World Cup Soccer 2026: We look at the hype and the money behind this super-sized sports event.
How has the United States' management failed/succeeded compared to past years, and why issues like ticket and hotel prices are driving tourists away.
Although Columbus is not hosting official tournament matches, the city is heavily involved in World Cup festivities, featuring a pre-tournament friendly match, international base camps and city-wide watch parties. The Ecuador national team is also training in Columbus.
And Columbus Crew midfielder Max Arfsten has been selected for the United States men’s team for this year's World Cup. Also, former Crew star Cucho Hernandez will suit up for Columbia.
We're talking about it all on this hour of All Sides.
Guests:
- Michael Arace, sports journalist and founder, Disrespected Media
- Ryan Chen, assistant professor, sports leadership and management, Miami University
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. After more than 30 years, the United States will be hosting FIFA's World Cup competition again, bringing together a record-breaking 48 teams to compete across the country. With games being played in stadiums from Boston to Atlanta to Kansas City and Los Angeles, all of America can celebrate and experience the tournament.
But the spread out nature of the games and other complications have some fans nervous about this year's festivities. And the World Cup isn't the only soccer news happening around town. We'll also have an update on a new coach, new coaching and new leadership with the Columbus crew.
Longtime sports journalist, Michael Ares joins us now. He is the founder of Disrespected Media. Listeners may also know him from his years as a beat reporter and columnist with the Columbia's Dispatch. Welcome to All Sides, Michael.
Michael Arace: Thanks for having pleasure to be here
Juravich: So first off, why was America picked to host the World Cup? The last time it happened was in 1994. Do you know how it came about?
Arace: Well, it was selected because it has been described as FIFA's ATM.
Juravich: Oh, money-wise, ATM, got it, money, yes. Got it, money.
Arace: So you have the US, Mexico, and Canada hosting, as you mentioned. 11 of the cities that are host sites are in the United States, three in Mexico, two in Canada.
But this is a money thing. FIFA is arguably one of the most corrupt organizations on Earth. And their specialty is extracting money. And so they're kind of like a casino. They don't want you to leave until they have every last dime.
Juravich: Yeah, yeah, we'll get we'll get to that, too, because we've been talking there's been a lot of talk about the ticket prices. But I wanted to ask you about like the soccer craze, you know, here, like the love of soccer in the United States and here in Columbus. How much has it grown since 1994, the last time we hosted the World Cup?
Arace: Well, quite a bit. The 1994 World Cup, part of the deal with the US hosting was that a top tier soccer league, professional soccer league, would be established. And that's when MLS came online in 1996. It's a direct result of the awarding of the United States with the World Cup in 1994. And since then, I mean, there's There's lots of ways you can measure it. You can say, like, someone of my generation played little league baseball. Someone raising children now is shuttling to soccer practice.
Juravich: I was at a soccer field last night, yes.
Arace: So when did soccer mom come into our lexicon? I mean all that is part of the arc of the growth of the game in the United States. You know you can measure it by numbers if you take a look at the crew. It cost five million to buy into the league in 1996. The league almost went under in 2000-2001 somewhere in there.
It costs this crew sold for 67.5 million dollars in 2014 which was and a record. The Haslam family and the Edwards family paid $150 million to keep the team here in 2018-2019. And the team's been valued at around $900 million now. So that'll give you a monetary idea of the arc of the growth of the game in the United States.
Juravich: From 5 million to 900 million.
Arace: That's right. Yeah. Wow. In that span of time.
Juravich: So although Columbus is not officially hosting tournament matches, the city is involved in the World Cup festivities. I read that there's the international base camp here, city-wide watch parties, but also we're doing a pre-tournament friendly match. So tell me, what does a pre tournament friendly match mean? Hello.
Arace: Well, what's pretty cool is, and this is where, if you're a disgruntled U.S. Soccer fan, let's say, and you're looking for another team, here in Columbus, Ecuador has its base camp. In fact, they opened it today. So they'll be training here and then flying off to play their games, their group stage games in different parts of the country, three group stage games.
So in between they train and ahead of the beginning of the official competition they're having soccer people call it friendly what we would know as an exhibition game so that's uh... They're gonna play guatemala in the new crew stadium on uh... June seventh four o'clock uh... Compared to the rest of the world cup and again this is just a practice game but tickets are fairly reasonable most of them are under a hundred dollars
Juravich: Under a hundred? Okay, yeah.
Arace: That's what passes for reasonable.
Juravich: I think yeah, I think that passes for reasonable right now, but So the the fact that Ecuador has chosen Columbus for its base camp I mean, I guess does every team needs a base camp because the World Cup goes on for so many weeks They need to be here training here, right?
