Has the U.S. Finally Fallen in Love with Soccer?

0:00The Varsity Podcast is presented by MLB. The National Pastime will be celebrating America's 250th birthday with a summer full of special promotions and events, including MLB All-Star Week in Philadelphia. Fans can find more information at MLB.com slash July 4.

0:23When others hear noise, T. Rowe Price interprets market signals to find investment opportunities. That's the power of active ETFs from T. Rowe Price. Their portfolio managers approach data from multiple perspectives, analyzing trends and conducting deep research to give you their curiosity-backed active management expertise. Learn more about their active ETFs at TROPrice.com slash explore ETFs. Exchange-traded funds ETFs are bought and sold at market prices, not NAV. Investors generally incur the cost of the spread between the prices at which shares are bought and sold. Buying and selling shares may result in brokerage commissions, which will reduce returns.

1:04T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc.

1:11Congratulations! You made the varsity podcast. My name is John Aranda, 9-Bucks sports correspondent and host of this pod. And today, I made sure to get JT Batson on the pod. JT runs the U.S. Soccer Federation. He's been CEO and Secretary General for four years now. And coming off such a massively successful World Cup, I wanted to take his temperature on what U.S. Soccer can do to take advantage of all this popularity. But before we get to JT, today is Wednesday, July 22nd, and here's what I'm watching. In keeping with the soccer theme of this podcast, it's all about who will lead Major League Soccer as it heads into what it calls MLS 3.0.

1:52The well-respected Don Garber's contract runs out at the end of next year, and Korn Ferry has gone through a months-long search to find his replacement. That search, which contacted everyone from media executives to league executives to soccer folks, is now down to two people. There's LAFC co-owner Larry Berg, a well-connected and smart executive who's considered the current frontrunner to land the job. He already is a big voice on the powerful Sporting and Competition Committee. But there's also the well-respected media executive David Nathanson, who used to work at Fox and is widely credited with the great deal to bring the FIFA World Cup over to Fox in the mid-teens.

2:33A third candidate, 49ers front office executive Parag Maratha, he pulled his name from consideration last week after I broke the news on X and that he had made the final three. Now a final vote is due early next month. We should know in a few weeks exactly who will lead the league into its MLS 3.0 era. Now this is an important choice as the league tries to capitalize on the success of a domestic World Cup, including flipping the calendar to mere other international leagues. And I expect increasing the amount of money that teams can pay players. The league CBA is up next year and its Apple deal is over at the end of 28-29.

3:12A lot to do. Okay, now let's get to JT Batson. JT Batson, thank you for joining the pod. We are talking on Monday, the day after the World Cup final. What a month it's been. The superlatives are off the table i and this is my first question is basically take a bow you know like like uh walk us the i will you can take a victory lap over sort of the performance of the world cup in in the u.s or you know did it go according to plan was this what you were expecting what sort of surprises were out there i'll just let you sort of open up with that well sure well uh you know john you were one the folks who were predicting this was going to be a wildly successful summer.

3:59And all of our data, all of our anecdotes show that this is a soccer country and the results of this summer showed that. And what was so great about it is it allowed the rest of the world to fall in love with America, America to fall in love with the rest of the world and countries that people couldn't even put on a map six weeks ago. One of the cooler things that allowed people to fall in love with their own cities again. And the way this tournament, the way our team brought the country together, the excitement, the momentum, the scale, the energy, the impact is awesome. And so it's been a ton of fun.

4:37We're obviously excited for what's next, what's next for Soccer in America. Of course, we're excited for the Women's World Cup next summer and everything to come. But we also want to celebrate what was a truly awesome tournament. FIFA and everyone involved in putting this off from the host cities to the governments to volunteers to sponsors, of course, players and everyone involved. Pretty darn awesome. And we're super proud about everything we've been a part of. So, JT, before the tournament started, there were a ton of stories that suggested that things might not go as according to plan. Stories about ticket prices, unsold tickets, unsold hotel rooms.

5:14there was an official that wasn't allowed entry into the referee that wasn't allowed entry into the the the united states uh at what point did you realize that that that wasn't going to matter did is there a point where you're like okay this is going according to plan this is or were you able to ignore that or uh is that something that you didn't ignore you you wanted to sort of dive into it. What was your mindset going into the tournament? Well, I think, you know, you always want to listen and making sure you're keeping the ear to the ground to making sure that you're setting yourself up for the best opportunity for success and making sure you're delivering amazing experiences to everyone involved in the tournament.

