Fox’s soccer coverage has been panned by critics and fans alike for years, but the formula has thus far proven successful for a casual American audience, argues Drew Lerner.
Fox Sports enters the thick of its “summer of soccer” schedule this weekend as the quarterfinals for both UEFA EURO 2024 and the Copa America get underway. As such, the seemingly biennial tradition of criticizing the network’s soccer coverage is now weeks into its run, and familiar refrains of the coverage being too USMNT-centric, patronizing to “real” soccer fans, and Alexi Lalas-ing fans to death have played out like clockwork.
Despite the predictable complaints, Fox has enjoyed viewership success for both tournaments thus far. Through the Round of 16 for the Euros, Fox is averaging 1.24 million viewers across all networks, up 31% from the same point in 2021. The figure does not include five less-desirable matches that the network sublicensed to Fubo, which would certainly bring the number down, albeit likely still well above the 2021 figures.
As for the Copa America, Fox is averaging 1.10 million viewers across all networks through the group stage. That figure is up 400% from 2021 (which did not feature the USMNT) and 48% from 2016 (the last time the USMNT participated in the tournament).
So why has Fox seen such substantial growth for these soccer properties? Aside from the continued popularization of the sport in the United States, which certainly deserves some credit, the fortuitous scheduling for both tournaments has played a role. With the two largest international soccer tournaments outside of the World Cup both happening at the same time, on the same network, the matches naturally draft off of each other’s momentum. Viewers can tune into Fox networks for Euros coverage early in the afternoon and stay with Fox networks all the way through the final Copa America match that night.
Aside from scheduling, the most important factor contributing to Fox’s viewership success is the involvement of the USMNT. Their final group stage game against Uruguay averaged 3.78 million viewers on FS1, with all three USMNT matches averaging a combined 3.15 million viewers across FOX and FS1.
The status of the USMNT as the most widely-followed and popular soccer team in America is maybe underrated as a point of discussion around the sport in this country. Soccer writer Graham Ruthven perhaps best described American soccer culture in a piece published in the lead up to this year’s Copa America. Ruthven noted the important distinction between the American soccer fan — who roots for the USMNT and USWNT above all else — and that of a European fan — whose club allegiances run deeper than any loyalties to their national team. Ruthven says, “While the American soccer ecosystem at club level has continually shifted, the national team has been a constant. They are for all intents and purposes a club team for many supporters. In other countries, discussion about the national team is parked between international windows. The discourse around the USMNT – and the USWNT – on the other hand, never stops.”
This distinction is borne out in soccer viewership stateside. Take this year’s UEFA Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund for instance. Arguably the most important club soccer match of the year averaged 2.32 million viewers on CBS, fewer viewers than all three USMNT matches in this year’s Copa America. The most watched Champions League Final since at least 2009 was two years ago, when Real Madrid and Liverpool averaged 2.76 million viewers.
Domestic clubs don’t fare any better. The most-watched MLS Cup Final in 27 years was the 2022 Philadelphia-LAFC match, which averaged 2.16 million viewers. All of these figures are substantially lower than what the USMNT and USWNT have drawn during international competitions. (For the sake of simplicity, we are using English-language viewership only.)
One couldn’t blame American soccer fans for being less-than-enthused when it comes to club soccer either. The best teams in the world play overseas at inconvenient times for the American viewer. And by comparison, the MLS offers a subpar product hidden away on Apple TV. So for many would-be soccer loyalists in the United States, the question becomes why bother?
This dynamic results in a large swath of American soccer fans who enjoy the sport, maybe even wish they could watch it more, but only tune in for competitions featuring the USMNT or USWNT. This “national team only” audience is not insignificant either. USMNT and USWNT matches in major competitions consistently set soccer viewership records that club soccer doesn’t even sniff in America. USMNT games during the 2022 World Cup averaged 12.03 million viewers. Even the 2023 Women’s World Cup, played in Australia and New Zealand, averaged 3.8 million viewers for USWNT games, despite two of four matches being played completely in the overnight hours in the United States.
