NEWARK — The FIFA men’s World Cup final is still four days away, but widespread efforts are already well underway to take advantage of the historic groundswell in U.S. fan interest in soccer.
Domestically, Major League Soccer stands at the forefront of that push. This week, the league unveiled a sweeping ad campaign, “Thanks World, We’ll Take It From Here,” that is described as the largest coordinated marketing effort in league history.
The campaign features on-field stars such as Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi and Real Salt Lake’s Diego Luna, but also high-profile team owners such as LAFC’s Magic Johnson and Austin FC’s Matthew McConaughey. Beyond the marketing, MLS and the individual clubs are providing free tickets and Apple TV access to first-time attendees to help drive further fan adoption of the league.
MLS commissioner Don Garber told the Financial Times this World Cup has “over-delivered on everyone’s expectations on and off the field.”
Garber is scheduled to speak further Thursday regarding the “Thanks World” campaign and the league’s resumption of play after pausing for the World Cup.
Bigger Efforts
That national-level MLS initiative hardly stands alone. Across individual MLS teams, those lower in the soccer pyramid, federations, media networks, and brands, the push to capitalize on the World Cup’s unprecedented viewership and historic fan attention is accelerating.
“We certainly want to bottle up this excitement and have it sustain us,” said U.S. Soccer Federation chief product officer Abe Geiger on Wednesday at The Global Game, a soccer business summit at the Prudential Center developed by GK Digital Ventures and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
Among the specific strategies used by MLS clubs has been to collect data at various Fan Fests and then use that information to market the league, and soccer generally, in a post–World Cup period.
“If the World Cup was somebody’s first chapter, we want to be the second chapter,” said Red Bulls CCO Joe Stetson.
Additionally, MLS is putting itself in position during the now-open summer transfer window to sign several players who starred during the World Cup. That period runs through Sept. 2. Even before the World Cup, MLS solidified plans last fall to shift to the international standard of a fall-to-spring schedule, with that historic pivot taking effect in 2027.
“There’s definitely going to be fewer barriers to our business with our moving over to that schedule,” said LAFC chief brand officer Rich Orosco.
“The Next Five Years”
Despite the frothy enthusiasm that exists right now for global soccer, executives in the sport cautioned that the post–World Cup development will be an extended process.
“We’re not going to be judged over the next five weeks. We’re going to be judged over the next five years,” Stetson said.
MLS in particular has an uphill battle to draft off the World Cup momentum. Even former MLS megastar Landon Donovan says the league still suffers from a reputation that will be hard to outgrow.
“It’s starting to change. And it’s not going to change overnight,” Donovan told Front Office Sports last month. “If you look around the league, there are now lots of players who are in their prime. They’re not mega megastars like Messi, but they are good players, and the league has gotten a lot better. The problem is the perception still remains that the league is what it was before.”
