The growing U.S. soccer economy
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2024
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, we’re talking about one of Kai Ryssdal’s favorite topics: soccer! The sport’s U.S. audience is only expected grow, especially as the country gets ready to host the World Cup in 2026. Paul Tenorio, soccer writer for The Athletic, said access to the sport has changed dramatically for Americans over the last decade. On the show today, Tenorio explains why soccer is gaining a new audience, what lessons American stadiums can learn from mistakes at the recent Copa América tournament, and how legendary player Lionel Messi is bringing eyes and money to the game in the United States.
Then, we’ll get into how companies are using troves of data to target different consumers, and why this “surveillance pricing” has caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission. And, what a travel editor got wrong about repeat travel.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- “The Messi Effect – How One Single Player Will Impact Soccer In America” from Forbes
- “‘It was inhuman’: Why the Copa America final was delayed and dangerously close to disaster” from The Athletic
- “U.S. Soccer Fans Are Younger, More Diverse Than Fans of Other Sports” from Morning Consult
- “What Messi’s MLS, Apple, Adidas deal means for everyone else” from ESPN
- “You’re not going crazy — you may actually be paying higher prices than other people” from CNN Business
- “FTC Issues Orders to Eight Companies Seeking Information on Surveillance Pricing” from the Federal Trade Commission
- “Why Is the US Deficit So Big? Depends on Who You Ask” from Bloomberg
- “What the bond market’s telling us, or not, about Biden’s withdrawal” from Marketplace
Send us your suggestions for Paris Games-themed cocktails or let us know what Olympic events you’re looking forward to watching. Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, |
| 0:10.0 | where none of us is as smart as all of us. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Kyle Rosedahl. thanks for joining us on this Tuesday. |
| 0:14.7 | It is the 23rd day of July. |
| 0:16.9 | We are going to talk soccer today, just because, |
| 0:21.0 | because it's big, it's a sport, I'm a big fan of that sport it's coming up in the Olympics I've got tickets by the way we can talk about that later |
| 0:28.1 | Yeah, so we're gonna talk soccer today |
| 0:30.7 | Yes, I feel like this is the reverse of the anime conversation because I'm at the loss here, but soccer's US audience is getting bigger and is only expected to grow. |
| 0:40.0 | So we, slash I, wanted to learn more about what's driving soccer's rise and |
| 0:45.6 | what the future might look like for the sport. So here to make us smart about |
| 0:49.7 | this is Paul Tenorio. He covers soccer for the athletic. Welcome to the show, Paul. |
| 0:54.7 | Thanks so much for having me. |
| 0:56.7 | All right, so Kai is a longtime fan and has been in it to win it for a while but why are new fans kind of jumping on the |
| 1:05.4 | bandwagon why is it getting bigger now? Well I think there are a few reasons behind it. |
| 1:10.5 | The major one is the globalization of the sport. The access here in the United States to soccer has changed |
| 1:16.8 | dramatically just over the last decade or so. I was born in 1985 and grew up a huge fan of the sport. My dad is from |
| 1:25.0 | Kostrika, but when I wanted to watch soccer I could turn it on on a |
| 1:28.8 | Tuesday or Wednesday during Champions League and watch one game on the |
| 1:32.1 | SPN. |
| 1:33.2 | I would go through my Euro Sport magazine |
| 1:35.3 | and order VHS tapes of the previous season's highlights. |
| 1:39.5 | Now people can turn on their televisions |
... |
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