New soccer media company confident it can cultivate a captive U.S. audience

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John Parker believes he has solved the riddle.For years we’ve been told soccer is the sport of the future in the U.S.It’s the fastest-growing, has the most attractive demographics, skews younger, is the most cosmopolitan, blah, blah, blah.Yet the sport has struggled to find a broadcast audience, especially among the legacy media.

NBC, ESPN and others, after failing to find viewers on cable TV, moved much of their soccer content to streaming platforms.Apple TV+, which is a streaming platform, has become so desperate for an audience for its MLS content that it removed its paywall.

And most major newspapers, including this one, have dramatically rolled back regular coverage of the next great American sport for want of readers.Parker, co-founder and chief executive of Kickback Soccer Media, said his idea isn’t intended to succeed where others have failed.It’s intended to succeed because it hasn’t been tried before.

Soccer The death of drug cartel leader “El Mencho” sparked a wave of violence in an area slated to host World Cup matches this summer, making some fans nervous.“What we focus on is less the product, more the audience.So American soccer fans,” Parker said.

“There’s inherent difference between a soccer fan in the U.S.than there is a soccer fan in, say, England, where you grew up with the sport.”Kickback, which launched in December, isn’t a traditional newsroom but rather a multiplatform media company built around different hubs: Soccerwise, for example, will offer more traditional coverage of soccer in the U.S.; Kickback Committee features more than a dozen soccer personalities conversing with fans on topics and trends; First Touch, the company’s World Cup property, is designed to attract new fans with original material.

Content from each platform will be distributed via podcasts, newsletters, social media and video on Instagram, Bluesky ...