Special Edition: World Cup in America — What to Know

**Leander Schaerlaeckels** (0:00)
It's the largest sporting event of all time, and you could plausibly make the argument that it's the largest event that mankind has ever put on.

**Erica Mandy** (0:10)
Today is Saturday, June 6th. The World Cup begins next week, and it's happening right here in North America with games across the US, Canada and Mexico. It's the biggest sporting event in the world, and this version is bigger than ever, with more teams, more games, and millions of fans expected to watch in person. But this World Cup is not just about what happens on the field, it's also about what this moment means for soccer in America. Today, we're joined by Leander Schaerlaeckens, a long-time soccer writer who has covered the US men's national team at three World Cups. His new book is called The Long Game. He also writes about soccer for The Guardian and The Ringer, and is a senior lecturer at Marist University. Today, he's helping us understand how far the US men's soccer program has come, which players and storylines are worth following, and what would actually make this World Cup successful for the US. And we're also talking about the controversies, from the cost of attending games, to the role of FIFA, and the politics and logistical challenges surrounding a tournament of this size. And even with all of that, why he still sees the World Cup as a rare chance for people around the world to come together through the sport.
Welcome to The NewsWorthy special edition Saturday, when we sit down with a different expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news. Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes, where we provide all the day's news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica Mandy. It's now time for today's special edition Saturday.
Leander Schaerlaeckens, thank you so much for joining us here on The News Worthy.

**Leander Schaerlaeckels** (1:38)
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk about the World Cup.

**Erica Mandy** (1:41)
First, let's just talk big picture. How big of a deal is it that the World Cup is coming to the US and Canada and Mexico? I mean, it's the largest single sporting event in the world.

**Leander Schaerlaeckels** (1:50)
It's the largest sporting event of all time. Without getting too hyperbolic about it, I could plausibly make the argument that it's the largest event that mankind has ever put on. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but when you talk about $11 billion in revenue, when you talk about 48 teams playing 104 games over most of a continent over the span of 39 days, and they expect something like five or six million people to come to these games, the scale of this thing is pretty hard to wrap your head around. The last time a World Cup was in the United States in 1994, it actually set attendance records for total attendance and per game attendance that still stand today, even though the tournament is twice as big literally in the number of teams and the number of games as it was then. And that World Cup really changed everything for American soccer. It gave it all of this momentum in terms of interest and participation and all the rest. And so the people who are organizing the 26th World Cup really hope for a similar bump and bounce this time around. Although I think that's going to be a lot harder because the thing is so incredibly expensive and because FIFA is managing so much of it to maximize profit, which they will then take back with them to Switzerland.

**Erica Mandy** (3:03)
I mean, we have seen soccer become more popular in America, I feel like, even just in recent years. How has that growth continued more recently?

**Leander Schaerlaeckels** (3:13)
So I think what you're seeing is that soccer as a global sport is very popular in the United States, right? You walk by a sports bar or a pub on a weekend morning, and it is full of soccer fans watching games. Kids are participating in huge numbers. You see people in jerseys. You see people traveling to watch high level soccer games. But it hasn't necessarily translated to domestic soccer yet, to Major League Soccer, to the National Women's Soccer League, or even to the men's national team, where there's a bit of a disconnect there between the popularity of the sport and the popularity of the American version of the sport that I think they really hope to bridge this summer.

**Erica Mandy** (3:54)
The women's team, we've seen them winning tournaments, but not so much with the men's. So what should Americans understand about how far the men's program has come?