Arace: Right, because if you're there to the end, it's two months. I forget how deep the group stage goes, but a few weeks anyway. So yeah, Ecuador scouted and they landed on Columbus for a lot of reasons. I mean, it is a beautiful facility they have over there, all their training grounds, et cetera. It's also...
Juravich: Like at the old crew stadium, that's where they're going to train. Yeah, exactly.
Arace: Exactly and you know, there's been other teams that have stayed there too national teams and such
Juravich: And so that's the pre-tournament friendly match and then Ecuador having its base camp here and then the city's hosting watch parties throughout, right? Is that another thing that Columbus is trying to do to kind of lean into the?
Arace: Yeah, once again, everyone's looking for their little corner of this business. And I am, too. I mean, I'm planning in conversations with people to do live events at this bar or that bar. We'll see how it goes. But yeah, it's part and parcel of the thing.
I think people in Columbus will remember going back years. Maybe it was in the day. They watch parties at the Old Crew Stadium and that was pretty cool. Now it's more disperse, I guess. There's a lot of soccer bars in Columbus now that are affiliated with different teams and a lot them are also affiliated with the U.S. National team.
Juravich: So for the whole World Cup, are you planning on traveling to any games or are you gonna watch from home?
Arace: Oh, I mean, the budget's not quite there yet, but if you'd like to go to thedisrespected.com and leave me $10,000, I'd gladly go on the run.
Juravich: Yeah. Uh, give me a minute. I'll get there. Yeah. Um, okay. So you're going to, you plan on, you know, watching a lot of the games from home and following, I mean, are you following like who are the biggest teams? Like what, who, what team are we keeping an eye out to make it through?
Arace: Well, am I following? Yes and no. I'm probably among that cadre of US soccer fans that is so disgusted by the lead-up to this World Cup and also the political interconnections with this World cup that it's been a big turnoff for me. But of course, this is as John Oliver had a tremendous rant many years ago about how.
For a lot of people all over the world, this is the most delicious thing. It's the biggest event. The World Cup is the ultimate sausage. The problem is what the sausage is made out of. There's a lot scraps from the floor that go into the casing. So, will I be watching? Yeah, I'll be watching. You can't help it. And again, I hope to meet with the people who've been supporting me at this place or another and doing some live podcasts.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the World Cup with Michael Ares, longtime sports journalist and founder of Disrespected Media.
So I wanna pause our World Cup talk for a few minutes because there's been some big news with our team here, the Columbus crew. The head coach has been fired. What did you think about this? I mean, there's a rocky start to the season and now Hendrick Reistrom has been fire. What do you make of that?
Arace: Well, what I wrote more than once at the disrespected.com was that I thought he got done dirty. I didn't like that, you know, our local MLS affiliate went through a long process to hire this guy, brought him over from Sweden. This is a man with a high profile in Europe and had his pick of European jobs that were open at the time.
They get him here. They look at him for 136 days. He wins three of 14 league matches. They decide that what he's doing is not gonna work and it doesn't fit their eye. And you know what, there were some other things going on behind the scenes, but that just didn't feel right to me. I thought the man had got done wrong.
That said, you can argue also that the general manager, Issa Tall, recognized problems, some that we weren't privy to see. Obviously, there's always more going on than we realize. One of the assistant coaches was problematic. I've heard a lot of things, but you can say that Issa Tal made a mistake by hiring this guy who didn't fit what they wanted or you could say he did the right thing by cutting bait as soon as possible with a machete.
So certainly the the rebound off that, Laurent Courtois comes in with two games prior to the World Cup break, won a US Open Cup game and the other the last MLS game prior to two-month break. And post two shutouts, and all the players are happy now. They're all happy. Everyone likes to win. They were happy, Amy, and now they're much happier.
Juravich: So are they gonna stick with this interim coach or do you know who they're eyeing for a replacement?
Arace: That was one of the first questions I put to Issa Tal, the general manager, after he made this move. And what he said was that Laurent Courtois, who has been in the crew system, had a hiatus where he coached in Montreal for a year before he got fired, came back.
So, he's familiar with... Papa Wilfried Nancy system and his style of coaching, which is why he has a comfort level with the players. And so given all of this and the fact that they believe he's a promising coach and he has some bona fides on his CV, that he's going to get to beyond the World Cup break. So he'll get a transfer window to toy with the roster, with the general manager and with Tim Bespacheco, who's coming home from Europe.
