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Let's talk about what's going on, because I you know, the Odd Lots podcast they're doing something and I was reading in and they pointed out that the last time the World Cup came to the US was back in nineteen ninety four. Before then, the World Cup was an enormously popular event with surprisingly limited commercial significance. Fast forward, it is massive with the global audience and reaching. I got to say it's one of the really world's most
watched global sports events. So leading the way forward with US as j T. Batson, He's been CEO and Secretary General of the US Soccer Federation since September of twenty twenty two. He joins us from Los Angeles. JT. Great to have you here. And then also with us as our own Randall Williams. He's Bloomberg new senior reporter co host of the Business of Sports podcast. He's here in our New York studio. Great to have you here. You've been tracking all the games in and out. I'm going
to let you ask the first question of JT. Because you've been watching all of this stuff.
I mean, let's start off pretty basic. Jac how happy are you right now.
Definitely happy and based on everyone I keep running into here in LA and my travels around the country, you know, lots and lots of happy people here and they're excited for the run we're on.
Are you surprised at how well it's going? You know that there were a lot of stories leading up to it about cost and access, and everybody here in the New York metro was like, it's going to be a nightmare, and it is a little tough moving around, but it just seems to be going well, and everybody who's at the games are just having a blast.
Well, the US is a soccer country. They are will more than one hundred million people in America who are fans of soccer, and of course we have such a diverse country with people from all over the world, so every team was going to feel welcome here. Everyone is going to have an amazing time, and you know, people are not seeing that all around the world.
It's pretty cool. Walking around the streets of New York. You see Argentina jerseys on a day that Argentina's playing, see Brazil jerseys all over even here at the office. I sometimes am seeing jerseys this week, no question, World Cup fever is hitting here in the streets of Brooklyn. Over the weekend, they were selling all the jerseys that
were available for these countries around the world. They were out of US jerseys in every size, And I think that really speaks to the enthusiasm that we're seeing right now, especially among kids. How do you translate that enthusiasm into something sustainable for the US.
Well, A couple of things, you know. One is you're right around the incredible demand for the US jerseys. They're iconic, they are a ton of fun, and even though Nike produced way more than they ever have before, they have been you know, hot items all across the country, and so it doesn't surprise me to hear about that in Brooklyn.
And I think, you know, more broadly, we view we have now this World Cup, the la Olympics, and hopefully the Women's Roll Cup in twenty thirty one to have a similar impact on the growth of this sport as we did ninety four, the Atlanta Olympics in ninety six
and then the Women's Roll Cup in ninety nine. And if you think about what soccer is like in ninety four relative to where we are now, imagine what it could look like in the future with all this excitement, and you know, we're excited about using this as a way of getting more soccer in schools, getting soccer and more communities across the country, getting more commercial investment in our sport, getting more government film throughpic investment in our sport,
and so lots of exciting progress. And we know that the best days for soccer in this country ahead.
I should clarify. I don't know if the woman's selling them. They said Nike on them, Randall, I don't know if they were official, official Nike gear. I just want to clarify it.
Yeah, that's a good clarification point. I do wonder for you, j T, what do you think the real impact of this World Cup is on US soccer in comparison to previous World Cups? Of course we had Qatar and South Africa and so many other ones that created incredible memories. But for you being here in the States, seeing you know, the fans sing along in the arenas after and in the stadiums after the US is won, what do you think the real impact of this World Cup is going to be on US soccer?
Well, I think the for us, we've always viewed this as an opportunity for one for Americans to fall in love with his team, and I think they've done that, and folks are excited. You know, being in the Seattle Stadium when everyone was singing Country Roads was pretty special. And I think, you know, the sort of collective energy of that and the fifteen thousand people who all march together to the game, just the pride, the passion has
been awesome. And then I think more broadly, we've always viewed this summer as an opportunity in the World Cup being here as an opportunity to get organizations, communities, individuals to take the big steps forward to propel soccer in this country. So as an example, before our first game in La, we announced with La Unified School District that
they're committing to put soccer in every school. So it's four hundred thousand kids who are now are going to have access to soccer, and we're working with communities all across the country to do that with our goal of by twenty thirty two, every school in America having soccer. And so it's those sort of movements, those sort of you know, actions that you know, we believe or you going to propel soccer forward for generations and generations to come.
Now, Jaj, I could congratulate you on US Soccer's two wins here, but I could also congratulate you on your contract extension, and I wonder you know you being locked down long term for US Soccer. What is your vision beyond the World Cup to make sure that this momentum, this excitement around the game of football in soccer here in the US continues.
So at US Soccer, we view our role as being in service to soccer. We think our role is to support those who are bringing soccer to life in communities all across the country, and we have three generational ambitions. We're focused on US Soccer success. So we want our teams to win World Cups. We want US Soccer to be everywhere. We want soccer to be the number one played sport in every community, and we want US Soccer
to be yours. We want everyone who cares about our sport to feel connected to US Soccer and to our sport. And we're just getting started. There's a lot of work to do to bring those to life at the scale that match the ambition of our fans and everyone who cares about us. And so I'm excited to be doing this for the long haul, and you know, I'm looking forward to you know, many many years of great progress ahead.
JT. Thirty seconds. When do you want to see the World Cup hosted here again?
I love it always to be here. Of course, we got the bises works in the world. Okay, We've got the Women's World Cup bid in for twenty thirty one. That's going to be spectacular. Will be the first time forty eight teams will be in a Women's World Cup. We will set a new standard for what all of that can look like and there'll be a ton of fun.
So maybe in two years three years now, we.
Got the Olympics back in la Oh, Okay, so we you know, want to win medals on the men's and women's side there, so you know, we'll keep the party rolling.
Listen, this is really fun. Good luck and congratulations on the event. Certainly has a lot of folks here in Bloomberg and really around the New York metro area really excited about these games. JT. Bats and CEO and Secretary General of the US Soccer Federation, and of course are sports expert one of them here unbelievable. Randall Williams. Bloomberg, new senior report and co host of the Business of
Sports podcast, highly recommend. He's done some reporting Blue Owl and advanced talks for a stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, so check it out on the Bloomberg