Last Saturday, July 22 was Soccer Day in Saskatchewan, and what a great idea.
Soccer is a sport that is played around the world but in Canada it lags behind.
Bringing children closer to the sport of soccer is a great idea because it exposes them to a sport they may not otherwise have been exposed to.
Part of the Soccer Day in Saskatchewan was a game played between the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, considered the second league in the United States behind Major League Soccer, and Valencia FC part of La Liga, the first league in Spain.
What better way to expose children to the game of soccer than to have them watch a contest between the Cosmos, who have won three of the last four NASL championships and Valencia, who is considered one of the most successful football clubs in La Liga, which also contains teams like Barcelona, who are lead by world renowned players Neymar, and Lionel Messi, and Real Madrid lead by Cristiano Ronaldo?
One of the benefits to soccer is that it is a relatively cheap option for kids to play and I believe sport is something every child should at least try because it teaches a number of valuable life skills.
But we should not be stopping at just having a Soccer Day in Saskatchewan.
We should be moving towards bringing in high level competitors from all sports to showcase them to our children.
We already have a Hockey Day in Saskatchewan, but why can we not bring in some of the worlds best swimmers for an International Swimming Federation event?
Or maybe some of the worlds best baseball players for a World Baseball Classic exhibition game?
Or the best gymnasts, or the best golfers, or the best figure skaters?
The options are limitless.
We should be exploring the option of taking some of the best players in the world in their individual sport to market those sports to our children.
Everywhere I turn I hear that organized sport participation is down.
So why do we not do more to try and bring it back up?
Now I understand that the cost of playing sports is getting to a point where it is becoming tough on parents to be able to afford to register their children for sports but there are a number of relatively low cost sports available for children.
We need to find a way to not only make the children interested in playing sports but also find a way to make those sports cost effective for their parents as well.
And Soccer Day in Saskatchewan at least looked to address the first part of that issue.
