News

Jul 01, 2023

U.S. Fumbling of Primetime World Cup Bag Not a Deal

After coming within a goalpost’s width of turfing out of the World Cup on Tuesday morning, the U.S. women’s national team has upended a broadcast schedule that had been designed to put the defending

After coming within a goalpost’s width of turfing out of the World Cup on Tuesday morning, the U.S. women’s national team has upended a broadcast schedule that had been designed to put the defending champs in the primetime spotlight. And while the lackluster showing in the group stage will result in a much-reduced TV audience for Sunday’s win-or-go-home match against Sweden—rather than kicking off Saturday night at 10 p.m. EDT, the USWNT will continue its quest for the threepeat in the pre-dawn raid slot that is 5 a.m.—the temporal disruption will have only a limited impact on Fox Sports’ finances.

As much as FIFA did its level best to ensure that the U.S. would remain a primetime fixture through the next two rounds (this despite the 14-hour time difference between New York and Melbourne), Fox will have to amass the bulk of its World Cup impressions in the wee small hours. Should the USWNT advance past the Swedes, their ensuing quarterfinal match in Auckland will commence at 3:30 a.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 11—a far less attractive landing spot than the Thursday, 9 p.m. ET window that awaits the winner of Saturday’s primetime clash between the Netherlands and South Africa.

More from Sportico.com

Sporticast: World Cup and Business Lessons with Haley Rosen

Alex Rodriguez and Fox Sports Close in on Contract Extension

France's Women's World Cup Hopes Soar After Win Over Brazil

FIFA’s best-laid plans were thwarted by a U.S. team that looked irresolute and adrift in their consecutive ties with a coolly deliberate Dutch squad and a swarming, stifling Portugal. While the defense has held its ground despite the absence of Becky Sauerbrunn, the scoring mechanism seems to have gone kablooey. Through its first three matches, the U.S. has managed four goals (including three against a hapless Vietnam), falling well shy of the 18 goals the 2019 team racked up during its group stage rampage.

If the U.S. has been characteristically adroit in advancing the ball into the attacking third, the forwards haven’t been able to do much with the opportunities that have been laid out for them. Alex Morgan has yet to find the back of the net, and Sophia Smith’s breakout performance in the July 22 opener now carries a whiff of flukiness. (Smith and midfielder Lindsey Horan are the only Americans to have scored in this World Cup, while nine different players put up group-stage points in 2019.)

Beyond the scoring drought, the U.S. game has been marked by a general absence of creative vision, which marks a failure on the part of coach Vlatko Andonovski. If there’s a grand scheme underpinning his inflexible tactics, it’s been tough to discern from within the gloom of the results. While the offensive scheme boils down to a shrug emoji, the game plan for the middle of the lineup is the spinning rainbow pinwheel that heralds a crashed MacBook. As much as Sauerbrunn’s injury effectively forced Andonovski to play Julie Ertz out of position, Andi Sullivan has been a liability in Ertz’s customary midfield post. The Dutch altogether neutralized Sullivan, and yet Andonovski trotted out the same makeshift formation against Portugal.

If the U.S. squad haven’t collectively played like champions, fans have been treated to a few moments of individual brilliance. Co-captain Horan transformed a moment of competitive rage into a crucial goal, scoring an equalizer against the Netherlands shortly after getting into it with her Lyon teammate, Daniëlle van de Donk. Slow to get up after van de Donk laid her out with a bruising tackle, Horan gave her friend the business for a bit before converting Rose Lavelle’s corner kick with a momentous header.

Horan’s ability to make lemonade out of an eyeful of citric acid should serve as a reminder that revenge is one hell of a motivational instrument. Carli Lloyd was in the right when she criticized the starters for celebrating their backdoor stumble into the knockout stage, and if her words served as a barbed rebuke of her former teammates, they also may be just the thing to inspire a few Horan-esque retribution goals. (A reminder: In the wake of Lloyd’s lethal performance in the 2015 World Cup Final, she gets to say whatever she wants. That license is one of the reasons Fox Sports hired her as a commentator.)

If Horan and the rest of the squad can’t figure out a way to break out of their torpor Down Under, they’ll all be on the other side of the globe by the time the Final kicks off in Sydney on Aug. 20. However things shake out with the USWNT, Fox has no reason to get its dander up. The group stage matches averaged a record 4.35 million viewers, even though the beefy primetime deliveries for the first two U.S. broadcasts (5.26 million, 6.43 million) were undermined by the predictably smaller turnout for the 3 a.m. EDT Portugal draw (1.35 million).

Should the Swedes or a subsequent opponent eliminate the U.S., casual fans will wander away from the remainder of this World Cup. By dint of its 6 a.m. EDT kickoff time, the Final was never going to put up the sort of numbers seen in previous years—Lloyd’s star turn in the 2015 U.S.-Japan capper helped Fox scare up a staggering 25.4 million viewers—but the time difference has been factored into Fox’s guarantees to advertisers. In the absence of the Yanks, the network may have to hand over a greater-than-anticipated chunk of make-goods, but the inevitability of under-deliveries is precisely why that rainy-day practice was established in the first place.

To put it in the sort of blunt, take-no-prisoners language of Carli Lloyd, Fox didn’t get into the World Cup business to make a killing on advertising. In fact, no network has ever jumped into a soccer rights deal with that expectation, which is one of the reasons why soccer’s gestation period here in the U.S. has been so protracted. As Roone Arledge famously never said, “So there’s no ad breaks and every game ends in a 0-0 tie? Sign me up!”

According to Kantar Media estimates, Fox booked all of $85.1 million in ad sales during the 2019 World Cup, or less money than the network generates during a pair of NFL Sundays. While a U.S. no-show would take some of the luster out of Fox’s summer soccer showcase, the sport’s inherent limitations are a stay against any significant financial shortfall. Carli Lloyd may bruise a few more feelings before all is said and done, but Fox will come up smiling no matter what.

Best of Sportico.com

Manchester United Sale Timeline: From Glazer Takeover to Recent Bids

What NFTs Mean for Sports Business

Disney to Spend $44.9 Billion on Sports Rights Through 2027

Click here to read the full article.