Grassroots Sports: Much More Than Young Children Playing
I have been working in the sports industry for the past twenty years. Like many other sectors, there are certain sports industry words that are just tossed around over and over again. Words like ‘ecosystem,’ or ‘authentic,’ or ‘engagement.’ One word commonly used but rarely understood is the word ‘grassroots.’ The dictionary definition of grassroots is the most basic level of an activity or organization. Grassroots sports can be defined as community-driven sports activity at a local level that is mainly recreational, rather than being about achieving high levels of performance or commercial success. Investing in grassroots sports is regularly posited as the answer to the challenges facing the development of sport within a country or region. I heard this commonly held belief during my years working at MLS as it related to supporting the growth of soccer in North America. Here in India, football stakeholders who are desperate to grow the beautiful game in the country sound like broken