Juravich: All right, we'll get to Tim in one second. But you mentioned the old coach, Coach Nancy. What about bringing him back? Is he available? Right, he's available, right? You talked about getting done dirty. The same thing happened to him. He didn't coach very long in his new gig.
Arace: I think they have Wilfried Nancy Light. Is it possible there'll be a Nancy 2.0? It's possible. There's nothing that I've heard that would lead me to believe that's going to happen. I think Wilfried has his eye on Europe. You know, he had one kick of the can at Impossible Place, Celtic in Glasgow, and the Scottish Premiership.
I steps into the role of president of global soccer, I think, or whatever the title is. There's global in the title, I know that. I think you'll see, as most insanely wealthy people who own sports teams do, Haslam Sports Group will make a foray into Europe. And if they do, Tim Bespachenko will be spearheading it and he'll have a favored coach. That's the way I view that.
Juravich: Okay, so Tim Bezbuchenko is returning to Ohio. The former crew general manager will be the Haslam Sports Group's new, the title is President of Global Soccer. What is this title all about, what is this? Well.
Arace: Tim Bezbuchenko built the crew for their glory era of Wilfrid Nancy, which was, Tim Beczbuchenkow is probably the most brilliant soccer executive in the United States and he's still only like 44 years old.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Arace: But when the crew was saved, the Haslam and Edwards families, and I think the Edwards family might have had more to do with it, brought him to Columbus. He's from Columbus. His family was lifelong crew season ticket holders. He had worked in the league office and prior to that for a white shoe law firm in New York City.
He had built a Toronto team that was one of the greatest teams to that point in league history. Won an MLS Cup and a few Canadian titles. And when the crew was saved, he came home to Columbus. He went to DeSales High School, and he's from Westerville. He came home, and as soon as he could, he hired Wilfried Nancy. It took too long, but hired Wilfrid Nancy.
And so, Cup in 2020 with Caleb Porter, MLS cup again in 2023 with Wilfride Nancy, a Leagues Cup in 2024, and at one juncture there in the summer of 2024. The Columbus crew were the highest ranked club team on the continent in CONCACAF. So he built the best team in North America and then left to take a job overseeing Bill Foley, he's the Vegas Golden Knights owner.
He has a portfolio of teams in Europe. Vespa Cheka for the last two years has overseen that. Contract up things change in Columbus. The Haslam Sports Group. Lands an expansion bid for the NWSL. So their portfolio is growing and obviously they have ambitions in Europe. So Tim Bespichenko comes home to build another practice facility, build another coaching staff, another franchise, oversee the crew at the same time and with an eye toward expansion into Europe.
Juravich: So part of his job is going to be to oversee this expansion and this women's team that we're getting. Right.
Arace: Right. And that's part of the timing of all this. That was, they always needed Tim Bezbichenko. It was awful when he left. In fact, you can, with Wilfried Nancy and anything else, but you can see the point of where Tim Bezbechenko left and a downward line in the fortunes of the crew. Fans love him for obvious reasons. He's brilliant. He is a And he's a winner. Winner. Yeah. That's right.
Juravich: All right, so what are his prospects with building this women's team? What do you think is gonna happen here?
Arace: Well we'll see, obviously the franchise, the 18th franchise in NWSL was just awarded. They stole a park on the southwest side.
Juravich: Yeah, we did a whole show about that park, yeah, yeah.
Arace: That was.
Juravich: It was something. You know.
Arace: I always come back to it. People want the women's team here for a host of reasons we could get into. But did you have to take the park to get the deal done? I mean, that's what bothered me about it.
Now, I applaud Shannon Harden for getting concessions afterwards or during the process. And we'll see if the people of the southwest side will be served in the aftermath, that remains to be seen, but that part of it is. You have to have everything that's what that's, what's bothersome and that's what the world cup theme is. We have to have everything, all your money.
Juravich: All your money. All right. Well, well, let's take a break and then we'll talk more about the World Cup taking all of our money. Staying with us is Michael Aries, longtime sports journalist and founder of Disrespected Media. Coming up, we will talk more about the world cup and all that money. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides, I'm your host Amy Juravich. Every four years, the festivities of the World Cup bring the world together, celebrating soccer played by countries from around the world. However, many fans are reporting problems, like transportation issues, sky-high ticket, and hotel pricing, and fan events not having enough security.
Are all these anxieties brewing at a time before the games start, or are they gonna continue and be present for the entire tournament? We're talking with longtime sports journalist and founder of Disrespected Media, Michael Ares. Thanks for joining us, Michael.
Arace: Oh, again, it's wonderful to be here.
