• by Jon Last , Columnist, Yesterday

It feels like the media has been force feeding soccer down the throats of American sports fans for decades.  Even before the U.S. was awarded the World Cup, there was a persistent drumbeat suggesting that “the beautiful game” was going to grow to dominate our national psyche.

As we sit on the cusp of the 2026 event, that mirage seems to finally be meeting its comeuppance.  The emperor has no clothes.

I for one am not surprised.  This year’s World Cup strikes me as emblematic of several larger issues in sports marketing.  The first is that sky-high ticket prices have made the matches untenable for the average fan.  The attorney generals in New York and New Jersey launched formal investigations into FIFA’s ticketing practices. Several markets have reported sluggish ticket sales, and multiple sources of fan research have shown widespread public apathy among U.S. fans.

A recent YouGov poll showed that a majority of U.S. adults were “not at all interested in the tournament.”  The same study showed nearly six in ten who did not plan to watch any matches at all, with only 30% indicating that they were supporting the U.S. team.  

Last month our sports fan Barometer showed just over a third of U.S. fans indicating that they were very excited about the upcoming World Cup, and only three in ten strongly agreed that soccer has become as popular as the other Big Four team sports.  More than three quarters agreed that the average fan has been priced out of attending sporting events.

But to me, the failure of event organizers to properly gauge fan price elasticities and demand is just one lesson that sports marketers can take away from this year’s World Cup. A second learning is that heavy promotion of an event can only get you so far.  Soccer has certainly seen massive exposure increases across U.S. media platforms, in recent years, but absent relatable, home-grown stars and longstanding incremental build-up of a fan community, it’s difficult to expect anything more than the underwhelming interest levels that the research is showing. 

I’ve used this forum over the years to assert the necessary interplay of building allegiance for teams, coupled with the importance of credible story telling around top players.  In soccer, neither of these dynamics seem to have been present.

Of course another dynamic reinforced here is that everyone loves to embrace a winner. While the success of the U.S. Olympic hockey team, headed by well known NHL stars, was captivating, the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team has struggled through internal turmoil, inconsistent results and questionably marketable players.

We’ll certainly hear a lot of hype in the coming weeks, as media and sponsors seek to recoup their investments. But absent an unprecedented deep run by the U.S. squad, this culmination of a lengthy effort to make soccer matter to more U.S. sports fans appears to be falling well below aspirations.