The Soccer Business Podcast

The pace of change in women's sport and women's soccer in particular is attracting interest from brands that have never shown in interest in sports, says Washington Spirit CEO Kim Stone in this interview. Kim talks about the changing landscape, the kind of fans the club are attracting, the ownership style of Michelle Kang and her own journey from an entry level at the NBA's Miami Heat to her current position leading one of the leading clubs in the NWSL.

Dynamic pricing, empty seats, and the trust clubs can't afford to burn. Ticketing and growth expert Jim McCarthy (Impresario) joins Simon Evans to unpack ticketing, and what MLS, USL and other clubs should do differently. Jim founded Gold Star, one of the first live event marketplaces (12 million buyers, tickets for around two million events), and now helps clubs grow their audiences. In this conversation: • Why FIFA treated the World Cup as a revenue-maximizing event, and the cost to fan trust • The season ticket no-show problem: why 20%+ no-show rates are common, and why carrots work better than sticks • What clubs should do with the data when Messi comes to town • Why revenue per seat matters more than average ticket price • Whether cheaper tickets mean more spend inside the stadium • How a USL club should go about filling its stadium • How fan expectations of matchday have changed, from the Rose Bowl to the Buffalo Bills' new stadium • Why Gen Z's appetite for real-world events is a big opportunity for soccer

There's nowhere else in world soccer where clubs are built from a blank sheet of paper, and Bay FC is doing exactly that. Lisa Goodwin Scharff, the club's Chief External Affairs Officer, joins Simon Evans and Karisa Maxwell McKee to explain what it takes to run an NWSL franchise that is only three years old and still shifting out of start-up mode. Lisa came to Bay FC from the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers, where the infrastructure was already in place. Here, there was no email system, no existing playbook, and five months between her first day and the first kickoff. She explains why the established-team blueprint doesn't transfer, and how the club is listening to fans and partners rather than copying what worked elsewhere.

Was there a World Cup bounce for MLS? Andrew Hosmar, who has worked in data and strategy for the Houston Dynamo, San Diego FC and New England Revolution, joins Simon Evans to assess what MLS really gained from the World Cup.

They cover how host-city clubs turned Fan Fest crowds into potential fans, why the attendance bump may be a slow-burn story rather than an overnight one, and how a new commissioner, the sprint season and the 2027-28 calendar change could compound the effect. They also debate whether on-field quality or matchday atmosphere matters more, whether MLS's parity model holds back national relevance, what the ideal media deal looks like after Apple, and why the USMNT's young core and the Olympics may matter more than the World Cup itself.

• 00:00 Was there a World Cup bounce for MLS?
• 00:28 Houston as a host city: Fan Fest, Hector Herrera and activating casual fans
• 06:19 The attendance bump and the long-term play
• 09:26 Does on-field quality matter? Fan segments and club culture
• 13:29 Parity vs mega clubs: does MLS need a villain?
• 18:35 Owner appetite for change, and the Messi effect fading
• 21:53 Media: Apple, linear TV and reaching casual fans
• 30:41 Storytelling, coach reactions and the case for personalities
• 35:05 The USMNT, the Olympics and the next generation
• 40:46 Wrap-up

Former Manchester United, Chelsea and Spain midfielder Juan Mata and his business partner Jürgen Griesbeck join Simon Evans to launch Unleash Football, a new project that aims to give players, fans and the wider football community a bigger say in how the game is run.

Unleash Football is part of the C Lab framework. It lets anyone take part by answering questions on an anonymous survey platform. Mata and Griesbeck say the results will be a "mandate" from the game: a first wave of data that can be built on in later waves and shared with governing bodies, candidates in the FIFA presidential election, and the media. The project was unveiled at the World Football Summit.

In this conversation, recorded at the World Football Summit in Madrid, Mata and Griesbeck discuss:

• What C Lab is and why collaboration is at its core
• Why players and fans are football's most important stakeholders, and why they've been overlooked
• Including volunteers, parents and grassroots communities, not just the professional game
• How the data will be gathered, analysed and put in front of decision-makers
• Mata's own experience as a player in the Premier League and beyond
• How this fits with his work at Common Goal and Right to Dream
• Whether he'll play again after his time in Australia with Melbourne Victory

Sam Mewis signed her first pro contract for $15,000. Ten years later, the league she came up in has free agency, purpose-built stadiums and a wave of brands that had never touched sport before.

