World Cup 2026 Recap

0:00Get the news you need in just 15 minutes. Start your day with Bloomberg Daybreak, the podcast with a global view on the stories that matter. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow. Join us each morning for curated stories on current events, politics, business and foreign relations. Plus one conversation on the day's biggest developments all in just 15 minutes. Subscribe to Bloomberg Daybreak for a precise, thoughtful take on the stories that matter. Listen to Bloomberg Daybreak each morning on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen.

0:32Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

0:42Welcome back to The Deal. I'm Jason Kelly alongside my partner, Alex Rodriguez. All right, we're talking World Cup. And, you know, leave it to you, my brother, to, you know, just be like casually at the World Cup final, flipping the coin. It's like, what is going on? And I'm like watching it on TV. And, you know, there you are doing your thing. So my man on the ground, my, you know, eyes, eyes and ears. What was it like? What was the experience like? First of all, the experience was unbelievable. It was like Super Bowl, like, but like times 10. Yeah. Because you realize the gravity of an event.

1:20I've never been to an American event in New York City, right, where the Giants and Jets play their home games. and I'm walking around and like, like no one speaks English, right? And everyone's from Argentina or Spain, but they're like, I saw people in tears. I saw people crying. I saw that you feel when you're in an event, the gravity of the recourse if the other team loses. And sometimes that's more, that jumps off the page more than the excitement of people being there. So it felt really big. I've been in many world series, finals, Super Bowls. This was like nothing I've ever seen before. Really?

1:56I mean, that's saying something because, again, like you you've literally like won a World Series. All right. So so let me ask you this, because you, you know, you live most of the time in Miami. Miami obviously was like a key epicenter of of this World Cup. You've watched the messy effect over over the past few years, you know, put on your, you know, your Alex Rodriguez investor businessman hat. Like, what does this make you think about the business of soccer going forward? Well, first of all, you have the perfect storm. I had one of the Fox executives who, by the way, are over the moon thrilled.

2:35They pay$750 million for these rights. And that's a fraction of what they pay the NFL, a fraction of what MLB baseball gets, you know, over those four years. And yet the numbers, as you know, were unbelievable. I know we'll get into it. Yeah,$62.8 million just in the U.S. between English and Spanish broadcasts. I mean, that is unbelievable. And if you don't believe that, there's a great saying, and this is a deal, a business show, numbers don't lie. And just in 2022, the World Cup top-line revenue was somewhere around$7.5 billion, and this year jumped to$15 billion. Is that those the numbers you have?

3:14Yes, yeah, yeah, that's right. More than up than 100 % in four years is remarkable. Yeah. And it's something really that's not sustainable. The viewership was up 132 percent in the final game. And the average game averaged around eight million people, seven and a half million people. So it was an absolute whopper of a success for Fox. And for kids like, you know, you have a young daughter, Jason. I think for that generation of kids, we're going to look back in 30 years and say this is the moment of why so many young kids fell in love with the game. Yeah. I think there's a real movement here in America.

3:47I think you're right. And coming up later, I'm going to talk with Melissa Ortiz, who was one of your colleagues at Fox and was was covering a bunch of the games, a former player herself, as well as Vanessa Perdomo, my colleague here at Bloomberg, our colleague here at Bloomberg, who she herself, she played college soccer and now covers the business of sports. And she was she was at the final in lesser seats than you. But, you know, everyone was everyone. But no, you're right. I mean, and I mean, the other the other number that I'll throw at you, because we do love numbers here. Total attendance was six point eight million.

4:23Most attended World Cup in history. One of the really interesting things about that. So that's, by the way, that's more than the last two World Cups combined. Now, part of it is there were one hundred and four matches. But the second most attended World Cup is 1994 United States. So part of it's big stadiums. But this is why Johnny Infantino, the president of FIFA, did everything he could to make sure that this World Cup was in the United States. Because you know this from being a very, very high profile and successful American athlete. Sports in the United States hits different. You know, I'm sure, you know, you got to see all the benefits of that being in what's normally known as MetLife Stadium, was known as New York, New Jersey Stadium for the benefit of the World Cup.

