Iranian fans react as they watch a 2022 World Cup match between the United States and Iran at a bar in Los Angeles.
AFP via Getty Images
When the men’s soccer World Cup was first awarded to the United States in 1988, skepticism abounded.
Would a country with no stable soccer presence be able to draw any crowds? Surely the tournament would be invisible in a country that had loudly discounted soccer as a sport incompatible with rugged individualism and apple pie, wouldn’t it?
Six years later, the naysayers were eating their words.
The 1994 World Cup set records for highest average attendance (68,991) and overall attendance (3,587,538) that have stood for 32 years. The overall attendance figure has survived even though the tournament has expanded from 24 to 32 teams and therefore from 52 matches to 64. This year, the overall attendance figure will surely be beaten this year because the tournament has expanded from 32 to 48 teams and ballooned from 64 games to 104.
A few factors explain the 1994 attendance. First, it’s a big country, and out of 260 million or so people (roughly the USA’s population in 1994), it’s not that hard to find a couple hundred thousand people to watch a game.
Second, Americans love big events. It’s the same reason why the country is a great host for the Olympics. Cricket has a much smaller presence in the country than soccer does, and yet U.S. cities did a credible job hosting several games in the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Third, the USA has millions of people who’ve grown up playing youth soccer.
But a major factor driving attendance in U.S. cities can be summed up in one word.
Immigration.
The United States is, recent political trends notwithstanding, a nation of immigrants. In 1994, 8.7 percent of the U.S. population, or 22.5 million people, was foreign-born. In the days before the proliferation of streaming services and their soccer content, enterprising sports bars such as Summers in Arlington, Va., would stick a bunch of satellite dishes on the roof and pull in games from around the world, filling the building with different sets of fans each day. In a given week, fans from several European nations would come in to see Champions League broadcasts one day, and the next day might have fans from Senegal and Morocco to see the African Cup of Nations.
Today, the number of foreign-born individuals in the United States has surpassed 50 million. That alone is more than 15 times the population of Qatar, the last World Cup host. It’s a little more than the population of Spain.
Co-host Canada has a higher percentage of foreign-born residents and a total of more than 16 million. The number is considerably lower in the third host country, Mexico, but no knowledgeable person would question Mexico’s love of the sport.
Some host cities stand out as hubs for people from specific countries. In this World Cup, the biggest example is in Los Angeles, which will host two of Iran’s group-stage games. Estimates of the Iranian population in California range from 220,000 to nearly 1 million.
Other teams that will play in regions with a thriving diaspora:
– Brazil will play its first group game in New Jersey, just across the river from New York and in the midst of a thriving Brazilian population. Brazil’s third game is in Miami, an easy trek for the more than 150,000 Brazilians in Florida.
– Haiti won’t play in Florida, home of a diaspora of more than 350,000 people, but it has a game in Atlanta.
– Ecuador will play in New Jersey, just across the river from New York. An estimated 82,000 Ecuadorians live in Queens alone.
– Boston has a strong association with Ireland, but Scotland will find plenty of support there as well.
A couple of national teams may look with some envy because they have been separated from the highest concentration of their emigrants.
– Cape Verde, a surprising qualifier even in the expanded World Cup, won’t play anywhere near Boston and the estimated 70,000 Cape Verdeans in Massachusetts unless they can take third place in their group and advance to the quarterfinals.
– South Korea would find plenty of fans in California or New York but will play its group games in Mexico.
– Portugal will be in Houston and Miami, not near the large Portuguese populations in Massachusetts or New Jersey.
The final is July 19 in New Jersey. Which of the 800 languages spoken in the New York metro area will be spoken the loudest?