Reading this Vanity Fair article this week about Generation X has had me thinking a lot about, well, generations. Of course, that thinking wandered into how American generations have impacted soccer.
When we talk about American soccer generationally, there are two massive truths. First, soccer in the United States arrived in unison with Baby Boom desires to buck the status quo. Baby Boomers, born in the wake of World War II between 1946 and 1964, have been one of America’s largest and most disruptive generations.
They were also America’s most affluent generation. They had both the spare change and the desire to try something different with their entertainment dollar, which meant in the 1970s and early 1980s, taking in an NASL soccer game.