Juravich: All right, so let's talk about those sky-high ticket prices because I know people who found out where the venues are. You know, there's 11 venues in the United States. They picked one, they got the hotel, they got Airbnb, and then ticket prices came out and they said, oh no, we can't go to the game.
Arace: Well, as I said before, FIFA's specialty is taking all your money, you know. They're like the world's largest casino in a way. Well, they take something that the world loves and they monetize it to the nth degree. In fact, there's a, there, there. Their effort for this World Cup was known as something like maximum revenue something.
So it's the largest World Cup, they expanded to 48 teams as you mentioned. So it got another knockout round. And there's all these venues and it's in the richest economy in the world. So FIFA is going big. Um, so we're. They'll use slave labor to build stadiums in Qatar. Here, they're just gonna go for maximum profits. That's how they'll boost the bottom line.
But yeah, the ticket prices are 320% over Qatar in 2022. That's a 320% raise. I just looked up last night the latest real-time prices across all 104 matches. Average starting price, $581. Average ticket price $1,266. Total tickets still available, a million plus. Yeah, I mean.
Juravich: So a million tickets still left, but at $1,200 each, yes, that is a lot of money to take you, if you want to take your kid.
Arace: It could be a problem because as we sit here now, the last figures I saw is SoFi Stadium in LA where the U.S. Will play Paraguay in their first game of the group stage. I think they'd sold something just north of 40,000 tickets for the USA's first match, which should be one of the
Juravich: Should be sold out, yeah.
Arace: Right. And that place holds like 70,000. So yeah, demand is falling a little bit and we're seeing some corrections in the market. You know, there's also some neat things being done by city organizers, like local organizers, just like the Philadelphia committee in Atlanta in particular.
Whereas in New York, they're jacking up transportation costs to, you know, exponential factor. You know, in places, in Philly, for instance, they're saying, no, it's $2.90, not $200 to get to the game and back. So there's been some backlash and there's some correcting in the market and we'll see how things look in a week and then two weeks and three weeks.
Juravich: Yeah, you mentioned dynamic pricing. So if that game, the example you gave, the opening match for USA in LA, if it doesn't sell out, I mean, are you gonna see the day before tickets are gonna be reasonable, like normal soccer prices? Right.
Arace: Well, I think it'd be something's going to happen, right? Yeah, they have to fill it, right. I mean, you don't want to come online on television with the world's largest sporting event and here's the host country. Half empty, yeah. And a thing that's a quarter after that wouldn't be a good look.
Juravich: All right.
Arace: If you like this shot where they have to put the curtains over the top boulder.
Juravich: See, then that would just be sad.
Arace: I'm not supposed to say that, right?
Juravich: Here at WOSU. Oh, that's okay, I don't mind. So one of the biggest concerns for many tourists is, they, and even it has some Americans being worried, is the lack of public transportation in this country. Because fans are coming from Europe and Asia and even South America, where cities there have massive transit systems. I mean, they have good transit. So do you think that fans coming here from other countries are gonna be able to get around?
Arace: Well, I think they'll be able to get around. Again, all these things were tended to in the preparation in every city. There are committees of people that are supposed to set all this up. I think the problem is, again, we're back to what some cities are doing in terms of pricing. We're not hearing any problems though, I guess, to speak directly to your question in places like Vancouver and Mexico City, right?
Juravich: Right, right. So there's, yeah, and there's 11 cities, though, in the U.S. In the United States, okay. So as an example, like Gillette Stadium is hosting a quarterfinal match, and it's a 40-minute drive from the Boston airport with no traffic. So do you think a city like Boston is gonna be able to get the people where they need to go?
Arace: One thing I read recently, and I won't swear to this, but from what I read, that that is one of the round trips that they're trying to hold the prices down, that they are actually holding the line and they're not gouging people, you know. Boston filling Atlanta are being reasonable, and of course they don't have the marquee games really either, or they don't have the bulk of the marquees games in the group stage, so.
Juravich: Now, I don't remember the World Cup in 1994 very well. Was it spread out like this in 11 different cities?
Arace: Um, geez, that's a good question. Now, I just remember the opening ceremonies in Chicago, to tell you the truth. Yeah. Um, uh, that was, uh. That was the day of the OJ chase. Oh, was it? Yeah.
Juravich: Oh.
Arace: Yeah.
Juravich: That's a memorable day. All right, 1994, big year.
Arace: Yeah, I was actually I was you know that that that night I was at Madison Square Garden covering a Knicks Houston Rockets NBA Finals game five and there was actually that morning. There's a great Documentary on ESPN the 30 for 30 about that very date June whatever it was 1994 June 7th Something like that and that morning there was also the Rangers had won the Stanley Cup.