Another signal that Americans generally only care about soccer when it comes to the national teams is by taking a look at mainstream sports talk shows like First Take, PTI, and The Herd. Each show has had segments on the USMNT since its loss to Uruguay on Monday, but one would be hard pressed to find any segments about club soccer on these shows.
To get more granular about it, the summer international window, when the world’s major tournaments like Copa America and the Euros occur, coincide with the deadest portion of the American sports calendar — allowing the USMNT to breakthrough in ways it wouldn’t in the heart of football season or NBA playoffs.
So why blame Fox for catering to precisely what much of the American soccer audience is looking for? The audience is there because of their interest in the U.S. The result? Peppering broadcasts with teases for the next USMNT game, Jenny Taft-narrated reports while she is embedded with the team, and even now with the U.S. knocked out, studio segments surrounding coach Gregg Berhalter‘s future.
One of the common criticisms of Fox’s coverage is that devout soccer viewers feel patronized between the amount of USMNT-centric segments and the lack of tactical discussion about the games. Some of Fox’s studio shows are spent with simplistic segments like ranking the top five goals of the tournament, while other segments talk only of the USMNT. More often though, Fox’s studio segments are filled with standard recaps and previews of matches that happened earlier or are coming up later.
In any case, it’s difficult to think of a studio show in any sport that frequently discusses tactics in-depth, or avoids segments wholly dedicated to a popular team. Inside the NBA surely doesn’t discuss tactics, but definitely has its fair share of Lakers segments. Likewise, The NFL Today isn’t breaking down cover-2, but is definitely dedicating a segment to Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the Chiefs. While Fox’s studio coverage may not be winning Sports Emmys, it is simply benign, like many other studio shows.
A piece about Fox’s soccer coverage would be incomplete without some discussion about Alexi Lalas, the former USMNT star and relentless fire-stoking analyst oft-decried for his takes both on and off the pitch. It’s easy to dismiss Lalas as a charlatan because of his willingness to take contrarianism to its furthest possible end, but he might be exactly the voice that best defines the median U.S. soccer fan. Early adopters of soccer in the United States might wish to have analysts debate what formation is best suited to counter a high block, but most fans may be better served with Lalas-style narrative punditry about why this generation of American players hasn’t lived up to its “golden generation” billing.
Witnessing the raw emotion of Lalas and other former national teamers Clint Dempsey and Carli Lloyd following the USMNT loss to Uruguay made for much more compelling television than talk about what went wrong for the U.S. tactically. Even when the Canadians advanced to the semifinal after besting Venezuela on Friday, hearing Lalas, Dempsey, and another former USMNT player Maurice Edu provide narrative-style analysis from an American perspective felt worthwhile for the American soccer fan. For practically its entire soccer history, Canada has been little brother to the United States (if they’re even in the family at all). Now, managed by former USMNT player Jesse Marsch, they’ve reached the semifinals of Copa America, just as the USMNT did in 2016. That history and those connections are worth discussing for an audience of American soccer fans, and Fox’s crew has excelled at telling those stories.
There exists a divide among soccer fans in the United States. There are those that live and breathe the sport, waking up early to watch Premier League on weekends, and those that primarily follow the national team. Fox’s editorial decision to cater to the broader “national team only” audience is entirely reasonable. As popular as soccer is globally, it remains a sport with a rhythm more akin to the Olympics in the United States — that is, a sport that viewers gladly tune into every couple years during major competitions, then tune out again once football season rolls around.
There’s nothing wrong with that. However, until American fans show a willingness to treat soccer as a sport worth watching beyond a few USMNT and USWNT games every year, it’s difficult to demand coverage that strays too far from what the audience demonstrably wants. Fox’s strategy is clearly effective, viewers are tuning in in larger numbers than ever before. Why would they change now?
