Ivory Coast's Bazoumana Toure Credit: James Lang-Imagn Images
By Demetri Ravanos on

After years of waiting, the North American World Cup is finally here. There are still stories about unsold seats and players and officials from other countries being denied entry, but once Mexico and South Africa kicked off the tournament’s opener on Thursday, those stories took a backseat to the games themselves.

Even in the United States, where soccer is firmly in the second tier for most sports fans, the World Cup draws viewers every four years. This year, the USMNT opened with Paraguay. The numbers say plenty of Americans stopped what they were doing to watch. After a dominant win, expect Friday’s game against Australia to deliver a big number as well.

Americans are watching and talking about this tournament, but will they be talking about it on sports radio? The medium feels antiquated at times in the age of on-demand entertainment, but it’s still the town square for sports talk. 

Sports radio hosts in every city matter to their most dedicated listeners, who count on their favorite shows to get them to and from work, and in some cases, distract them while they’re there. Those people are what we call P1s — the ones that heard the commercials in the ’90s that told you to “tune it in, turn it up, and RIIIIP THE KNOB OFFFFFFF!” and took the advice to heart. For them, their favorite shows and stations are appointment listening.

But radio isn’t a podcast. Everyone listening to Bill Simmons or Pardon My Take sought those shows out. That’s not always true in radio. It’s a populist medium. Podcasts thrive by filling niches. So with soccer still being a niche in America, how should we expect radio to approach the World Cup in 2026? 

The World Cup is two things. It’s sports, but it’s also a cultural event. Approaching discussion about the games simply as a sports conversation probably doesn’t make sense for radio. A big chunk of the audience is going to feel alienated if a host launches right into whose touch is too heavy or which set pieces have been the most successful. On top of that, the audience may simply not care about any team that isn’t the USMNT. 

As a cultural event though, sports radio has some room to move here. There is the celebrity angle. Americans may know Ronaldo and Messi, but for many, this will be their first exposure to people like Lamine Yamal or Vinicius Junior. 

There’s also the America 250 angle. Even if you roll your eyes at the goofiness of UFC fights on the White House lawn, this is a milestone birthday for the USA. There is content there. I could see a creative host leaning into social media stories of FreddyLA7 and other foreigners discovering and being amazed by what we consider normal in America.

Hosts are going to approach the World Cup in the way that best fits the market. That could mean Carl Dukes and Mike Bell give listeners updates on Paraguay, since the show is on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, the station that carries Atlanta United games, and United’s only World Cup participants both play for Paraguay. 

Of course, Dukes and Bell might ignore the World Cup completely. Atlanta loves the Braves, and they are hot right now. It wouldn’t be crazy for the show to prioritize discussing their games and potential trades over anything happening at the World Cup. That will probably be the case when it comes to the Yankees in New York and the Dodgers in LA on the high end of the standings, and the Red Sox on Boston sports radio on the low end.

The World Cup is also competing with the off-season in other sports. NBA free agency is always huge for sports radio. This year’s NBA Draft is pretty deep. That could take up valuable time in both NBA and college-focused markets.

What about the NHL? Plenty of teams are going to be looking to retool and get better. The free agency class is largely considered a dud. Maybe that means contenders are going to focus on a big trade. That could mean the World Cup isn’t a great use of time on the radio in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes have a ton of cap space.

There might not be one “right answer” to how sports radio should approach the World Cup. The answer will vary from market to market. It may even vary from show to show on the same radio station.

That answer, though, will almost certainly line up with how hosts and producers think about the fundamental goal of sports radio. Entertainment is always important. If the audience isn’t entertained, then they aren’t sticking around to hear the point you want to make. 

What entertains a sports talk audience, though, is usually pretty simple. When I first made the move from rock to sports radio, I tried to think of all kinds of fun ways to dress up our topics and make them more fun and interactive. One day, after seeing my rundown, my partner pulled me aside and said, “Demetri, sometimes they just want to hear us talk f*cking basketball.” 

Is there an audience that just wants to hear their favorite host talk f*cking soccer? Well, outside of baseball-obsessed markets, the audience that just wants to hear a host talk f*cking baseball in June is pretty small. It’s why you hear so many Mt. Rushmores and way-too-early lists on sports radio in the summer time. That probably doesn’t bode well for anyone turning on their local sports talk station looking for X and O breakdowns of France vs. Senegal. 

There will be a lot of stations talking about the USMNT the day after they play. Even those conversations will be surface level: What was exciting? What rules are dumb? Why is Alexi Lalas there? Outside of that though, sports radio is likely to treat the World Cup no differently than any other popular TV show.

About Demetri Ravanos

Demetri Ravanos is a writer and broadcaster living in Raleigh, NC. He is also the host of This Team is Killing Us, a podcast about the Carolina Panthers.

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