So I was in New York during the Rangers victory parade. And then that night it was game five of the NBA Finals. And the... Obviously there's no phones then in your hands and I was in an auxiliary press box and the game stopped because the game was eerie because like Bob Costas is cutting to the OJ car chase fans were going out into the concourses to watch the car chase on TV instead of the game yeah and they were leaning over you know my shoulder in the press box trying to see what was going on with the O.J. Chase but sorry I didn't quite answer your question there All right, so we don't question it.
Juravich: All right, so we don't question it was the World Cup in 1994. How disperse was it? Yeah, what was it in 11 cities? Man, look at all the homework I did. I wasn't ready for that. All right. That's OK. That' OK. Maybe. Oh, OK. You know, my producer, Aaron Rabinowitz, says it was nine venues throughout the U.S. In 1994, so still probably spread out. Not as many as 11, but nine.
Arace: Yeah, it generally is. I mean, if you think back to, well, Brazil, for instance, they were building stadiums and promising urban renewal in the Amazon, so yeah, these things are.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the World Cup with Michael Ares, longtime sports journalist and founder of Disrespected Media.
So, from your perspective, the complaints about the ticket prices, is it also going to be an economic boost for the cities though, or does FIFA keep all that money? Like, do the cities that are hosting, you know, win from some of this?
Arace: Oh, I'm sure they do. Just as on a smaller scale, say, when the memorial tournament rolls into Columbus once a year, there is an economic ripple, like with any other sporting events. Whether you love or hate the Arnold, a lot of people come to Columbus and spend their money in hotels and restaurants, et cetera. So yeah, there are certainly those ripple effects. There will be economic benefits to these cities, depending on what the drawbacks are. I don't know how to balance out, but.
Juravich: Sure, sure. So from your perspective, what are some of the biggest complaints and concerns you're hearing from fans? Besides the ticket prices. Are you hearing anything else that people are worried about? I think yeah, I think
Arace: I think that from what I hear speaks to what you would see generally scripted now as the uh... Here and there. But but first of all, I mean, we're at war with Iran. Iran's in the World Cup. The United States won't let them stay in the United States. They're in Mexico and they come to the U.S. Play. They going to play their three group stage games and then they have to go. They have to commute from Mexico City for the World Cup.
But there's Obviously, that's a... The war, the politics, the ticket prices, the gouging, FIFA's greed, which has long been naked, and how demand is trailing off. I just think that a lot of people were turned off before the U.S. Team was even announced yesterday.
Then again, it's that delicious sausage, and even for fans around here, Ecuador is in town, that could be cool, you know you have Max Arfsten is a crew player, he was named to Team USA, Stephen Moreira, Cape Verde, it's a wonderful story, it's 10 small islands off the west coast of Africa and they somehow made the World Cup. Curacao is even smaller and they made the world cup.
You know Seb Berhalter, the son of the former crew and U.S. Men's National Team Coach is probably going to, might start for Team USA and he came up through the crew system. There's a lot of things even for local fans to kind of hang their hats on and you know, once you start setting up best on best competitions, country v country, there's terrific power in that and this is the world's sport. This is what. This is what people love.
Juravich: Besides trying to go see Team USA play, are there, you know, are the most popular games the ones where you're like, what Ronaldo's in, whatever game he happens to play? You know, other stories.
Arace: Other storylines, you got Lionel Messi and Ronaldo playing in their whatever sixth World Cup. They're going to face each other. I'm not sure. I have to look at the groups here. That's okay. Well, USA is in group D, which people have been jokingly called the group of life because they should get out of there. And if the US doesn't get out a group with Paraguay, Australia and Turkey. We have no business playing soccer. Yeah, exactly, they should go try and win the World Baseball Classic again, you know?
And then the group of death, which is generally speaking, but not necessarily, it's generally the group with the highest concentration of high ranked teams in it. And this year it's group I. France is right now the number one ranked team in the world. Senegal's 14, Norway 29, and Iraq 57. So that is probably the group at death. So those teams.
France is one, Spain is two, Argentina's three in the world, and they're the defending champions. England, which is still trying to win, when was the last time, it was the 60s. Portugal's five, and Ronaldo's playing for them, Messi's playing for Argentina. There's always all kinds of storylines, and there's, as you know, there's a hundred things that are going to come up that...
Juravich: In the moment yeah so will this be though just due to age in theory this could be ronaldo and messi's last world cup
Arace: Oh, yeah.
Juravich: I mean, it would be shocking if they were playing again four years from now, right?
