World Cup momentum in question after U.S. flames out
by Liam Griffin · The Washington TimesSports fans aren’t ready to swap their NFL Sundays for Premier League mornings just yet. But the next generation of U.S. soccer fans is growing, even if some experts are skeptical the World Cup offered enough of a boost to bring the sport into the American mainstream.
The U.S.-hosted World Cup — which ends with a final between Spain and Argentina in New Jersey on Sunday — has been largely successful for preexisting soccer fans, the organizers from FIFA and the broadcast partners at Fox and Telemundo. But despite the tournament’s eye-popping TV ratings and healthy ticket sales, one missing element is likely to limit the sport’s impact on Americans: another underwhelming performance by the U.S. squad.
The Americans’ loss in the round of 16 was the most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history with 31.8 million viewers, and more than 6 million spectators have already watched matches in person, another new record.
But a middle-of-the-pack U.S. team is a harder sell for American sports fans accustomed to a more dominant — or at least more competitive — presence on the international sports landscape.
“Americans love success. They love winners. They can’t stand losers,” said Stefan Szymanski, a University of Michigan professor who has written several books on soccer. “The U.S. men’s national team was shown to be actually appalling, and I think that will live in minds for a very long time and has really done serious damage to the image of the game in this country.”
Ratings tick down
Ratings have dropped since the three World Cup hosts — the U.S., Canada and Mexico — were each eliminated in the round of 16. Despite marquee matchups featuring powerhouses like Spain, France and England, many American viewers seem to have moved on since the U.S. men’s exit.
The broadcasts for this year’s quarterfinals averaged 15.6 million viewers — still a record for the World Cup’s round of eight. But the number is buoyed by America-friendly kickoff times and a new Nielsen system that provides a higher count for out-of-home viewing.
Advertisement Advertisement
Less than four years ago, the 2022 World Cup took place in December, and was actively competing for attention with traditional American offerings, including the NFL, college football, the NBA and the NHL.
This year’s summer spotlight could do more harm than good for the reputation of U.S. soccer, according to Mr. Szymanski.
“I honestly think it was a disaster. The largest audience for a game of soccer in the United States tuned in to watch that unbelievably sad performance,” he said of the Americans’ 4-1 loss to Belgium. “It wasn’t just bad; it was amateurish. The third goal was like ’Keystone Cops.’”
Whether the American team’s lackluster performance turns casual fans off the sport remains to be seen, but early signs are not promising. Viewership dipped after the U.S. exit, with just 11.5 million fans watching Spain’s semifinal win over France on Tuesday.
It’s a rating that doubled this year’s Stanley Cup Finals. But the earlier American knockout matches, for reference, mirrored the NFL’s playoff viewership.
Advertisement Advertisement
“I just think that those are people who liked soccer already,” Mr. Szymanski said of the remaining World Cup watchers. “They liked it before. They like it still.”
The energy of soccer die-hards has carried the tournament.
“It’s gone from around the fringes to being mainstream in the sense that there is a strong minority group of people that love it — that’s the biggest difference,” Jeff Schneider, executive director of the Center for Sports, Entertainment, Media & Technology Law at the University of Southern California, told the BBC this month.
Soccer needs stars
Advertisement Advertisement
Major League Soccer, the top U.S. men’s professional soccer league, was counting on a World Cup bump.
MLS was born in the mid-1990s as a condition of the U.S. bid to host the 1994 World Cup. The momentum from that tournament was a key factor in sparking early interest for the MLS.
“The fanbase was uncertain,” said James Brown, the vice president of the Society for American Soccer History. “But then, everybody comes out of the woodwork.”
MLS officials were hoping for a repeat in 2026.
Advertisement Advertisement
“With all of this energy, all this joy, all this excitement, we’re saying, ’Thanks, world,’” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said on a Fox World Cup broadcast. “When it’s all over, we’re going to take it from here.”
He later noted that the World Cup bump in interest would be a “short-term energy boost.”
To keep the good times rolling, 22 MLS clubs are offering a “First Match on Us” program for new fans. The self-explanatory promotion hopes to get first-time MLS spectators into stadiums to turn them into eventual die-hards.
