Observations on the US soccer market, the small-sided sector, and the opportunity created by the 2026 FIFA World Cup — from someone who has spent 35 years building businesses in this space.
On June 12, the United States opens the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Los Angeles. For anyone who has watched the American soccer market develop over the past decade, it is a moment that has felt inevitable — and yet the scale of what is about to unfold still commands attention.
The numbers are significant. US soccer fandom is projected to reach 154 million people this year — a 48% increase on pre-tournament levels. Participation is expected to grow from 20 million players to 29 million in 2026 alone, and to 34 million by 2031. US Soccer's own revenues are up more than 300% since 2023. The number of Americans watching non-US soccer matches has grown by 60% since 2018. Major brands — American Airlines, AT&T, Visa, Volkswagen — have signed as commercial partners not because soccer is a minority sport but because, as US Soccer's leadership has noted, its American fanbase is growing, young, diverse and commercially attractive.
This is not a cyclical spike. It is a structural shift that has been building for 30 years, since the 1994 World Cup established Major League Soccer and placed soccer on the American sporting map for the first time. The 2026 tournament arrives at the moment when the infrastructure, the talent, the investment and the cultural appetite are aligned as they have never previously been.
Here is what strikes me most, having spent 35 years building small-sided soccer businesses in the UK: the professional game is receiving enormous attention, and almost nobody is discussing what happens after the final whistle.
Every World Cup leaves a legacy of increased participation in its host nation. The 1994 tournament directly created MLS. The question for 2026 is what it creates for the millions of Americans who watch the tournament, are inspired, and want to play.
In the UK, we went through exactly this moment — the point at which participation demand outstripped supply and an entire infrastructure industry was created to meet it. Five-a-side grew from nothing in the late 1980s to become the most popular form of soccer participation in the country. By 2014 it had overtaken eleven-a-side football. Today it is twice as large.
The United States is at the beginning of that same curve. Soccer is already the most popular youth participation sport in America. But when those players leave school, there is almost nowhere for them to go as adults. Unlike the UK — where decades of private investment have created a dense network of all-weather fields and purpose-built small-sided facilities — the US has virtually no recreational soccer infrastructure for adults.
In a city like Los Angeles, with 18 million people, finding somewhere to play a casual game of soccer is genuinely difficult. The demand is there. The players are there. The facilities are not.
The pattern is consistent: professional success drives participation interest, participation interest drives infrastructure demand, and infrastructure investment creates a self-sustaining recreational industry. The UK went through that cycle over 30 years. The United States is about to go through it at scale, with the largest soccer tournament in history as the catalyst.
The 2026 World Cup is not only a sporting event. For anyone paying attention to the American soccer market, it is a market signal. The question for investors, operators and developers is straightforward: the demand is coming. Is the infrastructure going to be there to meet it?
The small-sided soccer revolution that started in 1987 is coming to America. The infrastructure gap is substantial. The demand is established. The 2026 World Cup is the catalyst.