The Athletic understands the league’s 20 clubs were shown some remarkable numbers at their most recent shareholders’ meeting in September. According to research by market analysis specialists Neilsen this summer, soccer is the fourth most popular sport in the US, behind American football, basketball and baseball but ahead of ice hockey.
Furthermore, soccer fans are younger, more diverse and wealthier than fans of America’s traditional “big four” sports, and soccer’s following is growing at a faster rate, too.
MLS has the biggest overall following, but the Premier League has the largest number of “core” fans.
This audience, carefully nurtured by NBC, has more than doubled since 2013, and more than half of all US soccer fans watch Premier League games. In fact, more than a quarter of them only watch the Premier League.
A survey by London-based firm Ampere Analysis found that 15 per cent of American sports fans were interested in the Premier League, up from 12 per cent in 2019. Nearly one in 10 sports fans said they would be willing to pay to watch English top-flight games, an increase of 50 per cent in two years.