“I think it’s going to be important for the league to focus on storylines and stars, we talk about that a lot. But without that, it’s impossible to hang onto something,” Rich Kleiman, cofounder of the sports entertainment network “The Boardroom,” said on CNBC this week. “Plus, unfortunately, the MLS does not have the best players in the world the way we’re watching right now at the World Cup.”
Advertisement Advertisement
Only two MLS players — Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul, who both play for Inter Miami — made the quarterfinal round.
A deep run by the U.S. squad, which features eight of the 45 MLS players at the event, would’ve been the biggest boost for MLS. Instead, new fans who are looking to see the same caliber of play offered by the World Cup will turn to the more prestigious European leagues.
“It’s bad news for MLS, because I think they were expecting that this was going to be a boost for them. I don’t think it’s necessarily catastrophic,” Mr. Szymanski said. “It’s not moving things forward or backwards. It’s not really moved the dial at all.”
Can kids kick it?
The future of American soccer rests with the kids picking up the sport for the first time in coming years.
In the past, awareness and access have been an issue for youth soccer programs throughout the country. The Maryland State Youth Soccer Association reports that 80,000 children in Maryland and Washington play soccer. However, less than 10% of kids who are old enough to play the sport are enrolled in local soccer leagues and clubs.
“It’s helping increase awareness and excitement around the game, which absolutely is connected to people choosing to want to sign up and participate,” said Greg Smith, executive director of the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association. “We’re already seeing it translate to more people reaching out and looking to sample soccer for the first time.”
Mr. Smith said he hopes that the increase in awareness will encourage leadership at the national level to institute more programs for individuals in underserved communities. The cost of youth soccer has been a recurring topic throughout the World Cup. It’s often cited as a limiting factor for the sport’s popularity.
“I firmly, truly believe that our best players in America are not even currently playing the game,” Mr. Smith said.
They weren’t able to watch the World Cup in person, either. Many long-time soccer fans were priced out of the North American matches due to FIFA’s new ticketing system. It featured much-maligned “dynamic pricing,” which led to tickets that started at $1,300 for the U.S. squad’s match against Belgium.
“It’s been tough for kids who love the sport and families who are truly passionate about it,” Mr. Brown said. “They’re not the ones who get to go see these games on their home soil. It’s kind of restrictive.”
The hope for soccer’s American zealots rests on the energy from the World Cup being electric enough to move the needle for a new generation. Results are pending.
“You want to convert people who will love the game later on because of what they see and they feel around them,” Mr. Brown said. “Just because of what they see and they feel around them — because they happened to head into a bar or a fan zone or a watch party. That filters down to the kids.”
For the young people watching their first World Cup, there were solid memories to surround the disappointment. The Americans played each game on home soil. Fox’s pre-game broadcasts featured legions of U.S. fans flooding into stadiums and watch parties. The energy for the hometown squad was electric, even in the face of a blowout loss to Belgium and a last-second loss to Turkey in the group stage.
“People believed. They’re attached to those few games where they were just excellent,” Mr. Brown said. “They allowed you to dream and to believe again.”
“Here in this country, we strive to be the best,” Mr. Smith said. “I think that’s a really positive thing in general. When we come up a little bit short, to turn that into a negative thing, I think, is the wrong response.”
Even the more pessimistic Mr. Szymanski wouldn’t sign a death certificate for the state of U.S. soccer. But he couldn’t resist imagining how encompassing the energy would be if the Americans had advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002.
“That’s the point. If that had happened, it’s a totally different world. Then, the buzz, people would say, ’Woah. We’re going places. Things have really changed. We’re not the same as we used to be,” Mr. Szymanski said. “Instead, people look to them and say, ’We’re not just hopeless. We’re actually embarrassing.’ That’s the difference.”
All is not lost. Soccer is not a strictly male sport.
The U.S. women — the 2024 Olympic gold medalists and four-time World Cup winners — return to the international stage next summer for the Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
Contact the author
Liam Griffin
Follow author updates Follow Click to follow. Manage followed authors