5:14But, you know, Americans, they do sports a little bit differently. They do. And, you know, you've often heard me say what I learned from my longtime mentor in TV, that you need the three S's. You need galore superstars. You have that. You have strategy and you have great storylines. But, you know, I was talking to my Fox executive and I always like talking with this Jimmy Patero at ESPN or Eric Shanks at Fox. I would say, hey, boss, what what is the ideal match for the finals? And, you know, there was this famous line with David Stern back in the day where he would say, you know, the Lakers versus the Lakers.

5:52This isn't quite so specific. This is more like the four brackets. You have Yankee Dodgers, Yankee Dodgers. So we can't lose. And then, of course, you get, you know, Spain, Argentina. So it was an absolute whopper of a finals. But for the Fox executives and from a revenue point of view, you had all the tailwinds between United States, the two teams, the final four, the numbers. And like you said, you just got to put almost like a 25 percent tax in revenue in America, maybe 50 percent. In this case, it was 100 percent growth from last time. So America is the biggest, the best. And if you're American, you've got to say, where are we in the landscape of soccer?

6:32Yeah. America does not like to be, you know, top 10. They like to be one. Yeah, yeah. Well, and it'll be interesting to see, you know, whether this changes the complexion of investment in the MLS. This is not the NFL. This is not most of the NBA. This is a whole different sort of thing. All right. Well, thank you for, you know, doing your reporting. It's a hard job that you have. You know, I mean, I hope you practice flipping the coin. I mean, did you feel like it was a good flip? Well, it was because I didn't flip it. The kid from the Boys and Girls Club reached it. So I'm a Boys and Girls Club alum.

7:13Yeah. And I've sat on the board for over 20 years. And it was one of those things, Jason, that when I got the call in January, and it was around my birthday because my birthday is July 27th, I was like, this is just not going to age well. Like, that's my time when I go away with my kids and my family. And it started aging really well. And then a couple of months ago, I'm seeing the excitement. I'm going, actually, this is actually really, really cool. You're like, this World Cup thing, people are super into this. Yeah. All right. Well, get back to your life in the Hamptons. And, you know, you're grinding out there.

7:45And we, you know, we're all here for it. Happy early birthday. And, you know, now that you're on the other side of 50, it doesn't really matter. You know, last year was your 50th. Now it's just like he's in his 50s. Sorry. It's all downhill from here. I'm right there with you. And it's like the birthdays are just boring. until we turn 60. All right. See you, partner. See you, bud.

8:11The Bloomberg This Weekend Podcast. News, politics, and the lighter side of Bloomberg. The most coveted cosmetic enhancement in Asia right now are elf ears. Elf ears. Yes. People are getting injections to enhance their ears. I really don't need anything else to learn to be self-conscious about. This is not something I needed to have on my radar. The Bloomberg This Weekend Podcast. Subscribe today on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

8:51Welcome back to The Deal. Melissa Ortiz, really good to have you with me. I have so many questions for you about essentially what we just saw. You know, this is not your first rodeo. You've played the sport. You've covered the last three World Cups. As you sort of distill it down and digest it, like, what's your top line takeaway? Well, first and foremost, thank you for having me. Super excited to chat and especially chat about World Cup. I think my top line takeaway of this World Cup compared to either World Cups being in them as a broadcaster, having attended them as a fan or as a player at a Youth World Cup.

9:31I think this one was just like a whole beast in itself. Love it. So many different different ways and aspects from the expanded format of how many teams competed in the in the tournament to how many games were played. 104 games were played. there was 39 days over 16 cities in my role as a broadcaster you know usually we'll we'll stay in one city and then maybe pop and fly over to some other ones and it's not as crazy as a travel but since the U.S. and especially being over three countries it's such a large country with different time zones it just made it even I want to even say more challenging but I'd say at the end of it all even more rewarding after hitting so many accomplishments, especially on Fox.

10:19We reached over 11 billion views, which is wild. Our goal when going into the tournament was to reach, I think, over 3 billion. And I even told our producers and our executives, I said, you know, I have a feeling we're going to crush that number because soccer compared to, say, let's say the Olympics and other sports, it's just soccer is the most popular sport in the world. I think we're going to crush this quickly. One weekend, we already hit that number. So when I say my main takeaway, it was a beast in itself. But then also my main takeaway was that I absolutely love the fact that the USA was able to experience what soccer is all about.

