America’s top soccer official says soccer is No. 2 in America as statistics highlight World Cup boom
Move over basketball, baseball, and ice hockey, because soccer will always be there.
Soccer, or soccer as it is popularly known around the world, has seen a huge increase in popularity thanks to the 2026 World Cup that will be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico this summer.
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Stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, and Erling Haaland, have impressed on the world stage.
The United States Men’s National Team’s relative success in reaching the Round of 16 on home soil has also fueled World Cup fever across North America, so much so that some believe soccer’s status as a major sport may be the sky Rockets.
According to former US soccer president Alan Rothenberg, soccer – the world’s most popular sport – can now be considered the world’s number 2 sport after the NFL.
Speaking to Front Office Sports, Rothenberg, who played an important role in bringing the country the World Cup in 1994, and was also the chairman of Major League Soccer from 1993 to 1998, believes that the World Cup may lead to more American interest in the sport.
“I think this will be another rocket launch,” he told FOS.
MLS seems to agree with this thinking, as it launched an advertising campaign on July 13 based on the slogan, “Thanks World, We’ll Take It From Here” to capture the momentum of the summer tournament.
Although the same hope was shared after the 1994 World Cup, the increase in interest in football seems to be slower than many expected, although since then, many star names have come and gone from MLS, including David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Heung-min Son, and perhaps the greatest of all, Messi.
The Argentine star, who is looking to lead his country to back-to-back World Cup victories in the final against Spain at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, already works for Inter Miami – managed by Beckham.
Although Rothenberg expects the sudden success of the sonic boom, he predicts that the sport’s popularity will grow, perhaps even faster than in 1994.
“It’s not going to be overnight,” he said, noting that MLS attendance figures currently lag behind the NFL and MLB.
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MLS watchers predicted that they will grow after the World Cup
However, the numbers are now on par with, and have surpassed, those numbers of the NBA and NHL in recent years, either because both teams have longer seasons, and other larger venues, which still attract more people in attendance.
In addition, as it stands, MLB is sitting behind a paywall after striking a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple TV through 2022, which could affect its visibility.
But Rothenberg hopes that interest in MLS will increase following the success of the World Cup, which will also increase viewers.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of interest from the streaming services, as well as the broadcasters, to follow football,” he added.
Again, this is a line of thinking shared by the MLS.
“As the water quality of the sport increases, MLS has more boats in it,” MLS commissioner Don Garber told FOS on Thursday.
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“It’s up to us to earn the trust, respect, and connect with the fans in our beautiful arenas to transform a new person into the sport.”
The launch of the MLS Next league was launched back in 2020 with the sole aim of developing the next generation of footballers, with the formation and official opening in May Arthur IM. Blank US National Soccer Training Center in Atlanta, has provided the best infrastructure to be able to take advantage of the expected growth of the sport.
“There’s been a steady growth of soccer at all levels, especially at the MLS level and the NWSL level, consistently,” Rothenberg said.
FOX Sports, which paid $485 million to secure the rights to broadcast the English-language World Cup in the US, has also benefited from increased interest in soccer this summer.
In the USMNT’s Round of 16’s match against Belgium – despite a 4-1 loss to Mauricio Pochettino’s men – Fox and its Spanish-language partner Telemundo averaged 50 million in viewership.
This number surpassed the average of 47.4 million for the two NFL conference championship games back in January.
While the public may not have accepted soccer as the nation’s No. 2 sport, Rothenberg believes they may have reached that point.
“I think that within ten years, it will be clear that football will be number 2,” he said.
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