
Has Soccer's Domestic Popularity Become an Impediment to Growth?
The history of soccer on U.S. television is relatively well-known. As recently as the 2002 World Cup, even the planet’s most popular sporting event wasn’t receiving a rights fee from a U.S. broadcaster. As we’ve all been recently reminded by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, however, the country’s broadcasters are now paying more in rights fees than any other nation for the quadrennial mega-event across two languages (about $1 Billion for the ’18 & ’22 World Cup’s b