11:05And it's not just about the 90 minutes on the pitch. It was about the fans coming in. And we saw the Norwegians and the Rose. You know, we saw the Scots and them just turning, you know, Boston into Scotland. Upside down. Yeah. So I think just the cultural impact, the soccer impact, and hopefully the impact for the growth of the game here in this country. For me, it was an incredible experience. And I'm going maybe – I'm probably going to go through that like post-playing days of like withdrawals, right? Because it was just always at a high every day. It was incredible. Yeah. And so what was your favorite storyline of this cup?

11:45Like, what was the one that you were most interested sort of to cover, especially one that maybe because I'm I know I know you as a journalist, like you're an you prepare so well. What what were the things that stood out to you that you were especially excited in retrospect to to dig into? uh i got two and the first one is cape is cape bird like that for me that that storyline in itself a country of a population of 500 000 people uh players on the team that yeah there there are some that you know of course play division one and in their prospective clubs countries but just came totally out of out of the blue out of the woodwork you know when when fifa announced that they were going to expand this type of format there was a lot of pushback and i'm i'm gonna be honest like even for myself i'm thinking man there's gonna be some blowouts yeah how could you even compare an argentina against a cape bird well you fast forward time and argentina plays against cape bird and all of a sudden it's tied and they're going into extra time and i was at that game i was at that stadium and when i saw that goal scored uh by lopez cabral and it was just a banger top right corner insane goal it was wild uh but but in when i was living in that in that moment you know the argentine fans are by far one of the best fan bases in the world because they're so loud they they chant the whole time they're so passionate and there's not many times where there's a quiet moment in the stadium because they just keep singing and jumping and all that And there were two moments in that stadium in Miami, which, you know, it's a bit tighter.

13:27So you really do hear everything. And one of the moments was, of course, when it went 1-1. And the other moment was when Cape Verde tied for 2-2. And I kid you not, this stadium was quiet. And you look around and you just see every fan, Argentinian fan, because there's only a small pack of Cape Verdeans up there. And everybody's just like this. And it was a moment of silence that I had never seen before like that in that sense. And I was just like, wow, this is crazy. And then there was another beautiful moment. And that was just two minutes after when the ball gets kicked off by Argentina. And then that just made the Argentine fans just get louder and louder with their chants.

14:15Just loud. A whole nother level. Yeah. So it was like I say this and it was like we're living a real life novella. Yeah. It was just like drama and the antics and just I don't know. It was so many curves and it was amazing. But it's why we love I mean, it's why we love sports. Right. I mean, it's like you just don't know. I will say as a as a viewer and I watched a lot. I watched a lot of the Fox coverage. I thought one of the most brilliant aspects of it were the fan reaction shots, like the slow-mo fan reaction shots. I mean, because it's like you like to me, that actually helps you understand the game as much as watching the game.

15:01It's like watching the fans, like watching the way they act, the way they react, you know, like just a barely missed shot. And just like the agony on someone's face. And it was like, I can like see them in my mind now. Like these shots where it's like, oh, you know, it's just incredible. So, I mean, kudos to the team at Fox for that. Because I did feel like it's like the cultural piece of this cannot go sort of unremarked upon or unexamined. Right. I mean, it's like and I do think that that was one thing that we all felt was, yeah, we're all in this. Like we are in it. We've talked a lot about, you know, what was going on in the stands and off the pitch.

15:45But you obviously follow very closely what's happening on the pitch. What was different about this one, either from a style of play perspective, the refereeing, a lot of talk about that. Like what stands out to you there? Yeah, I think one of the elements that was the big change where the hydration breaks. Yeah. It's just so different than usual. you know there there's a definitely you know a good case in terms of the the climate and it's so hot and when you're playing a game in miami or i don't know in mexico or in stadiums that aren't covered uh or stadiums like atlanta or dallas it's really hot and that does affect you so i do respect the hydration breaks depending on where you are um but you saw you you saw the impact you saw the impact you could see in the in the in the timeline of a game and there were there were analytics and you would see at minute 23 you know the it could be like this for a team and it could go one way one way or another a team could drop off like this in terms of performance or a team could actually had used that those three minutes to implement something you know a coach gave some type of instructions or or energy uplifted and you saw a team go up so that's one element that I think that definitely controversial, you know, you people, people would call it, um, it's like playing quarters instead of two, two halves.