6:02That said, you know, this is not my first rodeo. I've been a part of a couple of these now, and you've seen in the buildup to every major tournament, there's no soccer going on yet. So the only thing to talk about are challenges and risks and things that might go wrong. And so, and then once the tournament starts, all the things go right that can go right. The soccer is amazing. The fans are incredible. You know, the culture of the sport and the culture of the countries involved are incredible and the joy and energy and passion that comes from that. And so, you know, like you, I was always very bullish that once this World Cup got rolling, everyone was going to love it.

6:41Everyone was going to experience the joy that is this tournament, the great cities, the great stadiums, the amazing bars and watch parties and fan fest and all the things that people got to experience this summer, or in certain instances, Walmart for the first time and barbecue and Buc-ee's and all the great stories of people from around the world. ranch dressing i will say the ranch dressing that they offer the men's national team if that was what was on offer to fans they would not have fallen in love uh so uh it is way too healthy uh to be something that the rest of the world would have fallen in love with so as you look back over the last month what's one memory that just sticks out for you like what what what what is the uh the picture of this World Cup in your mind?

7:34There are a couple of different ones. One is a picture from the Seattle march to the stadium with the U.S. fans, where there were tens of thousands of fans marching from downtown Seattle to the stadium. And there was data that came out after the tournament or after the game that that was the most number of people ever in downtown Seattle since they started counting and just the throngs of people who wanted to be a part of it. And then the other, you know, sort of image sort of seared in my mind is our players on the field after the first game and the fan support and the energy and the just the smiles and the emotion and everything were just, just everything sort of came together in a way that people just were like, okay, we're here.

8:29This is a new level ambition for what soccer is in this country. You know, let's go. And, you know, that just kicked off this summer and it's been a heck of a ride. All right. So what can you do as the head of U.S. Soccer to capitalize on all of this? So the way that we like to think about this is that this summer is the kickoff to the American soccer movement. We've got the Men's World Cup, which just wrapped. You've got LA 28 and you've got the Women's World Cup, which we're the only bidder for for 2031, which is a five year window that looks a whole lot like 94 Olympics in 96 and Women's World Cup in 99, which, as we know, transform soccer in this country.

9:10And so this opportunity we have now is to take advantage of the fact that America has all of the ingredients to be one of the world's great soccer countries. And we've got to use this five years to go do all the things to build the system that produces that reality. And I think what gives me great belief and great confidence coming out of this summer is all the people who are required to say yes to that to be true now are all calling to help. They want to lean in. And so it's school districts to put soccer in schools. It's communities to build fields. It's pro clubs to lean in around youth development.

9:48It's sponsors and media partners who want to invest. It's donors who want to make transformational gifts to make soccer the most played sport in every community and to make sure that we're building the best possible affordable pathway for our country. And so the energy and the excitement from the summer and the scale of it has given people real belief that this is a sport worth investing in. And that gives me incredible confidence that, you know, we're on to something really big here. So when I evangelize about the potential for soccer in the United States, because really that 1994 tournament, it birthed a league, you know, and but they the pushback that I get is, you know, we've heard this before.

10:32We heard this four years ago and we heard this eight years ago and 12 years keep going on. And and, you know, we've been hearing since Pele laced them up for the New York Cosmos in the in the 1970s. What would you tell them? What's different about where U.S. soccer is right now today in 2026? Well, I think, you know, this summer proved the scale of the addressable market for soccer in this country. So there were 15 games of 20 million or more audience, five games of 30 million, two games of 40. And of course, our game against Belgium, over 50 million people watched that. And as you know, that's anyone who listens to this knows that's 2x the NBA Finals, 3x the World Series.

11:17And so the scale of audience from this summer, I think, gave people a real proof point as to how many people love soccer. And it's not just how many people love the U.S. team. Of course, we were the highest, but a large number of those games that had eye-popping audiences were games that didn't involve the U.S. and didn't involve Mexico. And so the interest in our sport is real. And now it's our opportunity to really lean into that, to build all the things that need to be true for us to be one of the great soccer countries. And let's make no mistake, there is a lot of work to do. We in no way, shape, or form are at the finish line.

11:57Soccer has to be way more affordable, has to be way more accessible. We need way more opportunities for kids to play best against best. We need way greater alignment across our pathways and across all the different parts of soccer in this country. We need way more investment. We need governments to be more involved. We need school districts to be more involved. So there's lots of work to do. But I think this summer has given people the belief that that work is going to be worthwhile and they want to lean in to help. So earlier, when you answered the question, you referenced, you know, getting school districts to have teams and, you know, build fields.

12:35And I have to say that all the schools my kids went to, they all had soccer teams. You know, the youth program, I think, has been very, you know, all kids play soccer, it seems, you know, with the orange slices and whatnot. What exactly are you talking about? Is it about sort of almost more professionalizing that or professionalizing is probably not a good word because you just talked about the need to bring the cost down. But you know what I mean, just sort of making it a little bit more structured. Well, more kids played soccer last year than ever in our history. So 24 million people played soccer.