Arace: Yeah, I mean, maybe, I don't know how fast and nimble motorized wheelchairs can be, but yeah, I would hope this would be their life.
Juravichennes: So if you want to see them play, this is your chance to see them, you know, here in the US. Right. Yeah.
Arace: Right, and we'll see how it goes as a TV event. I don't know, I'm looking forward to being with people at events. I mean, that's all part and parcel of this. But as far as like camping out on my couch and just rolling through World Cup games, no, I am not doing that.
Juravich: Are you hearing anything? I asked you what you're hearing about concerns, complaints from fans. Are you hear any concerns, complaints from coaching staff or players? Are they just excited to come to America or are they worried about anything too?
Arace: Not explicitly, you know, again, the United States is, how shall we say, it's not held in the same regard as it was, I don't know, pick a year, Amy.
Juravich: 1994.
Arace: That's a good year. This is a different place. Different things have gone on geopolitically. And so that is certainly a factor. You throw in the fact that since the war began in Iran, what is it, about 90 days ago now or something like that, if you take into account fuel prices and what fans are, it's taken into account inflation and cost of fuel, travel and et cetera. Yet has a much bigger inflection on it than it did six months ago.
Juravich: If you were to bet on one city to deliver the most traditional World Cup atmosphere, you know, like, yeah, do you know which city is gonna bring it home for soccer here in the US?
Arace: Well, you know... New York is a great soccer city. I know a lot of people that take soccer trips to New York. Let's pop in for a weekend Airbnb and then hit a bar where the Liverpool fans are at six o'clock on Sunday morning. And there's bars like that. And most big cities are like that, Chicago's like that so forth. But the thing about New York is LA is the same kind of deal with Englewood, but you know MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford is not in New York City. You know what I mean?
Juravich: Very true.
Arace: No, I think you're going to see, especially when you consider how MLS has grown, there's a more commonality to soccer fans. There's more of them. That stuff's going to be great. I'm coming back to it again. I'm more looking forward to hanging out with people in a bar and podcasting than I am to maybe any actual games.
Juravich: All right. Well, you can stay tuned to what Michael Aries comes up with with podcasting and watch parties at Disrespected Media. I want to thank you for joining us. We've been talking with Michael Ares, longtime sports journalist and founder of Disrespective Media. Thanks for joining us today.
Arace: Thank you, Amy, and please go to thedisrespected.com and donate money to my travel budget.
Juravich: The travel budget, yeah, so you can go see one of these games. Well, coming up, we're going to talk more about the World Cup and just the future of soccer in general in the United States. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to all sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. Soccer has always lived in the shadows of bigger sports in the United States, like American football and basketball. But over the last decade, the number of soccer fans in the US has skyrocketed, particularly leading up to this year's World Cup taking place right here in America.
What problems are fans across the country going to face this World Cup season? And how are teams going to capitalize on the new environment of this sport? Joining us now is Ryan Chen, Assistant Professor of Sports Leadership and Management at Miami University. His focus is on satellite sports fandom, sports technology, and digital consumption of sports. Welcome to the show, Ryan.
Ryan Chen: Thank you for having me here.
Juravich: So what are your initial thoughts going into this year's World Cup? How do you think the United States is going to do as a host?
Chen: Well, I mean, we're all waiting for this opportunity, right? Because it's been, for soccer fans like me, it's way too long, probably four years of waiting. And we're hoping that the United States would at least try their best as they can and then trying to advance to the later stages in the tournament.
And with our new coaches, well, not technically new, but with our world famous coach and also our great players in Europe. Playing in the Europe top leagues. We're hoping that the United States is going to do great in the tournament this year.
Juravich: Do you think that the way we host in our 11 cities that we have here is going to be a significant departure from the way it's been done at past World Cups?
Chen: Well, I think this can be seen from two kind of ways. First, this has been the way that a mega sport events like the Men's World Cup has been held over the past 20 years has been pretty consistent. I would say it's pretty standardized, not just in the United States, but also in Qatar, in Brazil, and even in. Russia.
So on that case, that's pretty much consistent. But on the other hand, in this parliament, we've seen a lot of the new things, especially for FIFA as the governing body of soccer internationally, we see a lot the new commercialized opportunities and the practices that's been done by the organization trying to monetize. The tournament a little bit more compared to what happened in the past 20 years.
Juravich: Yeah, so when you say monetize the tournament, our previous guest said it was basically FIFA's stealing all our money. So yeah, I mean, you're saying in a more diplomatic way, but the pricing has made fans very wary of this World Cup experience. Prices are, are they significantly different than previous World Cups? Do you know?