In this episode, I spoke to two USWNT world champions, Emily Sonnett and Sam Mewis. We discussed how they turned a sport that barely had a league into a career, what it takes to build a team around you as a pro, and how they're planning for life after the final whistle.

We talk about:

• What a pro career looked like a decade ago compared to now, from Sam's $15,000 rookie deal to free agency
• How endorsements and brand deals work, and why the national team has always been the gateway
• Why Sam started a podcast mid-career and how it grew into her role as editor-in-chief of The Women's Game at Men in Blazers
• Emily's plan to stay in sport through scouting, roster strategy and the business side of the club
• Why brands that have never been in sport before are now coming into women's soccer, including the National Pork Board partnership
• What Kansas City's stadium shows about the economics of owning your own venue
• Where the game will be in ten years, from training facilities and player care to media coverage

#nwsl #uswnt #womenssoccer #soccerbusiness

Como's rise from Serie D to Serie A is one of the most unlikely stories in modern football — but what's happening off the pitch might be even more interesting than what's happening on it.

In this episode, I sit down by Lake Como with club President Mirwan Suwarso to break down how the club engineered its climb through Italian football, and the innovative commercial strategy powering its next chapter — one that leans into tourism, fashion, and food as much as it does results on the pitch.

We talk about:

• The blueprint behind Como's rapid rise from Serie D to Serie A
• Why Como is positioning itself as a lifestyle brand, not just a football club
• How tourism, fashion, and food fit into the club's revenue strategy
• What other clubs can learn from Como's approach to commercial growth
• The vision for Como's future in Serie A and beyond

Kay Cossington spent 20 years building women's football from the inside at England's FA — then walked straight into private equity. Now she's CEO of Bay Collective and Head of Global Women's Football at Sixth Street, running a multi-club ownership platform with no ceiling on ambition.

She talks through the FA's "What It Takes to Win" model that led to hiring Sarina Wiegman, why England never tried to copy the US college pipeline, and what she really thinks happens when private equity money meets a sport still building its infrastructure. Plus: the uncomfortable question nobody's asking about patient capital versus the five-year-flip playbook already familiar from the men's game.

Robert Faulkner, Chief Marketing Officer of Wrexham, joins the pod to break down how the club, backed by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, have managed their extraordinary rise through the divisions, their new American fan base and the global impact of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary. This episode was recorded on-site at the World Football Summit in Madrid.

Women’s soccer is no longer just a game on the field - it’s an emerging asset class, and Chelsea Washington knows exactly why that matters. From becoming the first player drafted from her college into the NWSL to working in sports finance and investment today, she breaks down the business side of the women’s game that most fans never see.Simon Evans and Vnciane Ngomsi sit down with Chelsea Washington for a sharp, revealing conversation about the shift from athlete to investor, what she learned inside the locker rooms of the league’s golden era, and why the next phase of women’s soccer will be defined by patience, infrastructure, and smarter capital.

You’ll discover: * How Chelsea’s playing career unexpectedly prepared her for sports finance *

What it was like sharing a locker room with legends like Alex Morgan, Marta, Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris, and Sydney Leroux *

Why the NWSL’s valuation surge is exciting, but still demands long-term thinking

* How private equity, institutional money, and minority stakes are changing the sports investment landscape

* Why the Canadian Northern Super League may have a structural advantage in building from the ground up

Chelsea also explains how her time in Australia helped her reset, regain confidence, and finish her playing career on her own terms.

She shares what separates sustainable growth from hype, why women’s teams need intentional ownership and dedicated resources, and where the biggest opportunities for young players and future investors may be emerging next.If you want the clearest possible view into where women’s soccer is headed - on the pitch, in the boardroom, and across the global investment market - this episode is essential listening.

Zavier Gozo from Salt Lake to Premier League Crystal Palace, Sebastian Berhalter and Max Arfsten to Middlesbrough, even two USL strikers moving to Scotland. Why are British and European clubs suddenly buying players from MLS and USL? And can MLS and USL grow by being 'selling leagues'? Tom Bogert of The Athletic, America's number one journalist on soccer's transfer market, joins The Soccer Business to take a look at what is going on?

Jennifer Levine, Vice President of Communications and Public Relations with the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) joins the pod to talk about the growth of the league, their core and target audiences, how the league is story telling and whether there is competition with other women's sports league such as the WNBA. This is the first of our new series 'The Women's Soccer Business Podcast'.

