Immigrants Make World Cup Teams Feel At Home

BusinessSportsMoneyImmigrants Make World Cup Teams Feel At HomeByBeau Dure,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Beau Dure is a sports journalist and author of several soccer books.Follow AuthorJun 12, 2026, 03:31pm EDTIranian fans react as they watch a 2022 World Cup match between the United States and Iran at a bar in Los Angeles.AFP via Getty ImagesWhen the men’s soccer World Cup was first awarded to the United States in 1988, skepticism abounded.Would a country with no stable soccer presence be able to draw any crowds? Surely the tournament would be invisible in a country that had loudly discounted soccer as a sport incompatible with rugged individualism and apple pie, wouldn’t it? Six years later, the naysayers were eating their words. The 1994 World Cup set records for highest average attendance (68,991) and overall attendance (3,587,538) that have stood for 32 years. The overall attendance figure has survived even though the tournament has expanded from 24 to 32 teams and therefore from 52 matches to 64. This year, the overall attendance figure will surely be beaten this year because the tournament has expanded from 32 to 48 teams and ballooned from 64 games to 104.A few factors explain the 1994 attendance. First, it’s a big country, and out of 260 million or so people (roughly the USA’s population in 1994), it’s not that hard to find a couple hundred thousand people to watch a game.Second, Americans love big events. It’s the same reason why the country is a great host for the Olympics. Cricket has a much smaller presence in the country than soccer does, and yet U.S. cities did a credible job hosting several games in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Third, the USA has millions of people who’ve grown up playing youth soccer.But a major factor driving attendance in U.S. cities can be summed up in one word.MORE FOR YOUImmigration.The United States is, recent political trends notwithstanding, a nation of immigrants. In 1994, 8.7...