Chen: Uh, yes, I think, uh, that's something I have to be honest because the price are really different, especially, uh compared to the previous tournaments. Um, and, uh I know that in Qatar, 2022, everybody was talking about how cheap they can get into the stadiums, trying to purchase the, uh not just the group stage, but also the knockout stage games, but this time We've seen from the official data that the ticket has been skyrocketed to a large extent. That's true.
Juravich: Do you feel like the ticket prices are going to have to come down because America can't put these games on TV with the stadium half empty?
Chen: Yes, I would definitely hope so, but I don't know to be honest, because there's still kind of like two weeks from now. And then as we probably all know that the organization of FIFA, actually they started doing the dynamic pricing for this tournament. It's all depending on the market demand of the tickets.
Right now, I also just before this show, I did a quick kind of search on the price tickets the the price and then it's being become still kind of really high at this moment definitely higher than the official price range given by FIFA so I'm not sure but I'm definitely hoping
Juravich: Can you talk about how the United States views soccer or football, as I should probably call it, but how does the United states view soccer? How has it changed from when we hosted the World Cup in 1994 to where we are now?
Chen: Well, I think a lot of things have changed. Well, in 1994, we would all probably agree that soccer is pretty much still, the United States is still pretty much a soccer desert. So there's little interest, a lot of interest still coming from the big four sport tournaments or the leagues here.
So I think in 1994 everything about that tournament is about how do you build that culture, you know? How are you trying to attract more fans? How are going to, you know, trying to attract fans to gain their interest? Into the sport of soccer. Right now, since 1994, it's been almost 30 years. And then even in the, I think, in the past 10 years, soccer culture has become really prominent in the country.
Now, we don't just watch the big four leagues in North America. We watch the English Premier Leagues. On ESPN, we have all the European major leagues broadcasted regularly over the weekend. And then there are a lot of the interest from the grassroots, from the people who are really interested in seeing the soccer games these days. So right now I think, you know, the culture has been pretty mature compared to 30 years ago, and then, there is definitely a lot of the interests coming from people.
Juravich: If we were trying to grow soccer's American interest 30 years ago in 1994, I bet the ticket prices were a little more reasonable, right? So you could take your kids? Yes. Yes. One of the focuses in your area of study, Professor Chen, is called satellite sports fandom. And it, you know, correct me if I'm explaining this incorrectly, but satellite sports fan is when you don't live in the city with your team anymore, but you still follow them, is that right?
Chen: Right, or in a more precise way, we're not living in the kind of like the local proximity or the cultural proximity to the team that we're following.
Juravich: Yeah. So tell me about that with soccer, because I know a lot of people just anecdotally in my life who love to follow just whatever team Ronaldo is playing for, whatever team Messi is playing for. So they have this affinity and I guess they're a satellite sports fan, right? Because they'll follow that team. Talk to me about how that's happened in soccer for the past few years.
Chen: Well, so in the United States, in particular, we have a lot of these satellite soccer fans who are just trying to, just like you said, trying to follow the stars, follow the big teams, especially in probably like Spain or England. And the way this is working, I think... It definitely has a lot to do with the media companies in the United States because just take NBC as a case.
The NBC in the US, they have the broadcasting rise for the English Premier League in the U.S. And then in addition to all the shows they're hosting for every game week of the league, they also regularly host those in-person events. Around the country. I think in Chicago, in Tampa, in Orlando, I'm seeing a lot of those cases where they actually put a studio in those cities. So they have those live events as the game goes on.
And then there are a lot of fans who trying to attend those, you know, the in-person events. And then everybody, you know everybody's just trying to enjoy the game, not just, you now watching the TV in their home. But enjoying the game with some of the other fans from the nation. And then I think that is definitely helping with the boost of the fandom of soccer in the United States.
Juravich: Do you predict, you know, with this World Cup, you're gonna see a lot of those satellite sports fans, this is their only chance to see that team in person without having to travel to Europe or South America. So they're gonna definitely try, despite the prices, to get to that game.
Chen: I would say probably if you're talking about from the national teams kind of standpoint, I would probably say this is the best chance because this is, you know, this is event that every, you the best national teams of soccer would compete in the country. But if we're talking about the general like soccer stars, to celebrity players or, you know, you.
Those things, I would not think this is the only opportunity for fans to see, because as we probably noticed, right now, more and more European soccer teams are shifting their focus to the United States. So a lot of teams have spent their summer doing the tours, the business tours, friendly games in the nation. So there are a lot the opportunities for fans, to see those players if they wanted as if, you know, followed them.
