Cup may not be a cure-all in U.S.

Soccer's biggest event will be 'watershed' moment, but might not lift MLS, NWSL.

- By KEVIN BAXTER

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN Getty Images

SON HEUNG-MIN is a star attraction for LAFC, but overall MLS attendance fell 5.4% this season.

Remember when soccer was being touted as the next big sport in the U.S.? Well, it looks like that moment has finally arrived.

Or not. It all depends on who you ask and how you interpret what they tell you.

On one hand, there's the recent Harris Poll that found 72% of Americans profess an interest in soccer, a. 17% increase from 2020. A quarter of those are “dedicated” fans and one in five say they are “obsessed” with the sport.

On the other hand, there’s the stark decline in attendance and TV viewership for the country’s top two domestic leagues, MLS and the NWSL, and the underwhelming crowds that showed up last summer for the FIFA Club World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

These contrary findings —a growing fan base at the same time attendance and viewership numbers are falling offa cliff — come at animportant inflection point for soccer in the U.S., with the largest, most ambitious World Cup kicking off at SoFi Stadium in fewer than 200 days.

“The short answeris yes, the World Cup willbe a watershed moment for soccer in America. However, it’s unlikely to immediately lead to a significant increase inticket sales for MLS and NWSL. Soccer fandom in America develops differently from that of other sports,” said Darin W. White, executive director of the Sports Industry Program and the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University, which next year will launchama-jor five-year study to explore howsoccer can become mainstream inthe U.S.