For what’s felt like ages, skeptics have scoffed at the thought of soccer ever establishing a foothold on the sports landscape in both Boston and North America.
A lively panel discussion Thursday highlighted both the staleness of that perspective and the quickening pace of the sport’s emergence as a major player, especially by 2026 when a new National Women’s Soccer League team begins play in Boston and seven men’s World Cup games will be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
“We have roughly a little over 100 million soccer fans in the United States today and we’re anticipating that’s going to be in excess of 140 million soccer fans after the ‘26 World Cup,” said Brian Bilello, president of the New England Revolution, at the “State of Soccer in Massachusetts” Globe Summit event. “So roughly half the country is going to be a soccer fan of some kind, whether it’s the men’s game, the women’s game, club soccer, professional soccer, national team soccer. The sport itself has grown tremendously; it has really become a mainstream sport.”
Other signs of the sport’s widening appeal locally are hard to miss, as Jennifer Epstein, controlling partner of the NWSL’s Boston Unity Soccer Partners ownership group, and Mike Loynd, president of World Cup Boston 2026, pointed out to moderator Hayden Bird, a Boston.com sportswriter.
A few highlights:
▪ Epstein cited initial market research by her bidding group on the prospect of women’s soccer in Boston that showed a “hunger in our area for a women’s pro team competing at the same level and caliber as the men’s team.”
Boston ranked above average nationwide in interest in soccer and 23 percent above average in women’s sports and women’s soccer in particular.
“With the World Cup being in our city, I just anticipate the excitement level in our region to continue to increase,” Epstein said.
▪ Loynd described the scale of putting on the games in Foxborough and celebrating them in Boston, Providence, and elsewhere in New England as “extraordinary.” He estimated the 39-day event featuring not just games but fan festivals, public viewing areas, and regional celebrations will inject approximately $1.1 billion in economic benefit and roughly $80 million in publicity.
▪ Bilello reminded that when World Cup games were played at Foxboro Stadium back in 1994, Major League Soccer did not exist yet. When it debuted two years later with the Revolution among the founding 10 teams, there were around 4.5 million fans, Bilello said. Now there are around 45 million, with that number to grow by more than 15 million after the World Cup.
▪ Epstein said the NWSL team’s name and brand will be revealed in the near future.
“We will not be ‘NWSL Boston’ much longer,” she said.
The team is hiring on the sporting and business side, while continuing to scout locations for a training facility.
▪ The NWSL team has likely overcome headwinds in moving to a renovated White Stadium as its new home, while the Revolution have been seeking a new stadium in Everett. Said Bilello, “There’s still a lot of work to do for us to get this thing moving, to really get engaged in the public process and take some of the hurdles off that currently exist.”
▪ Of the business community, Loynd said his team “desperately needs their help to deliver a fantastic event.” Sponsorship and donor packages will be unveiled soon.
▪ Bilello did not rule out the notion that the grass to be installed at Gillette Stadium (which will be called “Boston Stadium” for the World Cup) would replace its current artificial turf.
Michael Silverman can be reached at [email protected].
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Publish date : 2024-09-26 08:37:00
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