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World Cup Fever and MLS Hopes

26:08 recording · EN · 6 speakers

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Brief overview

MLS teams are spending millions on a once-in-a-generation bet that World Cup attention converts into lasting local fandom.

  1. Hosting a World Cup guarantees the local league nothingStudies show mixed results: some leagues got an attendance bump that faded, and Italy in 1990 saw fewer people come in the years after.
  2. Two opposite strategies: bring the matches or throw the partyNew England lobbied for years to host seven matches, while Chicago, shut out as a host city, spent over $2 million on a city-block-sized watch party instead.
  3. The most valuable World Cup audience may be players, not fansCamilo Durana says about a dozen national teams trained at MLS facilities, and players ask each other about a league before they transfer.
Executive Summary AI
  • NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan reports from a commercial shipping barge in Seattle that the Sounders converted into the official World Cup watch party, with turf, a gigantic screen and Uruguay versus Cape Verde playing.0:41
  • Kenny Malone frames the episode around what Planet Money calls MLS's "problem-tunity": soccer is the number one sport almost everywhere except the U.S., and the U.S. is co-hosting the World Cup.2:12
  • New England Revolution president Brian Bilello, who appears in a 1994 World Cup photo at his own stadium as a 19-year-old MIT volunteer in a purple beret, bet on the "field of dreams" strategy and lobbied for years until the Boston area landed seven matches including a quarterfinal.9:47
  • Chicago, which decided eight years ago under Mayor Rahm Emanuel not to be a host city, instead had the Chicago Fire spend over $2 million on one of the biggest watch parties in a non-host city, a "Costco sampling" play that president Dave Baldwin compared to being handed 800 teriyaki meatballs.14:24
  • MLS chief business officer Camilo Durana says the league is spending the most it ever has on marketing, buying semifinal and final spots for a "thanks, world, we'll take it from here" campaign, while the audience that may matter most is players: about a dozen national teams used MLS facilities as base camps, and Messi's hat trick argues MLS is no retirement home.21:20
Key Quote
“Hi, Kenny. I'm on a barge.”
— Becky Sullivan0:25
Key Quote
“Because Major League Soccer, MLS, is facing what we here at Planet Money have come to call a real big problem-tunity.”
— Kenny Malone2:12
Key Quote
“Cape Verde scored their first ever World Cup goal in history.”
— Becky Sullivan3:18