Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, will host this summer’s Copa America final on July 14 (Angel Martinez/Real Madrid via Getty Images)Will the USMNT’s involvement help ticket sales?
As the market in the U.S. has grown, so has interest — and America’s media conglomerates have the chance to make the most of this surging interest. Fox, which owns the U.S. media rights for English-language broadcasts of Copa América and Euros, recently released its network schedule for both events. Fox will only air seven Copa América matches on its main network: the first two rounds of USA’s Group C, a Mexico-Ecuador group match, one quarter final match and the final.
While Copa América will be in the U.S., fans may be switching between following the South American tournament and the Euros, as the two are played concurrently this summer.
“It’s a really hard one to judge, to be completely honest,” Fox analyst Stu Holden told The Athletic, “because I think I know internally how the Euros will be perceived and seen. It’s going to feel like a mini–World Cup for people who are casual sports fans. I see some of that but I go back to the Centenario, which was here in 2016, and I didn’t expect it to be on the level that it was, and these were packed stadiums, phenomenal atmospheres.”
While there has been an influx of international competitions on American soil from international friendlies and foreign clubs hosting preseason tours, a tournament like Copa América offers a more streamlined and entertaining experience, Holden said.
And while the U.S. women’s national team has long been considered one of the best teams in the world, the men’s side lives off a much different narrative. That’s why this summer is also important for U.S. Soccer, Fox analyst Alexi Lalas said.
“If they were to have a really successful tournament, they can turn on that excitement,” Lalas told The Athletic, “and people (will) want to wrap themselves in the flag, want their team to do well. Especially in this day and age, it is one thing that does unite us in a unique way. I think people are ripe for that.
“There’s an opportunity for this U.S. team. It’s not initially necessarily going to translate into ticket sales or something like that, but changing the way that they see that team is part of the job.”
The U.S. has its final friendly against Brazil on Wednesday in Orlando — a final test before turning their full focus to Copa América. The match is already on track to have an attendance of over 53,000, making it the highest attended U.S. men’s or women’s senior national team match held in the state of Florida.
That surging interest is why this summer may not be the last CONMEBOL event we’ll see in the United States, either.
“It’s where the World Cup will be in 2026, and that’s important to take into account,” Pumpido said. “We believe that the United States has also made great progress at the soccer level, although soccer is not the top sport. I think today, the sport has advanced a lot, and with the arrival of Messi, much more so. Of course, CONMEBOL will always have the United States in mind to be able to have tournaments in the future.”
(Top photo: Jess Rapfogel/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5555616/2024/06/11/copa-america-2024-united-states-tickets/
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Publish date : 2024-06-11 17:53:18
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