Soccer, the most popular sport in the whole world, lags behind basketball or football in the US. What is stopping soccer from getting popular here?
The cultural foundations of NBA and NFL are what makes them popular within the audience. MLS was introduced in 1996 after the 1994 World Cup while NFL was founded in 1920 and NBA in 1946. The long-standing of these sports dominates both college and professional level and with its own fan bases. MLS is not as prestigious as NBA or NFL in that way to reach their level.
The audience also prefer high-scoring and fast-paced games while soccer being 90 minutes with two halves and still the scoring is that frequent. The excitement of watching an NBA game with scores over one hundred for each team could not be replicated in soccer because the average soccer game score does not even reach above five between both teams.
The lack of star power in MLS is also a factor for any general audience to tune in to the games. The biggest stars play in Europe which has prestigious club soccer tournaments like English Premier League or Spain’s La Liga. Even Christian Pulisic, captain of US national team, plays of AC Milan in Italy. The only time MLS teams acquire the biggest soccer names is when they are past their prime and looking for a place to play before they retire like Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest of all time in soccer, who is 37 years old joined Inter Miami, owned by David Beckham in 2023.
MLS will have a hard time attracting major stars in their prime but creating youth prospects could also be the way to go. Even though youths like to play soccer but the scouting networks like NBA and NFL teams have in colleges is what MLS teams can potentially use for their future. Youth development is much needed to make MLS more popular and the national team get more achievements.
As the World Cup 2026 will be held in the US, Canada and Mexico, the audience will tune in to see their national go for the glory. MLS was founded after the last time World Cup was hosted in 1994 hosted by the US. This upcoming World Cup can be where soccer could gain a huge boost of popularity in the future.
