Why this World Cup feels bigger than soccer for the United States
This is way bigger than one team. This World Cup feels like more than a sporting event. It feels like a cultural event.
Watch: Where does Malik Tillman's goal from a direct free kick rank for you in terms of greatest USMNT moments? | 1 min
The 2026 World Cup is a smash hit, a runaway success, the summer blockbuster we all needed.
It’s happening at the right time. It’s happening in the right place. It’s proof that nothing galvanizes like a great sporting event, and how the right team can unify the most divided of nations.
Team USA will continue its ascendant journey Monday in Seattle, in one of our country’s loudest outdoor stadiums. If they beat Belgium, they will advance to the quarterfinals for the first time in 24 years. Already, they feel like a gift to America on its 250th birthday, one all of us can share. Another victory will bring the celebration to another level, and an improbable championship even closer.
But this is way bigger than one team.
From Messi to Mbappe, the 2026 World Cup has featured incredible individual star power. The expanded field has spawned great underdog stories, from Paraguay to Cape Verde. There have been controversies and absurdities that only come with the sport of soccer, from loosey-goosey timekeeping to punitive red cards to a replay system rife with danger. And we are reminded that soccer is the breeding ground for the insidious plague of flopping in professional sports.
In sum, this World Cup feels like more than a sporting event. It feels like a cultural event. It feels like we’re all sitting around a giant campfire with marshmallows on a stick.
According to Nielsen, more than 43 million viewers watched Team USA’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on both Fox and Telemundo. Ratings have been robust from the opening matches, while the knockout round is producing numbers that exceed the NBA Finals. A Fox executive told Deadline that “the reach of the World Cup will be almost like having a second NFL season.”
This doesn’t mean that soccer will displace or surpass the NFL, the NBA or Major League Baseball anytime soon. But the 2026 World Cup is proving what insiders already know: there are a ton of soccer fans in the United States. A recent report put the number at 62.5 million, the fourth-largest soccer fanbase in the world.
But most American fans are attached to the English Premier League and Liga MX. They don’t feel the same passion for MLS, the USL or the USMNT. Until now.
Just like vintage March Madness, we’ve been treated to a field of chaos and near upsets. As World Cup host, we’ve had the home-court time zones and great viewing access from scenes unfolding in our greatest stadiums. We’ve raged at officials and watched from the edge of our seats. And with the field dwindling, it’s time for the most powerful soccer nations to step up and claim their prize.
If the U.S. continues to prove they belong at the very top, among the global elite in soccer, the sonic boom from this year’s World Cup will surely be felt on the grass roots level. For many years to come.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7.
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Comments
4 Comments
Leave it to the Trump administration to introduce subterfuge into the games😒
Dan, great column and comments. Having not grown up with futbol/soccer I’m a very casual fan who will enjoy a highlight reel but can’t bring myself to watch a whole game. With that said as a sports fan I love the excitement that the FIFA World Cup has brought to the US and the large contingent of enthusiastic foreign fans that are enjoying our country. This tournament has definitely brought great joy to young and old in a slow sports time of year and a time when its nice to get your mind off the realities of everyday life.
The World Cup is setting attendance records. I am sure that this fact is not sitting well with the 65 FIFA members who voted against the bid from the USA, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup as well as the FIFA members who are rooting for a poor showing for the event..
3,605,357 spectators attended the first 60 matches, surpassing the previous tournament record (which was 64 matches) of 3,587,538, set at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
The reasons for the attendance increase are:
1) The tournament expanded from 64 matches to 104 matches with the new 48-team format from the previous 32-team format which was approved several years ago.
2) many games are being played in large NFL stadiums in the United States that seat 70,000–90,000+ spectators.
3) Overall stadium occupancy has remained very high—around 99.7% capacity through the first 60 matches, according to reports..
We tried to get tickets to the USA match in Texas but ticket prices were $ 2,000 to $6,000 a ticket!
I think that the biggest benefit of the World Cup that is rubbing some FIFA members and etc. the wrong way is how foreign fans are discovering that the USA is totally differently than what they have been told it was by their leaders, their media as well as the media in the USA.
It is so fun to watch foreigners on social media going nuts over a Bass Pro Shop, a Buc-ee, free refills, ranch dressing, our National Parks, etc.