"Soccer is now America's third most popular sport, behind football and basketball, per a Q4 2024 research from Ampere Analysis cited by The Economist. A-Rod's sport trails, the same study shows. "I don't mean to be that guy coming onto your show, A-Rod, you icon," Bennett said, "and be the person to bring the news to you that baseball has been pushed to number four in the list, but I am that guy.""
"The 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup kicks off this summer across American stadiums, followed by the Women's World Cup in 2027 - back to back - and Bennett, co-founder and CEO of Men in Blazers, the podcast that became a 100-person media empire, is in full prophet-vindicated mode. "Football, for so long the sport of the future," he said, "is finally the sport of the now." The Women's World Cup alone, he argues, will be "a cultural phenomenon" - Netflix has signed an exclusive U.S. broadcasting deal with FIFA for the 2027 and 2031 Women's World Cups."
""Football doesn't sleep," he says, "and now neither will we." The business case for why that matters is staggering. Roughly 200 million people watch the Super Bowl. Five billion will watch the World Cup, while NBC Sports' opening weekend of the 2025-26 Premier League season averaged 850,000 viewers across six matches - the most-watched opening weekend on record in the United States - with the Manchester United-Arsenal match drawing 2 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and digital platforms."
Soccer has risen to become America’s third most popular sport, behind football and basketball, with baseball now trailing. The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will begin in U.S. stadiums, followed by the 2027 Women’s World Cup, creating back-to-back global events. The Women’s World Cup is expected to become a cultural phenomenon, supported by a Netflix exclusive U.S. broadcasting deal for the 2027 and 2031 tournaments. Viewership figures show the scale of the opportunity, with Super Bowl audiences around 200 million and World Cup audiences projected at about five billion. Premier League opening weekend ratings in the U.S. reached record levels, indicating strong mainstream demand.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]