The Athletic and The Atlantic illustrate how companies are leaning into FIFA World Cup coverage
Published about 5 hours ago • 5 min read
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Some coverage moves from The Athletic and The Atlantic.
The Athletic and The Atlantic make big bets on FIFA World Cup coverage beyond match broadcasts
A lot of the discussion around the business of sports is about the games themselves, whether with in-person ticket sales, television ratings, media coverage, or more. There's undoubtedly logic to that, as the games are what everything else is built around. But there's a huge sports ecosystem beyond just the games. And the just-begun FIFA World Cup presents an intriguing puzzle to consider along those lines.
It was easy to predict that many of this World Cup's matches will do very well indeed from a ratings perspective for U.S. broadcasters Fox (English-language) and Telemundo (Spanish-language). The last two World Cups in Russia and Qatar respectively drew well despite challenging time zones and off-field issues, and soccer as a whole has gained significant audience since then. Indeed, a Nielsen "The Fans Behind The Game" report last week cited a 10.9 percent jump in soccer fandom across North America from five years ago, to more than 136 million fans. And both Fox and Telemundo have posted record numbers so far:
Those numbers are certainly notable, and deserve their own waves of analysis. But a key part of what's going on with this World Cup in particular is about elements beyond the matches. That includes the extensive non-match programming on both Fox and Telemundo platforms, but it also includes how media companies without broadcast rights are diving into this event. A couple of notable examples come from The Athletic and The Atlantic. First, with The Athletic, the New York Times-owned subscription-based digital sports outlet is making their World Cup coverage free during the event:
This summer, the entire planet will speak the same language: soccer. While the tournament is feeling inaccessible to many fans due to high transit fees, ticket pricing and more, The Athletic is making sure every fan can access the game by making its World Cup coverage free, enabling all fans to speak the language of soccer fluently.
...The Athletic’s World Cup hub, fueled by more than 70 soccer journalists on the ground — including David Ornstein, James Horncastle, Adam Crafton, Amy Lawrence, Laura Williamson, Paul Tenorio, Henry Bushnell and Laurie Whitwell — brings sports fans an extensive collection of unique soccer storylines including:
“The Language of Soccer” – A special editorial feature on global fan culture taking fans beyond the pitch and into the culture, history, identity and traditions of all 48 nations competing this summer. Through conversations with global supporters, the feature captures the phrases, chants and lines that define each country’s relationship with the game — revealing how each fan culture is uniquely its own. “The Language of Soccer” is sponsored by Google. “Why I Love The Beautiful Game” – A special-edition video series with passionate celebrity soccer fans including Gordon Ramsay, Brian Cox, Tom Hiddleston, Wagner Moura, Brandon Aubrey, Ray Winstone, Johannes Klæbo and Remco Evenepoel. Each soccer fan will share what the sport means to them, catalyzing the moments that connect them to the game and their hopes (and predictions) of what will happen throughout the summer’s tournament. Fans can also take in a wide range of additional multimedia programming throughout the tournament from The Athletic — including “The Athletic FC,” “The Totally Football Show” and “The Athletic FC: Daily Cup” on Amazon Fire TV. All 48 “The Language of Soccer” profiles are now live and can be accessed here. Plus, watch the first film in the “Why I Love The Beautiful Game” series with acclaimed actor and Scottish fan Brian Cox here.
That's a big move for a publication usually reliant on subscriptions. And The Athletic is also partnering with Classic Football Shirts. That partnership sees them putting excerpts from their "Language of Soccer" profiles on hang tags on jerseys in five of that company's retail locations, and offering free three-month subscriptions to anyone who buys a jersey (in-store or online, from June 10-24) representing any of the 48 countries competing in this tournament. Thus, they're making major moves around this event not just with their coverage, but with unconventional ways to promote it.
It's not just sports-focused outlets like The Athletic that are leaning hard into World Cup coverage, though. Indeed, another notable move comes from the similarly named but quite different publication The Atlantic, which tends to focus more on news and politics than sports. But they've been putting in a major investment on World Cup coverage, and have taken it on from a wide variety of angles. Some of those have included staff writer Sally Jenkins (formerly a key part of the Washington Post sports section before that company's cuts there earlier this year)'s look at some of the history around soccer and politics in the U.S. dating back to pre-Boston Tea Party days, staff writer Matt Viser's deeply-reported look at President Trump's time playing varsity soccer at New York Military Academy, Chris Jones' profile of FIFA president Gianni Infantino amidst the challenges he and the organization face with the political conflicts around this World Cup, Henry Grabar's look at how much cities and states are spending on World Cup-related projects and what little they can hope to get back, Hana Kiros' investigation of the playing surfaces in this "World Cup of grass science," Nick Miroff's examination of the Homeland Security preparations for the event, and Jonathan Lemire's "The World Cup of Ugh" look at falling hotel demand and negative emotions around the event.
It would be quite unusual to see that amount of coverage on a single sports event in The Atlantic more normally. But the World Cup carries so many different angles that can be a fit for them, and they're exploring those in a smart way. And that helps to speak to the overall importance of sports these days. As often discussed here, big sports events are one of the few things that can still attract a mass audience, and that's definitely true for massive international events like the World Cup. And that audience can be about more than just the matches, too; there are plenty tuning into watch, but they and even more people may be interested in looking at further coverage of what's going on with the event. That makes it make sense for both sports-focused platforms like The Athletic, as well as those more traditionally focused in other areas like The Atlantic, to put major resources into covering the World Cup.
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