being thrown around on this thread....

1st- As of about 6 years ago the top players in the United States no longer play high school soccer. This means that high school soccer's success or lack there of, means basically nothing towards making a top tier D1 program in your area. Since US Soccer started the US Soccer Developmental Academy that is where the top players play, and that is where college coaches are recruiting. The season is a 10 month season, and if you play for a club in the US Soccer Development Academy you are not allowed to play high school soccer. The make up a college soccer team currently is about 27 players. I would say about 10 are foreign (Europe, South America, Canada), 15 are from the US Soccer Development Academy, and 2 are the top players from local High schools. The Foreign players are close to full, The top Academy guys are close to full or are on partial, and the lower academy guys and high school guys are paying full tuition (D1 soccer programs are only allowed 9.9 scholarships).


US Soccer Development Academy Clubs- Shows the locations

LINK


2nd- As for attendance, I would say most of the critics are accurate. The top programs in the country average anywhere from 1k-8k. Programs in the top 50 or 100 can average anywhere from 500-3k. In some instances, lower programs will over average a couple hundred. It really depends on your campus's marketing to the local community, student support, and programs success. Some of the top programs in the country attendance wise are Akron, Creighton, UCONN, Stanford, UCLA, West Virginia, Louisville.

If LSU were to get a team those should be around the #s people should expect.

3rd- As for the state of US Soccer at the International Level, the US has improved greatly.

Most MLS teams have their own Youth Academies that all compete is the US Soccer Development Academy. Most MLS teams pay for their Youth Academies so the fee is covered for the top players that make the team. The academy system is suppose to emmulate the European model. It has been very successful. Academies have been signing their top youth players to pro contracts which allows them to skip college and go straight pro. This obviously helps with development. These top academy players are also signing contracts with teams overseas.

Sorry for the long post, hopefully this clears up some misconceptions, or proves some critics right. Not trying to persaude anyone either way, just posting facts that people can debate on.

Some of you have no concept of what scholarships, room and board, coaches salaries, and TRAVEL and Hotels cost the Athletic Department for these losing sports.

To add yet another aport that loses money only detracts from the overall budget while bringing in NOTHING. All this just so a handfull of Soccer fans can say LSU has a Soccer team which will draw at best a few hundred fans toa home game. Then there is the question of who the Hell would they play. I don't even know if the other SEC schools even have Men's Soccer teams but I doubt they do because there is never an article in any Sports Page about them.

If you Soccer guys want to support your beloved Soccer in the MLS go right ahead but as for the college level there simply is no reason to expect a University to add any additional money losers
to the number of money losers (non-revenue) already being force fed by Title IX. No thanks.

TnA - I must know you since I played with the club team '96-'98 or so. Initials are JC.

I wonder if the national championship trophy is still on display in the Rec center. Had some good teams those couple of years.

Here ya go udtiger. How many players do you expect to need to field a Soccer team. Say 14 maybe. Well if thyey are OOS players their scholarship alone costs approximately $37,000 annually. If they are in-state players the scholarship costs approximately $20,000. Say there is a 50-50 split then the OOS total for scholarships would be $259,000. The in state total for scholarships would be $140,000. That's
$399,000 for just one year's scholarships for a team of 14. What would a coaching staff cost? What would travel and lodging cost? What would a field and maintenance cost?

You are damn right it would cost LSU MILLIONS for a money loser like Soccer and for what? Like I said no thanks.

If you soccer fans want a soccer team so bad why don't y'all figure out some way to pay for it? Hey, go have a bake sale or sell Jambalaya dinners
in front of WalMart but leave the average LSU sports fan and his wallet out of your plans.