Fox’s Rob Stone discusses the Summer of Soccer, criticism towards Fox, and college football

If you’ve watched any studio programming on Fox Sports 1, you’ve probably seen Rob Stone. He’s anchors most of the network’s soccer coverage (including this summer’s Women’s World Cup and Gold Cup), their college football broadcasts, and has also dabbled in some college basketball over his tenure at the network. But while Rob Stone is everywhere at Fox, he’s not ignorant of the criticism the network receives, especially when it comes to their soccer coverage. He shared some of those thoughts and reminisced about his experience covering the Women’s World Cup with AA.

A lot has changed in the world of Fox Soccer since the days of Fox Sports World as well. And while the quality of Fox’s coverage has improved, the sheer quantity of live matches and coverage has also gone through the roof as Fox’s need for more live event programming has also increased. Stone noted that the “sheer tonnage” of live matches being aired by Fox Sports has simply required the network to provide better coverage. He also revealed that before he worked for the network and would watch Fox Soccer as a fan, he realized the coverage wasn’t up to par.

“I know when I used to watch Fox Soccer, the product was not what it should be. It needed to be at a higher level, and a lot of people were brought in to elevate it. This is a sport that is taken with the utmost of seriousness at our network right now.”

When Fox won the rights to broadcast the 2015 Women’s World Cup (and the 2018 World Cup, and the 2019 Women’s World Cup, and the 2022 World Cup), a parade of people were ready to jump all over Fox’s coverage due to missteps by the network in the past when it came to covering soccer. Stone and many of his coworkers are Fox were aware of the negative sentiment towards them, and were aiming to make a good impression.

“People were out there ready to stab us. The critical mass out there had hands around pens, fingers on keyboards, social media was queued up ready to slam us, just because of something that is Fox. And I don’t know what that something is, but there’s this perception out there that we can’t handle this, and it’s wrong.”

Stone and Fox realized that the Women’s World Cup was their chance to make a huge splash and show viewers and critics that they could handle an event of this magnitude and not come out of it looking like amateurs.

“We were excited about the World Cup because this was really our true chance to quiet a lot of critics out there. And not just critics, but general fans. That was one of the most satisfying things of this Women’s World Cup. I don’t know what it is, I haven’t been able to figure out what this dislike for Fox was awhile ago, but I think what we did this summer quieted down a majority of those critics.”

Fox’s improved effort over the summer has obviously increased their stock in the eyes of fans, and it’s also raising the bar for ESPN and NBC, two outlets who regularly receive high praise for their soccer coverage in America. NBC’s Premier League coverage has received rave reviews over its prior two seasons, and ESPN did a fantastic job with last summer’s World Cup and has also impressed with their MLS coverage this season, with the duo of Adrian Healey and Taylor Twellman on the call. Stone feels that the pressure that the networks put on each other is only a good thing for fans.

“It’s good for the sport. We’re pushing other networks on their soccer coverage as much as they’re pushing us. The soccer world is unique – this odd, dysfunctional family that is in it together, and we know that. We want to see others do well. We’re fans of the sport and I think that’s very different about this – we all want to see this sport continue to grow and get elevated into the national consciousness.”

Stone understandably took plenty of pride in Fox’s success in Vancouver.

“We were about to prove a lot of people wrong, and we’re now seen as a respected source of soccer in our country. That’s far and away the most gratifying thing for me.”

Fox got lucky in one major regard in Vancouver – the weather was somehow impeccable for nearly their entire tenure on location. Well, until the final day, of course.

“We were very fortunate that it was as dry of a stretch of time that Vancouver has ever seen, so we didn’t have winds and rain whipping into our set. The day of the final though, the wind changed direction and all of the forest fires that were going on in British Columbia shifted towards Vancouver. So if you watch back that day, you can’t see the beautiful landscape and the water, it’s just smoke.”

One crucial, perhaps overlooked, aspect of taking coverage on the road – the need to bring absolutely everything you need with you.

“If you don’t have it with you, you go into scramble mode. Here in LA, you kind of have everything built-in around you for success. It’s a tremendous about of pre-planning to make sure everything is taken care of before you get there.” Stone also brought up the flexibility that was necessary on the road compared to being in the studio. “[when something comes up], you need to be much more nimble and mobile to spin on a dime and take the show in another direction.”

The Women’s World Cup was an ambitious event for Fox, which aired all 52 matches live across its family of networks and constructed a massive studio in Vancouver. Stone was the main anchor for the Vancouver coverage, and was on-air much more than usual compared to when he’s in Fox’s Los Angeles studios. But while some broadcasters could have been overwhelmed by the experience, Stone knew what he was getting himself into and was prepared.

“I knew this was a grind and a long haul,” he said. “Be prepared for the long days. Don’t be caught offguard by them. Be excited when you’re able to get home to have a jog before the sunset. Those are little victories that you would have.”

Stone also compared the long days to his work in the studio for college football, which can be all-day affairs.

“You’re scanning all over the college football landscape at 8 AM, and all of a sudden, you’re home at 11 PM.”

However, while the long days were a similarity between the Women’s World Cup and college football, covering the two sports are different in one major regard – the ability to unwind once a day of college football is over.

“College football, you can take your foot off the gas on Saturday night and recharge for a couple days. With the World Cup, it’s this constant ‘onto the next game, what did they do, what has to happen today, and what does this mean going forward?’ It’s this rotating conversation.” It’s an interesting viewpoint I never considered until our discussion.

Stone continued. “College football is this long conversation over a couple of months. If you have one loss, how does this effect these four teams or ten teams?”

Outside of the tremendous soccer, lovely scenery, and monumental coverage, how will Stone remember his time in Vancouver? Two words – oysters and birthdays.

“I fell in love with British Columbia oysters. I didn’t know oysters were so damn good. It is now a running theme with us now – whenever we’re out again, we order oysters. It just brings us back to the pleasant memories of Vancouver. Another great memory is the day of our World Cup seminar in Vancouver, just days before kickoff. It was Alexi Lalas’ birthday. And if you don’t know Alexi, he doesn’t like attention on him. He doesn’t want people looking at him, he doesn’t want people asking him questions, he’s there to do his job and be a good soldier.

“Sure enough I had to host some element of this seminar, and I had the entire World Cup staff sing “Happy Birthday” to him. I could just see him burning holes in my head with a stare from a distance. So that became a running joke – whenever we were all out to dinner, one of us would, in a clandestine fashion, go up to the waiter or waitress or maitre’d or owner and say ‘hey, it’s our friend’s birthday, can you just bring a little something over?’. We celebrated Alexi’s birthday about 30 to 35 times at the World Cup in Vancouver. And we still did it at the MLS All-Star Game in Denver – it was one of those fun running jokes that all of us have and will continue to hold on to.”

Fox’s Summer of Soccer is now in our rear-view mirror. Stone will continue to anchor Fox’s college football studio coverage. But as the leaves change color and the temperature begins to drop, soccer is still on Stone’s mind as he told me what he’s looking forward to in the fall.

“I’m fired up for MLS playoffs, one of the most underrated sporting events in our American sporting culture. I’m crazy excited for US World Cup qualifying to commence and see what kind of start we get off to and what direction. And the Champions League – that continues to be this product for me that keeps growing and growing here in the United States. Ten years ago, it didn’t have much of a hold on our country, but now, it has that Tuesday/Wednesday grip on lunches from coast to coast. Whether it’s a late lunch or a early lunch, people are talking about it and they talk about the sport. It’s getting more and more non-soccer people out to these events to see these legendary players like Ronaldo and Messi play on a regular basis.”