The Rise and Fall of Professional Soccer in Holyoke Massachusetts,USA

During the first half of the twentieth century, the city of Holyoke Massachusetts and surrounding communities had a strong tradition of playing soccer, so much so that in 1921 one club was convinced to try and make it in the country's first major professional league. I argue that the experiment failed mainly due to financial reasons brought on by an inability to draw fans to watch the team play. The cause of this failure was not necessarily because soccer was seen as un-American but rather because it was too closely identified with a single ethnic group – British Protestants.