Clubs are paying for mountains of player data — and using as little as 15% of it. Dean Bracha, founder of Marquee, joins the launch episode of The Stack to explain how his Tel Aviv-based platform is using AI to close that gap, and why he thinks most recruitment departments are still making multi-million-pound decisions on a fraction of the information available to them.

Simon Evans and André Da Costa dig into how Marquee's 12 proprietary AI models work as a "decision intelligence layer" sitting on top of a club's existing data stack — automating roughly 70-75% of the recruitment analysis process while leaving the final call, the "eye test," and the agent relationships to humans.

They cover real scenarios (what happens if Real Madrid come for Declan Rice on transfer deadline?), the industry's data-opacity problem, why AI still has a trust issue inside football clubs, and where the human scout still beats the model. This is the first episode of The Stack — The Soccer Business's new series on the tools and systems running modern clubs, covering technology from both a performance and a commercial angle.

In the first of our new series on investment topics 'The Deal Room' we take a look at reports that Amazon owner Jeff Bezos is part of a consortium looking to acquire a sizable chunk of Liverpool FC. With the club's valuation reported to be somewhere between $6 billion and $8 billion, what would this investment mean for the club? Does Fenway Sports Group have an exit strategy and what kind of presence would Bezos be at Anfield? Former Liverpool CEO Peter Moore returns to the pod to give his view on the situation.

MLS is banking on it's partnership with Liga MX in the Leagues Cup, which got underway this week, to deliver growth across all areas of the business. On Wednesday the competition held its first game on Mexican soil with a packed crowd in Toluca witnessing the clash with the Seattle Sounders.

Tom Mayo, Executive Director of Leagues Cup, joined the pod to outline MLS's thinking about the tournament and reveal how the competition will fit into the new-look MLS calendar.

Plus we touch upon the unveiling of Larry Berg as new commissioner of MLS in New York earlier this week with the thoughts of Don Garber, Jimmy Haslem and Berg himself and Simon looks at how Berg handled the media for the first time.

Larry Berg is the new MLS Commissioner having been chosen to replace Don Garber in the top seat at the league. But what to expect from the former private equity executive and LAFC co-owner? What will be at the top of his agenda. Brian Anderson from Sheppard Mullin, an analyst of American soccer business, joins the pod to talk to Andre and Simon about the big new appointment.

Simon Evans is joined by Andre Da Costa and Sports Business Journal's Alex Silverman for a wrap-up review of the World Cup — breaking down the tournament's biggest business winners and losers.

From Erling Haaland to Cristiano Ronaldo - beer sales to hydration break revenue - it's all covered as the pod looks back on a memorable five weeks.

Every four years the same debate resurfaces after a US World Cup exit: pay-to-play, access, and why the world's most inclusive sport still has a class problem in America. Ed Foster-Simeon, CEO of the US Soccer Foundation, has heard it all before — and argues the industry keeps asking the wrong question. Instead of fixating on elite player development, he makes the case that talent identification is a volume problem: you can't find good players in communities that don't have anywhere to play.

Foster-Simeon walks through how the Foundation is closing that gap — nearly 1,000 mini-pitches built toward a 2026 target, 1.6 million youth reached through school and after-school programming, and a funding model that leans on philanthropy. We get into what actually moves the needle on access, why "sticky" community engagement matters more than chasing the next elite prospect, and what it'll take — money, policy, and a shift in how the game's value gets pitched to donors — to make soccer as culturally embedded in under-resourced communities as it already is in the suburbs.

'Pay to Play' youth soccer is being blamed for the USMNT under-performing. But is there another way for kids to be given access to coaching? Amir Lowery is a coach and former MLS and USL player who is now head of the Open Goal Project at DCFC in Washington, DC - a free to play program. He joins Simon to explain the problems with pay-to-play and how the alternative he has built actually works.

Simon and André break down the USA's 4-1 collapse against Belgium in the Round of 16 — and why the manner of the exit, not the result itself, has triggered a wave of hot takes across social and sports media. They unpack the noise around player development, arguing that most of the criticism misses what's actually working and what is really in need of reform.

They also tackle the Pulisic scapegoating narrative head-on, and shift to the business case: why one early exit won't slow MLS and USL's momentum, how corporate America's attitude toward soccer has visibly shifted, and what a 42-million-viewer Mexico-England audience signals about the ceiling for the sport in the US.