With the World Cup over, American soccer fans can finally move past the daily reminders of the U.S. men’s national team’s shortcomings. That may be a relief for now, but questions remain around how this year’s disappointment may leave the future popularity of soccer in America hanging in the balance.
It’s been well documented that compared with the last World Cup in 2014, American TV ratings for the tournament were down across the board this summer; the average viewership of English-language broadcasts decreased by 29%, and the average viewership of Spanish-language broadcasts dipped 39%. And while it’s reasonable to conclude that much of those discrepancies can be attributed to time-zone differences and the huge audiences that the USMNT’s games garnered in 2014, other trends, like the sport’s declining youth participation rates, present an even grimmer picture of soccer’s standing in the States.
The good news for soccer in America is that there are opportunities to regain and build interest in the sport on the horizon: The U.S. women’s national team is among the favorites for next summer’s Women’s World Cup, MLS has plans in place to expand to 28 teams by 2020, and North America will host the 2026 World Cup, with 60 of the 80 matches expected to be held stateside.
But the biggest American soccer audiences — outside men’s World Cup finals and the Women’s World Cup final in 2015, in which the USWNT beat Japan — have consistently been for USMNT games in the World Cup. The team will now go at least eight years between tournament appearances, and the qualification process for the next World Cup won’t even heat up until 2021.
Does that spell bad news for the near future of a sport that is still widely viewed as a distant rival to America’s “Big Four” of football, basketball, baseball and hockey? Possibly — but not if the International Champions Cup (ICC) has anything to say about it.
“If you look at the mission of the International Champions Cup, it’s to grow soccer,” says Daniel Sillman, who is CEO of Relevent Sports, the sports and entertainment group that runs the ICC. “The MLS has done a great job with what they’re doing, and I think we’ll also be a big piece of growing the sport moving forward.”
Since it was formed in 2013 with the backing of Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, the ICC, a preseason tournament that pits the world’s top professional clubs against one another in the U.S. and other markets across the globe, has already seen its operations expand rapidly.
The first ICC was held five years ago and featured just eight teams playing in six American cities. Compare that with this summer’s ICC, set to start in Chicago on Friday with a match between Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund, which will showcase 18 squads — including the world’s 13 most valuable teams, according to Forbes’ most recent list — in nine different countries.
While the ICC finished in the red for the first four years of its existence, high-profile matches like an iteration of El Clásico in Miami and the Manchester Derby in Houston helped the ICC turn a profit for the first time last year, Dolphins vice chairman Matthew Higgins, who helped form the ICC along with Ross, told Forbes in September. Tournament execs also claim the ICC reached American TV audiences surpassing even the English Premier League’s.
“We can cheat,” explains Charlie Stillitano, executive chairman of Relevent. “We want to give the fans the absolutely best games they can see, and as an invitational, you can do that.”
Of course, for the ICC to give fans the best games, the best teams need to be willing to participate. That’s not a small ask — especially given that clubs often have their full squads together for just a couple of weeks between the end of international play in July and the start of league play in August. But this summer’s star-studded tournament field shows that the promise of reaching new fans in global markets has become too tempting to pass up.
“We’re huge believers in the United States as a market for soccer,” says Tom Glick, the chief commercial officer of Manchester City’s parent company, City Football Group. “We couldn’t be more excited.”
Man City’s opponent on Friday, Borussia Dortmund, is excited, too — and much of it has to do with the appeal of Christian Pulisic, the 19-year-old Pennsylvania native who many already regard as America’s best soccer talent.
Dortmund has competed in the ICC in China for the last two years, but with Pulisic’s star rising, the German club decided to go all-in on the U.S. this summer. “A guy like [Pulisic] is kind of dynamite,” Dortmund chief marketing officer Carsten Kramer says. “It’s much easier to open the door to Americans if you have such an attractive and famous player on your team.”
And while it’s been matches featuring soccer powerhouses like Man City, which won the English Premier League this year, that have become the tournament’s calling card, the ICC is introducing new initiatives this summer with the hopes of appealing to an even wider audience.
In addition to standardizing the format so that the tournament produces one true winner, the ICC is also adding women’s and youth tournaments. The ICC Women’s Tournament will take place in Miami with three international clubs and one American club, and the ICC Futures tournament has already brought together 24 U-14 teams from the U.S. and Europe for a week of competition at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.
“These are not money-makers. This is Mr. Stephen Ross really contributing to soccer in the United States and its popularity, but we think it’s worth it because it helps grows soccer,” Stillitano says. “It’s an investment, but it’s a smart investment.”
For that investment to fully pay off, though, the ICC is banking on its ability to engage fans with unique opportunities. That’s why, on top of holding camps and skills challenges for American youth in cities across the country, the ICC is bringing back its “House of Soccer” festivals to Miami and Los Angeles this summer. The extravaganzas will feature live music performances and soccer games with celebrities like Odell Beckham Jr. and Draymond Green. As for the price of admission? Completely free.
Whether all of these efforts can make up for the lagging interest in soccer that Americans have shown so far this summer is up in the air, but that has done little to keep the ICC’s long-term goals modest.
“Ultimately for us,” Sillman says, “our win is converting every NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL fan into a soccer fan.”
