Soccer is on the rise in the United States, with New York as the epicenter of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
In a sports hotspot traditionally ruled by football, basketball and baseball, soccer is in the midst of a rise in popularity. The U.S. hosted the Club World Cup this summer. They will co-host the World Cup with Canada and Mexico next year. The New York area — MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ — is the host of the final match for both tournaments.
The World Cup’s arrival signifies a pivotal time for soccer in the U.S. According to a recent report by For Soccer, the Club World Cup drew 2.5 million spectators. The tournament averaged 39,557 in attendance per game. Over 81,000 filled MetLife for the final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in July.
When the Premier League Summer Series returned later that month, 82,566 packed MetLife for a match between Manchester United and West Ham. And during the Premier League’s opening weekend, NBC platforms, which broadcast six games, averaged a viewership of 850,000 — a 4% increase from the 2024 record high.
It’s a growing sport in a growing market — one that John Parker and David Gass, the co-founders of Kickback Soccer Media, are tapping into.
Kickback Soccer is an American soccer media company focused on producing in-depth digital soccer content. The company combines traditional soccer coverage with conversations aimed at engaging with fans.
A new era of sports media
Parker and Gass have both worked in soccer for years.
Parker, the organization’s CEO, has worked as a GM of Soccer Champions Tour at Legends, an operating partner at Striker Partners, and co-founded For Soccer. Gass co-hosts the Soccerwise podcast and has worked in and around Major League Soccer for more than a decade.
Part of the challenge with starting a company like Kickback, Gass said, was tapping into a heavily saturated American sports market. They went digital, following a model similar to Jomboy Media’s video-driven enterprise. Their company launched with three properties — Soccerwise, Kickback Committee, and First Touch. They’re constantly adding new shows and newsletters.
“One of the things, being a soccer fan, especially in the US, is there isn’t really traditional coverage,” Gass said. “So [Jomboy] is the only blueprint, because that’s the only thing that you could mimic. We can’t restart NBC or Fox and make them care about soccer in a valuable way and not a gimmicky way. I think that’s what we can build and what we’re capable of building. And I think that’s where our fans are.”
Kickback has also partnered with the social media platform Bluesky, and aims to further establish it as the home for soccer conversation.
New York City’s soccer culture
New York has quickly become the epicenter of soccer in the United States.
Parker, who lives in Greenpoint, quoted MLS commissioner Don Garber, who last year told the Athletic that “America has become the ATM for the soccer world.”
“You can go to Midtown,” Parker said, “And you can go to the Serie A office. You can go to the Bundesliga office. You can go to the La Liga office. You could go through all of the leagues, all of the clubs, everybody is set up in Manhattan to find ways to sell soccer to Americans, to sell soccer to New Yorkers.”
Added Gass, who was born and raised on Long Island: “You can find anything in New York, right? If you are the biggest fan of X niche thing, there’s going to be one comic book shop or one area of the city where people connect with that.”
Where Parker and Gass both feel there is work to be done is bridging the gap between the fans and the business community. When Gass was growing up, he’d travel to the city’s different boroughs to watch international and men’s league games.
Having MLS clubs in the area — New York City FC and New York Red Bulls — creates surface-level excitement, Gass added. Events like the Club World Cup and next year’s World Cup will make more people see how popular and connected the sport is.
“There’s a very different fan community here than a business community,” Parker said. “I hope that we can be a part of an attempt to actually bring them a little closer together.”
Impact of the 2026 World Cup
Gass said he’s drooling over next summer’s World Cup and the opportunities it brings to grow the game.
“The reason I love this sport is I love the global nature of it,” he said. “Having a 48-team World Cup across three countries is everything I’ve ever dreamed about.”
He explained that Kickback’s plans for the next year are largely built around getting more people into the sport. The World Cup gives them leverage to tap into a market of new fans. This will involve a series of videos — which Gass calls “First Touch” — like explainers and entry-level content. The company plans to combine this with 24/7 coverage of the tournament.
The company has big plans, including live shows, events and longer features. They want to cover the tournament from every angle.
“For me,” Gass said, “It’s an excuse to cover anything I want, because nothing’s not connected to this World Cup with 48 teams across the world. Any little soccer story that you’ve ever wanted to tell or talk about or delve into, it’s connected to this tournament.”
“I think people don’t fully grasp how big this thing is going to be,” Parker added. “‘94 was great, but we didn’t have the digital era. Soccer had not taken the hold it’s taken in this country, we didn’t have these modern stadiums across the country. The sheer scale of this thing is bigger than anything we’ve ever experienced on the planet.”
