MLS and 2026 FIFA World Cup...

By this time next year, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be over, forcing Major League Soccer and its brand partners to start watching the game clock with added urgency.

Next year’s World Cup runs from June 11 through July 19 and features 104 games played by 48 teams across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Among those host sites, 13 are MLS markets.

Launched in the wake of the 1994 FIFA World Cup—the last held in the United States—MLS has tripled in size within the last 20 years, adding 10 clubs within the last decade alone. It’s opening new stadiums in Miami, New York, and Chicago over the next three years and average club value is up from $550 million in 2021 to $721 million in 2025—with five clubs worth more than $1 billion. 

Jen Cramer, evp of partnership marketing for MLS, noted that the league saw a 30% uptick in soccer interest and participation after the 1994 World Cup. Since she arrived at MLS in 2015, however, she’s watched club values rise from $100 million as it added its 19th and 20th teams in Orlando and New York to a $500 million expansion fee alone for its 30th franchise in San Diego. It signed a 10-year broadcast deal with Apple TV in 2022, brought Argentine superstar Lionel Messi to Miami in 2023, and had placed two of an eventual three teams in the FIFA Club World Cup by the end of 2024.

“We’ve been here for 30 years: We’re going to be here before the World Cup, we’re going to be here during the World Cup—and we will let our players and everybody else shine—but for the most important thing is we’re going to be here after the World Cup, when FIFA is long gone, and we’re the ones that are helping build the player pathways, the infrastructure and the fandom,” Cramer said. “The World Cup to us is this moment where we’re going to get people who might not have watched us before, and it’s our job then to get them to feel as passionate about their team, whichever one they choose.”

MLS brand partners are also teaming with the league and getting in some practice as they bring their brands to the World Cup. Among FIFA’s tiers of World Cup brands are “partners,” including MLS supporters Coca-Cola and Adidas; “sponsors,” including MLS-affiliated AB InBev (through Michelob Ultra); and “supporters,” including longtime MLS backer The Home Depot.