Brady Street's Nomad World Pub is a teenager now and has been a haven for Milwaukee soccer fans since the day it opened. It's since been joined by Bay View's Highbury Pub, St. Francis' Carleton Grange and other venues where footie fans can pull up a bar stool and watch the action unfold.

And it seems that even on free TV there's more soccer than ever, with Channel 7 broadcasting English football games, TV Azteca (Channel 38) and Telemundo (Channel 63) broadcasting games from around the globe but with special emphasis on Latin American leagues.

"There is no doubt that Highbury and Nomad have made it easier for people without access to televised futbol to hook up with others in the community," enthuses Mike Eitel, who owns the Nomad, as well as other area restaurants and taverns. "Like any televised sport, its always more fun to be around others who share a passion for the game so these cable channels -- and our bars -- provide the combination necessary to continue building that community."

Despite Eitel's enthusiasm and that of other fans of the beautiful game, soccer appears to have stagnated in Milwaukee, at least on a professional level. A bid for an MLS team is dead in the water and while a visit to a Wave game is enough to witness the enthusiasm of the team's fans, attendance has, according to the team, hovered around 5,000 per game since 2004-'05.

So, are these bars and broadcasts making a difference? Milwaukee Wave Chief Operating Officer Mike Lafferty says yes, but offers a caution.

"Certainly they do," he says. "We're living in a global village now, thanks in large part to cable and satellite dishes. All those things help grow the game, just a little bit at a time. It's not a tidal wave."

And says Marquette alum Peter Wilt, one of the forces behind the bid to bring Major League Soccer -- and build a stadium for it -- believes that the popularity of soccer bars and broadcasts and the rise in popularity of the game are intertwined.

"The rise of soccer bars in Milwaukee are both a cause and a byproduct of the increase of soccer's popularity in the area," says Wilt, who is president and CEO of Chicago Pro Women's Soccer, which kicks off in spring 2009.

"The atmosphere of a pub packed with passionate soccer fans creates more soccer fans. The relative ease of watching high level soccer on television compared to a decade ago allows people who played the sport as kids to continue their interest as spectators as they grow up."

A recently New York Times article noted that more than 600,000 high school boys and girls play soccer in the United States. Last year US Youth Soccer launched its National League, with the top 16 teams from its Regional Leagues competing from September until April. The inaugural season wraps up soon.

"Popularity of this game is increasing on a variety of levels," says Lafferty. "Youth soccer continues to grow, and we look forward to giving it a tremendous boost beginning in 2009 with the Milwaukee Wave Premier Training Academy, which is in the works in Cudahy. The exposure of the Wave and the MISL is increasing with our television deals, locally on Time Warner Cable and nationally on Fox Soccer Channel. The opportunities ... to watch leagues from all over the world can do nothing but help interest in and understanding of the game -- two elements which go hand in hand."

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