Youth soccer in the US is ‘pay to play.’ One DC program is trying to change that.

The lead-up to the World Cup was plagued with concerns of pricing out fans. That doesn’t come as a surprise to followers of youth soccer in the United States, where “pay to play” has become the norm.

When Washington native Amir Lowery started playing in the 1980s and 1990s, his family paid a nominal fee.

After an eight-year career playing professionally, Lowery returned home to work as a youth coach, only to discover the clubs he once played for — Bethesda Soccer Club, McLean Youth Soccer and DC Soccer Club — charged their players upward of $2,000 each season.

“I saw firsthand how many kids it was pricing out and how difficult it was for marginalized communities and inner-city D.C. communities to just access high-level soccer,” Lowery said.

A disappointing performance by the United States men in the World Cup — where they were soundly defeated by Belgium in the round of 16 — has reignited the debate about the county’s pay-to-play system.

Although soccer’s popularity continues to grow nationwide, the high costs associated with elite youth development have left many talented players unable to participate. In many of Europe’s and South America’s soccer powerhouses, elite youth players are recruited into club academies at little or no cost. Rather than relying on fees, clubs invest in the players and recoup that investment if the players play professionally.

Through the Open Goal Project and District of Columbia Football Club, better known as DCFC, Lowery is working to create a model that removes financial barriers and offers an alternative to the country’s entrenched system.

Lowery began by helping individual players gain access to the clubs he was coaching. Around that time, he met Simon Landau, who shared his concerns about the growing cost of youth soccer. In 2015, Lowery and Landau founded the Open Goal Project.

When Lowery and Landau started the project, they focused on sponsoring a handful of athletes, covering registration fees, uniforms, travel, hotels and equipment costs, so they could play with elite-level youth teams.

As the program grew, so did the demand.

“It got to a point where we realized that we couldn’t scale or meet the demand of our community by funding our kids to play for pay-to-play clubs,” Lowery said. “And the idea of our own programming started to become a reality.”

In 2019, the pair launched DCFC. Unlike traditional travel soccer clubs, it is entirely free for participating families and the team competes in leagues with pay-to-play clubs from the area.

Providing year-round soccer programming at no cost requires a funding structure unlike that of most youth clubs.

According to Lowery, DCFC relies on city grants, family foundations, corporate partnerships, individual donors and community fundraising efforts.

“We try not to leave any stone unturned,” Lowery said. “To be able to operate a fully funded, 100% free-to-play club is a huge undertaking.”

The model has attracted attention from communities across the country. Lowery said he has heard from organizations in places ranging from rural West Virginia to cities in California that are interested in bringing similar programs to their own communities.

Still, expansion remains difficult.

“We are pretty much operating at capacity for what we’re able to do from a funding perspective, from a manpower perspective,” Lowery said.

Even so, he believes the interest demonstrates the issue extends far beyond Washington. And the World Cup comes at a great time for Lowery’s vision.

Following the 1994 World Cup in the United States, interest in soccer surged. More than three decades later, the World Cup has returned. Once again, the event is expected to inspire a new generation of players.

For Lowery, however, increased interest alone is not enough. The challenge is ensuring the excitement generated by the tournament reaches children who have traditionally been excluded from the sport because of financial, geographic or social barriers. He sees the World Cup as a rare opportunity not just to grow soccer but to rethink who gets access to it.

“We know that people are going to be interested. We know that the game is growing more and more prevalent,” Lowery said. “But how are we going to make sure that that passion for the game or newfound love for the game
translates into inclusion and people feeling like they can also belong in the sport.”

This year, the club’s mission reached the sport’s biggest stage. On June 14, members of the DCFC U10 boys team accompanied Côte d’Ivoire’s players onto the field ahead of their Group A World Cup game against Ecuador.

The club was one of 32 local community partners selected by Common Goal, an organization dedicated to connecting, growing and strengthening the soccer community, to participate in walkouts at the World Cup.

“It was a tremendously powerful experience for them, one that their families and community members will remember and cherish for a long time,” Lowery said. “A lot of the ticket prices … meant that the World Cup was inaccessible to our families.”

Lowery is hoping that, through his work with the Open Goal Project and DCFC, he can give hope to marginalized youth players that there is a future in which cost isn’t a barrier to participating in the game they love.

“We need to have a system in place where kids, no matter what community they come from or what their background is or their family social economic status, can be inspired,” Lowery said. “And then have an outlet, place and environment … that’s inclusive, accessible and in their own community.”