17:08So that was just different for me. Am I a fan of hydration breaks? No. Do I see a purpose of it in certain cities? Yes. Um, but I don't, it's a questionable if they will continue doing, doing that. Uh, apart from that, Yeah, you mentioned refereeing. The amount of VAR calls, VAR has its positives and negatives. Positives is that, yes, you need to use technology this day and age. But the technology needs to be used in a way that's in a way humanized. And I know it's hard to even say that. There was a game, for instance, Colombia against Portugal. Colombia could have won that game. he was outside because of that technology i kid you not it was by it by this by a hairline and it's just that if you're a player and you're on your line um you would never think that's offside because by the naked eye right there you're the same your same level you're not looking at your at your toenail you know what i mean so um that and then just certain certain certain referee callings you know it's just the inconsistency in it all yeah and this those Those are things that absolutely need to improve because we did see a lot of unfair calls.

18:24Do I want to crap on the referees? No, because I do think they were also very good calls. But there is the inconsistency, and that's one of the things that I saw in this World Cup, I think, more than any other tournament before. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I was thinking as I was watching it that it feels like as popular and advanced as soccer is in so many different aspects, it feels like this is one case where the American leagues, be it the NBA or the NFL, have sort of like worked through this process of like, how do we use instant replay? because the era is essentially instant replay it's like how do we use it in a way that doesn't really damage both the integrity either the integrity and or the the flow and pace and and i think you you put it really well like the humanity of the game like we can't take the humanity out of the game and that's the and and part of it is you know the referees are human beings and they have to we have to sort of figure that in anyway for sure for sure yeah it wasn't exactly the popular subject this summer.

19:26Yeah. So, so let's, let's talk about next summer because next summer feels really important in this context. You know, the, in my estimation, at least, and you know it much better than I do, you know, the women's national team has been like the alpha team, the alpha national team for a long time. You know, it's like, we know who they are. We know a lot of these stars, the 99ers we talked about. If you're thinking about what U.S. soccer should be doing to, you know, as they would say in the investment world, sort of consolidate the gains, like, you know, sort of keep the momentum going. Like, I guess maybe I'll ask you a different question, which is, so does this change anything?

20:09Does this experience having hosted the Men's World Cup change anything going forward for the women's side? Is there anything to learn from it or anything to sort of reinvest or invest in, in your estimation? i think just so short term like towards the women's world cup no yeah uh uh do i think it could you know just strike interest of of more people being like you know they maybe weren't soccer fans before in general because you you've had sometimes a divvy you've had the men's soccer fans you've had the women's soccer fans and then you have both and then you have none okay so i do That's good.

20:45That's the pie. You're right. That's the pie. Yeah. So I do think that, you know, perhaps this summer could have been a tool or a bridge to, to tap into the women's soccer to the women's world cup next summer. And, and, and then also, I mean, let's be serious. Like Americans in general, but especially American soccer fans, Americans love winning at the end of the day. So I do think that because the women's national team are all about that and are the most winning women's sport team and especially in soccer, Americans are going to be like, oh, hell yeah. You know, they're going to – the ones that didn't know or were fans of soccer before, they're going to be like, oh, I'm a fan of this team.

21:30And that's also what happens during Women's World Cups and World Cups in general too. Like they're all in on that team or on the women's team, right? So I think that next summer it's going to be incredibly exciting for Americans, but not just for Americans. I think we saw it this summer. It wasn't all about the U S as soon as the U S were knocked out, like, you know, teams were like, Holy shit, I'm on team Norway because you know, they're a vibe and they do the row and I want to row. And, and, and you just, you just, you just saw people just find a liking to whatever team they supported, or if it was just a tournament in general, because the women's world cup in Brazil is going to be the, the first women's world cup ever to be hosted in South America.

22:10Yeah. You know, us South Americans are known for a good time. I was going to say, I mean, I feel like the conversation of the theme of this conversation is vibes and man, the vibes next summer are going to be intense. And I imagine you'll be in the middle of it. So as we, as we wrap up, like what's next for you? This was, you know, obviously you're like catching your breath, but I know you're onto the next thing. You've got a, you know, you've got sort of a burgeoning business empire. Give us a sense of where you're going and where we can see you next. So right now, where I'm going, where I just landed is San Juan, Puerto Rico.

