How US Soccer plans to keep fans locked in through the Women’s World Cup

With the first World Cup on US soil in more than three decades, the US Soccer Federation has had a banner summer. And though international fan-favorite players like Norway’s Erling Haaland, England’s Jude Bellingham, and France’s Kylian Mbappé have returned to their home clubs, there are lessons and learnings from the recently wrapped tournament that US Soccer plans to leverage to further promote soccer stateside.

While peak World Cup hype waned with the tournament, US Soccer research found that fandom tends to last for about 90 days after a tournament ends, according to CMO Catherine Newman. The federation is working to foster fandom during that window and beyond in the lead-up to the Women’s World Cup in Brazil taking place next summer, including re-creating some of the activations that drove results among USMNT fans this year.

“We have a moment to continue the movement, so to speak, and so we are wanting to make sure that all those people that had an awesome time know where to go,” Newman told Marketing Brew. “We have some of the best women’s players in the world here that you can worship and have a great time doing it, so we’re hopeful that [fandom] continues from the World Cup.”

Welcome home

During the first couple of days following the USMNT’s elimination from the Round of 16, US Soccer’s primary messaging aim was to thank the fans for their support throughout the tournament, Newman said.

For the remainder of the 90-day post-tournament window, the focus has shifted to making sure fans who enjoyed the action this summer know they can continue watching the beautiful game. The unifying message for this phase is that “everyone has a home in soccer,” whether through watching, playing, coaching, or reffing, Newman said.

That effort includes working alongside MLS and the NWSL on efforts such as directing World Cup fans to their local clubs and promoting upcoming national team matches, like the USWNT’s October friendlies against Spain, the defending Women’s World Cup champs, Newman said.

The push to convert international fans to domestic ones didn’t only target people who were rooting for the US, Newman added. US Soccer House, the federation’s experiential activation that ran for 16 days in Venice, California, was meant to have something for everyone, no matter their team, she said. A total of about 45,500 fans passed through the house, according to US Soccer, and 12 brand partners activated, including presenting sponsor Bank of America, Visa, and Michelob Ultra.

Go big

US Soccer House will be back for the Women’s World Cup, and the federation will also repeat some other strategies that seemed to work this year, such as working closely with host cities and fan groups like the American Outlaws, Newman said.

“The biggest learning we probably had was [that] you can plan a lot, but actually, if you really want to be good with soccer, then watch and listen to what’s going on in the community,” she said.

Naturally, there are some differences in how the federation caters to fans of the USMNT compared to fans of the USWNT, and Newman said her team is currently looking into fan behaviors in a more nuanced way. Fans of the women’s game, for instance, might be planning to spend more time at the tournament with the expectation that the historically high-performing US women’s team could go the distance.

One thing that will be largely the same is the sponsors, since US Soccer doesn’t sell sponsorships of the men’s and women’s national teams separately.

“For a lot of our partners, this was their first World Cup, so we’re all going in with learnings for 2027, and we’re saying, ‘How can we be more relevant? How can we be more personal in our approach?’ And perhaps we can allow the fans to have more of a say as to how we move forward.”

The federation is targeting several other opportunities to connect with fans around the Women’s World Cup before 2027, including the remaining qualification matches and the official draw for the group stage matchups. Already, though, the audience for soccer in the US is larger now than it was a few months ago, Newman said.

“Soccer was big before; it’s bigger now,” she said. “We have a bigger social following, we have a record number of referees in this country now, which is amazing, we’ve got more children signing up. It isn’t passive—it’s an active engagement that we’re seeing from this summer.”