13:12That's larger than I think half the countries who played in the World Cup. And so, you know, we do have an incredible scale of participation of soccer in this country and, of course, a rich history of that. We also know that that's not available to every American. And it's certainly not soccer is not the number one played sport in every community across this country. And I think part of the reason why we're so focused on schools and parks and other community nonprofits are that's where kids are. And if we want all kids in America to have access to this sport, including kids who today are becoming NBA players or NFL players, we have to be in every community.

13:53And to do that, you have to be where kids are. And so when we talk about schools, it's not just about high school programs, because you're right. At this point, most high schools have soccer teams. It's also about how do you get them in elementary schools? How do you get them in middle schools? How is soccer an after-school program? How is soccer an opportunity for boys and girls to learn different life skills in a way that, even if you're never going to play for a national team, you're developing a love for the game very early on. And so there is real opportunity there, in particular in neighborhoods where soccer maybe isn't the first sport that people think of.

14:32And so school districts have really been stepping up. So right before the World Cup, L.A. Unified School District announced they're rolling out soccer at every school. Oakland's now announced. Atlanta's now announced. We have some other major, major markets who are announcing over the coming weeks. And literally hundreds have signed up to work with us on how they roll it out all across the country. Literally millions and millions of kids are now going to have access to soccer in communities where they never had access to it before by virtue of this initiative. And I will point out that this is an initiative that was underwritten by Bank of America.

15:06So here's an example of a corporate partner saying, we care about soccer outcomes. We care about getting way more kids playing. We care about access. We also care about developing the next generation. And so we want to partner with you to help drive soccer outcomes. And so we have all these great examples of partners stepping up like that. And so, yeah, schools are a critical part of how we reach the next generation and how we solve for what has been true for so long and that soccer certainly has been prevalent in the suburbs. There have been great communities where soccer has been, you know, a key part of the childhood.

15:40But we also know there are plenty of areas where that's not been the case. And we want to go attack that head on.

15:50If you can make a dish, you can make a signature recipe and showcase it on your beautiful website that you built with Squarespace. And if you can make a stitch, you can make an outfit and put it on your online store that you built with Squarespace. And if you can hit the pose, you can teach the class that they can book on your site that you built with Squarespace. Because whatever your business, you can build it at squarespace.com. Use offer code Empire for 10 % off your website or domain. Sometimes it feels like the news is full of things that have never happened before. And that is not exactly true.

16:26In fact, it may have happened this very week, hundreds or thousands of years ago. I'm Sally Helm, host of the podcast History This Week from the History Channel. Trade embargoes? Thomas Jefferson tried them. Rent too high? We've been arguing about that for a while. Each episode is proof. The past isn't that far away. Listen to History This Week, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think you just answered this, but the U.S. soccer's role in doing this, Is it to get corporations like Bank of America to underwrite stuff like this? What do you think your main role is in helping this to develop?

17:08So U.S. soccer views our role as being in service to soccer. Our job is to support those who are bringing soccer to life in communities all across this country. And more specifically, we view ourselves as a catalyst. We view ourselves as a convener. We view ourselves as someone who can help spur people to action. And you take some of the examples of the soccer at schools. It's very often school district plus local nonprofit plus U.S. soccer plus corporation working together to bring soccer access to people all across the country. And so, you know, that's really our job is to, you know, be a champion for soccer in all forms and to make sure that literally every community in this country is in a position to achieve their soccer goals.

18:03And when we think about that, we think that that requires local governments, local businesses, philanthropists, local nonprofits, and of course, local pro clubs and soccer organizations working together to get more fields built, to get more kids playing in schools, to get more kids playing recreationally, and building the youth pathways. So for those players who want to play pro, who want to play for the national team, we have very clear pathways for them that are accessible, that are affordable, that are high quality, that produce some of the world's great players that can go win us World Cups.

18:38And so that's the opportunity we have in front of us. That's what we view our role as U.S. soccer. And we're really excited by all the people who've raised their hand and say, we want to help. You know, the cost of youth sports, this is not unique to soccer. at all. In fact, I've had a bunch of, you know, PE guys appear on this show, a bunch of financial guys, and they all talk about like, wow, the ceiling in youth sports to invest money and really kind of make money is, you know, it's driving the costs up, it seems. In fact, Alexi Lalas and a couple of people, they reached the public airwaves during the World Cup.

19:22What can you do to get the cost down when this is systemic of AAU basketball or, you know, Little League baseball and, you know, a lot of other sports as well? Sure. Well, I think a couple of things, you know, one, I love the fact that soccer is now so popular and the performance of our team is so important to people that our youth pathways and their quality and their accessibility was front and center in the national airways for days and days and days and days. So that is amazing. And so, because as you know, when things become an agenda item, you can actually mobilize the energy and the resources to go attack it.