22:49I'm going to be on an island called Culebra, and I'm going to be vacationing. And I'm already just, you know, I'm in it already. I'm in it. So I'm just going to take some time off. But I have two things. My full time is with TNT Sports. And so we cover all U.S. soccer games, U.S. men's and U.S. women's national team games year round. So it's not until the end of September there's going to be a U.S. men's game. But then, you know, there's all the focus, of course, this year is the lead to the Women's World Cup. And that's with the U.S. women's national team under Emma Hayes. And you have such incredible players, such as Trinity Rodman, Mallory Pugh, and the Triple Espresso.

23:27You have young players coming up that are going to be incredibly exciting, too. So even though that the U.S. women's national team is by far the favorite in winning the Women's World Cup, we cannot forget that Spain were the winners in the last World Cup. And the competition is only going to grow. So the lead to this Women's World Cup, there's going to be a lot of attention. There's going to be pressure, of course. But that's on my radar for the broadcast coming up this year on TNT Sports. Apart from that, I do co-own a coffee business called Kickoff Coffee Co. and it's specialty quality coffee straight to your door.

24:06So it's e-commerce direct to consumer. And it's a coffee company that bridges specialty coffee, fresh beans with the culture of soccer. All of our bags have soccer images on it. Yeah. We've done incredible collabs with leagues, with clubs. We just did one with Fellow Products, which is one of the top companies, most well-known companies in the world of specialty coffee and machines and stuff. So, yeah, so that's pretty much my my two worlds, that and just, you know, watching a lot of soccer. I love it. I love it. Yeah. And it's it'll be interesting for everybody, I think, to see, you know, the interesting thing for for U.S.

24:46soccer is to think about the idea that there'll be this showcase next summer of all the best women players. and so many of them play here, you know? And so then you can go to Gotham or you can go to Washington Spirit or Angel City or, you know, Portland or wherever and see a lot of those players. So it'll be interesting to see who the breakout, you know, who's the Erling Haaland of next summer. So, and I have a strong feeling that you will be the one to tell us who it is. So anyway, so. Thank you. Really good to spend some time with you, Melissa Ortiz. What a pleasure. Have an amazing time down there.

25:26Very envious. That sounds like that sounds like a very, very well-deserved break. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Stay tuned after the break for my conversation with Vanessa Perdomo, my colleague here at Bloomberg.

25:53Welcome back to The Deal. I'm Jason Kelly, and I'm here with an old friend, an old young friend, colleague, someone that I did a lot of stuff with over the years at Bloomberg, Vanessa Perdomo Maglione. I knew her when she was just Vanessa Perdomo, but she knows and knows this game inside and out. So I have so many questions for you about kind of how the business of all this played out. It was it felt dicey going into it. It felt like people weren't going to show up either. They weren't going to show up in the US. They weren't going to show up at the games. The tickets were too expensive, logistics, et cetera.

26:31So what is the vibe from a business perspective coming out of the 2026 World Cup? Well, the vibe from the business perspective is it's great. Yeah. I mean, they made a lot of money. Yeah. Listen, they made a lot of money. A lot of people showed up going into every single World Cup. There's all of this feeling there. Every story is leading into it saying this is going to be the worst World Cup ever. You know, this one did feel a little bit different. I mean, we had a war going on. You didn't even know if Iran was going to be able to come to the World Cup. actually until a couple of weeks beforehand.

27:01But they came, they played. There's still a lot of controversies throughout the tournament. But really, those big conversations that were had beforehand kind of fizzled away as they do. I think the U.S. was very excited. I think we got a lot of interesting things, all the European fans coming over, falling in love with fast food and ranch dressing and all these weird things that happened. But at the end of the day, businesses did thrive. FIFA among all, obviously. I mean, FIFA is clearly the big winner economically. I mean, they have reportedly told member associations they expect$15 billion in revenue.

27:35The initial projection was$11 billion, which already was a huge number. I mean,$15 billion is no joke. I had a chance to interview Johnny Infantino just a few weeks before it started. And he defended the ticket prices, basically saying these are market-driven prices. And the reality is, I think much to people's chagrin, they got their money like they people bought the tickets. Some of them probably went for a little less in the secondary market. But at the end of the day, 15 billion dollars funds FIFA for a long time. So FIFA is clearly a big winner economically. And I will say that one of the clearly big winners in all of this from a business perspective has got to be David Beckham.