Alan Rothenberg recalls his formative days as president of U.S. Soccer in 1990. “Our offices were in a trailer in Colorado Springs, because the [Olympic committee] offered it to us rent free,” said Rothenberg, who later headed the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the 1999 Women’s World Cup in the U.S., along with the launch of Major League Soccer in 1996. “We had six or eight employees then, and everyone forgets, but there was no live English-language coverage of the 1990 World Cup here.”
It’s impossible to appreciate how far soccer has progressed in America without remembering where it was before USA ’94, the last World Cup in North America. Marla Messing was an executive vice president with Rothenberg’s 1994 World Cup Organizing Committee.
“When we first started working on it around ’90 or ’91, people here didn’t even know the U.S. was hosting the World Cup or what it was,” said Messing, who went on to be president and CEO of the 1999 Women’s World Cup and, more recently, interim CEO of the NWSL. “But by the time it was finished, we’d sold over 3.5 million tickets, and it became accepted here as a cultural event.”
Packaged with the U.S. receiving that 1994 bid was the promise to start a new men’s pro league. With that in mind, it seemed an appropriate time to ask America’s soccer cognoscenti what the legacy of this summer’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. might be.
“That deal with FIFA that put the World Cup here wasn’t just about MLS,” said Don Garber, the league’s commissioner since 1999. “It was about owners who would invest at all levels and create a cultural movement — that happened. Now, the U.S. is almost an ATM for global soccer, and it began with that ’94 World Cup.
“This year, it’s an opportunity to tell the world we are here, and we’ve built a league that attracted the world’s best in [Lionel] Messi. Moving forward, it’s about building the next generation of teams that are more relevant and have a quality of play that can eventually be competitive with the rest of the world.”
“We talk about legacy a lot, both internally and to our clients,” said Derek Aframe, Octagon executive vice president and head of integrated marketing, who is working his 10th World Cup (men’s and women’s). “The last World Cup here launched a league. Is it fair to assume it’s going to be the same huge next step this time?”
Off the pitch, it’s an opportunity for soccer to prove itself as a marketing platform in the U.S.
“I believe World Cup is going to supercharge MLS,” said John Tatum, CEO of Genesco Sports, which is activating for FIFA sponsors Qatar Airways, PepsiCo Foods, American Airlines and Verizon. “Of all the U.S. leagues, it has the most room for domestic growth.”
A principal legacy from 1994 is the exponential growth in youth soccer, especially in the suburbs. Many see this World Cup as a springboard to greater participation across more ages.
“I see a massive increase coming in the number of boys and adolescent men playing soccer with higher aspiration than just youth grassroots,” Messing said. “That funnel of boys wanting to play professionally and for the national team is going to get larger. The quality of players MLS is going to attract will also be meaningfully enhanced by this World Cup.”
Brad Ross, the managing director of global marketing partnerships for FIFA sponsor Bank of America, sees the tournament as the “catalyst to the next decade of soccer in the U.S.,” citing experience in his native South Africa in 2010. “A whole generation of kids seeing the FIFA World Cup in their own country for the first time is a very, very different experience,” he added.
Bank of America and other sponsors are backing programs to develop more soccer talent from new places in America.
“There’s a lot of untapped talent in underserved communities,” Rothenberg said. “So much developmental play here is on a a pay-to-play system, which, by definition, excludes a lot potential talent. Our hope is to change that.”
Echoed Ed Foster-Simeon, president and CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation: “The game has grown phenomenally across the country, but low-income communities have not been as big a part of that as we have hoped. We and other soccer organizations are focusing on that, and that will continue, hopefully galvanized by this World Cup.”
The reminder from many is that this a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
“MLS is still not often in the conversation with the Big Four leagues, and if this doesn’t get us to a Big Five, something is wrong,” said former MLS and LA28 executive Chris Pepe, who’s teaching a course called “FIFA World Cup: History, Governance, and the Business of Soccer” in Stanford’s Continuing Studies Department. “There are purists, of course, just like baseball, [and] even those who don’t like the World Cup final halftime show [with Shakira, Madonna and BTS]. Still, if soccer as entertainment brings it closer to being one of the Big Five, so be it.”
For MLS, the World Cup is a precursor and maybe rocket fuel for its course toward adopting global soccer’s fall-to-spring schedule next year, largely viewed as the most critical decision over its 30 years of play.
“We’ve always been viewed as a challenger league and will continue to be, but I couldn’t be happier where we are,” insisted Garber. “Certainly, everyone’s looking at what this [World Cup] will do for participation, attendance and our commercial business. Those are important, but I’m not looking at one- or two-year moments in time. We are looking at those things over a generation, just like MLS is today a generation removed from that ’94 World Cup.”
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