Juravich: Yeah. So yes, that's true. A lot of soccer teams are having friendly games here, bringing it to America. And then America is doing the same thing. You know, we're taking American football over to Europe and trying to expose them to that. So how do you think that's going to go? If you had to predict, you know, will Europe pick up football, American football?
Chen: Yeah, well, I actually am pretty surprised to see that right now a lot of Europeans are having a lot of strong interest in American sport products. We've seen people wearing NBA jerseys on the streets. We're also seeing, especially in Germany, I think a lot people in Germany especially the young generations, they have a strong interest in the especially the NFL and the NBA so I think like like you said there is a lot of you know the Communications or the exchanges of the sporting culture in between Europe and the United States which is really you know interesting to
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the World Cup with Ryan Chen, Assistant Professor of Sports Leadership and Management at Miami University.
I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about your other area of study, which is the digital consumption of sport. So you mentioned that NBC is the host of a lot of these games. You can watch them on TV. But how do they do with the app and showing all the games? I mean, is it expensive? Are people buying into this to be able to watch all the soccer all the time.
Chen: Well, I think that also has a lot to do with the existing structure of the TV rights in the United States, because as a soccer fan myself, I'm also hoping that there is a consistent platform that I can just purchase that platform and I can watch all the English Premier Leagues at the one time. But unfortunately, that's not how the things is working in this country.
So for the NBC, I think for the English Premier League, you have the TV rights, which they divided all the games into two platforms. One is through the cable networks. And then the other part is through their digital mobile app or the app called Peacock. So if you subscribe to Peacoc, it's actually relatively cheaper. Because you only have to I think only have to pay like eight bucks or nine bucks to subscribe to that app. And then you can watch half of the games for the English Premier League.
But for the other half of those games, especially for those blockbuster games of each week, you actually have to subscribe to the cable TV in order to watch it. So on that case, it's creating a lot of the hurdles for the spectators to enjoy the games.
Juravich: Well, and you're going to expose my lack of World Cup knowledge, but how many different apps do I need to watch all the World Cup games?
Chen: I think for the for the World Cup is actually a little bit easier, especially now. So you don't have to worry too much about just like, you know, now you have to subscribe probably 10 services to watch the NBA these days. The World Cup, I think it's going to be pretty similar to especially to the last World Cup in Qatar, which is pretty consistent. Then you don't have to pay too much service. But the price for subscribing might be a little bit higher compared to the service like Peacock or ESPN Plus or something.
Juravich: So we'll treat the World Cup more like the Olympics, because you could see most of the Olympics things, because it only comes around once every four years, so there's more access to it, is that right?
Chen: Yes, that is correct.
Juravich: One last thing I wanted to ask you about is the classic events of the World Cup the fan festivals You said you're a big soccer fan Can you tell me a little bit more about you know the fan? Festivals and and what America can gain from hosting a good one
Chen: Well, I mean, the World Cup is definitely, you know, a fan festival for all the soccer, not just the soccer fans, but all fans, well, because for before the game, there's going to be you know we're all very used to this because there's always going to be the tailgating and stuff before a big game, and that is the same thing for for the World Cup.
So in person, if you are living in that city, there's going to be, I think there's going to a huge watch party outside of the stadium, outside of the venue. But at the same time, I also think, especially for the TV broadcasters, there will be a lot of the shows that's going to be about that team and also that culture behind that team.
So I think there's going to be a lot of the opportunities, just like the Olympic game, that we're going knowing a lot of the different teams, different players, different cultures behind these teams. So which is really going to be leading to a huge fan, you know, festival in this country for the people here.
Juravich: And just to end on, if you can predict, do you think most of these games are gonna be full of American fans watching soccer, or are you expecting a lot of people traveling from a lot a different countries and coming here?
Chen: I think there is definitely going to be a lot of international travelers because this is a part of the international soccer culture. There's the fans from Brazil who is going to attend the games, no matter how pricey, how far it is, they're going to go to every World Cup games that their country is playing every time, probably five, six times in a row.
So there's definitely going be a of the travelers from all over the world, which which is gonna be really fun. But at the same time, I also think there's probably gonna be the majority of the fans coming from the United States because this is the opportunity for us to enjoy the game, to enjoy, you know, the culture of soccer and all the great players here.
Juravich: We've been talking about soccer fans at the upcoming World Cup, hosted mostly in the US, but also in Canada and Mexico with Ryan Chen, Assistant Professor of Sports Leadership and Management at Miami University. Thank you so much for your time today, Ryan. Thank you. And you're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. I'm Amy Juravich. Thanks for joining us.