21 JUN 1994 : ARGENTINIAN CAPTAIN DIEGO MARADONA RUNS TO CONGRATULATE HIS TEAMMATES AFTER SCORING IN FRONT OF THE GREEK BENCH DURING THE WORLD CUP GAME AT FOXBORO STADIUM IN MASSACHUSETTS. ARGENTINA WON 4-0
Rick Stewart/ALLSPORT
hide caption
toggle caption
Rick Stewart/ALLSPORT
As the World Cup comes to a close, so does a massive real-time experiment happening just around the edges. Major League Soccer – the top men’s professional soccer league in the U.S. and Canada – has been scrambling to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity when average American sports fans suddenly cared a lot about soccer.
In between World Cup matches, NPR Sports Correspondent Becky Sullivan has been following Major League Soccer executives as they try to figure out how best to get a foot in the door with sports fans in the U.S.
In this episode, we tag along to see if U.S. and Canadian professional soccer can harness 2026 for the mythical World Cup bump in soccer interest. What strategies are teams using? And does it stand a chance to work?
Support:
Read:
Follow:
This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Becky Sullivan and Kenny Malone. It was produced by James Sneed with an assist from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Annlie Huang. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
Music: Source Audio – “Impacto Mundial,” “Rdlghts,” and “Electro Charisma.”