Exploring the Slow Growth of Soccer in the United States
The LatiNation crew breaks down soccer's modest growth in the USA during the World Cup, highlighting its static league structure and commercial focus.
Video Transcript
I've always been hearing about how the US is up and coming.
It's happening.
You know?
It's, the, the game's getting bigger.
It is, but very slowly, and here's why.
Because we don't have a sort of relegation system like USL goes to MLS, and there's no opportunity for more people to get involved in the game and, and, and sort of get emotionally invested.
You have to be, like, the fan of this MLS team.
The barrier to entry into the sport's just not, you know, I think, where it should be.
So that's a bigger picture question.
For this World Cup, again, no, I don't think so.
It's, it's, it's corporate.
It's gonna be forced.
You're gonna see a lot of, like, sponsorships, a lot of people performing at these things, and it's gonna be, like, corporate opportunities to use it as marketing more than actually, "Hey, let's give the people a fun place to watch and just have fun and get drunk and, and celebrate and all come together."
No.
It's sponsored by this, sponsored by that, this one and this brand and this brand and this brand, and here's a gift bag from this brand.
But that's American culture.
That's the USA right there.
That's how they built every sport in the US.
That's not every- How many commercials have we seen for this World Cup so far?
Every day.
Every day.
There's a new commercial every day.
It's so commercialized, but this is not new.
FIFA is probably one of the most corrupt organizations in the planet.
We all know it.
The US government knows it.
They brought them down in just for them to get a World Cup.
That was clear that when that happened back in the big CONCACAF, scandal of not too long ago, the US came out really, really well-positioned to be the new voice of CONCACAF and a very important voice in the, in the global soccer.
So a lot of politics are being in play in this World Cup.
The, the change of format, I'm not so happy.
Th- there's rumors that we might go up to 64- 60-something teams teams for the next World Cup.
What are we doing?