20:04And so, you know, that discourse that, you know, those headlines and certainly all the sound bites, amazing. Love it, more of it, please. And I think the opportunity is to embrace the fact that, you know, the U.S. has a history of coming together to do big things. And a couple of sports examples, you know, basketball is super accessible. Why? Because we put basketball hoops in every park and every school. So that's taxpayer money making basketball super accessible. We also spend three to five billion dollars a year of taxpayer money on high school football in this country. Think about how many soccer academies we could have all across America for$3 billion.

20:48And so we know that when we want to do something, we have the ability to do this at great scale in this country. Now, we also know that U.S. soccer, there are things that we can do to help drive down costs, that help create the right incentives, that bring the right sort of energy and focus to sort of what youth soccer should be about. So for young kids, it It should be around more smiles and more touches on the ball. So think more small-sided games, more opportunities for you to play in your backyard or in your neighborhood or in your school, and where the focus is around developing that lifelong love of the game and getting as many touches on the ball and building your confidence that soccer is the sport for you.

21:29And then, of course, as you get older, we have an opportunity to create very clear, aligned pathways with our pro clubs and pro leagues where the best of the best get an opportunity to play together on a regular basis in every community across this country. And we get a chance to create a new system that is accessible, that is affordable, and that benefits from the fact that soccer is a global market. You know, one of the things that folks who aren't soccer nerds don't appreciate is how big the global transfer market is in soccer. And so there's money floating around and flying around that great players as they progress in their career and go play for great clubs, that money gets redistributed back to the clubs who help build them.

22:15So in addition to government money, philanthropic money, commercial money, we also get to tap into the global soccer market as a way to help fund world-class pathways. And so I'm very bullish about the opportunity. I know it's going to be a lot of work. There's a lot of change. There's a lot of sort of omelets that need to get made here. But this summer has given me the confidence that we are going to be able to resource this and the people that we need to say yes want to lean in to say yes to build this great system. I love that, JT. You don't talk about cracking eggs. You just go straight to the making of the omelets.

22:47That's a positive outlook. I appreciate that. One of the things that I think you've been really super successful in during at U.S. Soccer is, you know, just getting a lot of these big moneyed corporations and, you know, Arthur Blank underwrote, you know, the, the training facility down in Atlanta, which is, you know, really important to, to, to U.S. soccer as well. What is that sort of, what has your approach been in terms of, because especially after the world cup, I imagine like your, your order taking almost, but like, but before the world cup, you had to get, get out and do it. What's your strategy with that?

23:28Well, I think the, you know, we're fortunate that there are a lot of people in this country who care about soccer and who care about the success of the men's and women's national team program. And one of the things that I knew, but it really hit me as I've been in this role now almost four years, is we're now at a generational shift where the people who are running big companies, who are running nonprofits, who are running governments, they're soccer people. and in the old days they were baseball basketball football golf uh maybe they had kids who played but they were not soccer people uh and now as you run through some of the world's great corporations many of whom aren't even partners of ours uh they are soccer people through and through they have teams that they support they grew up playing their families play and so we have a generational shift of people who care about the sport who now have the ability to invest in the sport in ways that have never happened before.

24:25And so to earn their money, we needed to prove that we could go do big things and we could be good stewards of their capital. And the example of Arthur and the National Training Center is a great one because while Arthur and his family and company donated$50 million, we also had to bring hundreds of millions of dollars from corporations like Coca-Cola or Home Depot or other philanthropists like Dan Cathy donating the land or Michelle Kang and her very generous support or the state of Georgia or Fayette County and Fayetteville to be able to bring all those people together to be able to build what is the best training facility in the world now.

25:08We went from having nothing to the best in the world because we brought together the best of America, philanthropists, corporations, governments, all working together to go do something great. We wanted that to be a great case study of, one, the new ambition of U.S. soccer, and it's a physical manifestation of our ambition, but also a case study of what happens when people invest in us. Something I've shared with everyone involved in that project is anyone in business who's built anything always remembers those who bet on them early. and everyone I just mentioned and more bet on us early that we could go do big things as U.S.

25:47soccer, which would ultimately benefit soccer in America. And coming out of this summer, the momentum, the excitement, the energy, and the proof points we've had over the last few years that we can go do big things is why people want to step up. And I think for folks on this podcast who are savvy in sports business, What's been exciting is our partners have been calling and saying, hey, we want to support, not in a traditional sponsorship rights deal. We want to inject money into the system. How do we go build out the best youth pathways? How do we get way more kids at a younger age falling in love with the sport?