Betting on soccer's future

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

It’s important to remember that Fortuitous Partners’ plan to build a soccer stadium as a key part of a $400 million mixed-use project is not necessarily based on the current audience for soccer in southeastern New England as much as where it might be in five or ten years. While Major League Baseball’s audience has been slipping, professional soccer is clearly growing, and various factors, including the love of soccer in various national and ethnic groups, make this growth likely to continue or even accelerate. It is, after all, the leading world sport.

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The Worcester Business Journal reports that more that over half of that city’s renters want to move to another city. Quoting Renter Migration Report, it cited Boston, at 43 percent, as the top destination for Worcester refugees. Providence – embarrassingly? -- came in a very distant second, at 4.3 percent, and the old mill town of Norwich, Conn., at 4.2 percent. Ah, the magnetism of New England’s only world city! But maybe the WooSox will hold back a few of these dissatisfied residents.