Embracing Soccer in America: How Major League Soccer Can Make Soccer an American Pastime

While sports have been around for thousands of years with ranging popularity across the globe, they are a stronghold in American culture. The “big four” sports in the United States are American football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, although Major League Soccer (MLS) has made a push within recent years for soccer to become the fifth. While it is being welcomed into the world of sports in America it is lacking popularity compared to its stronghold within cultures throughout the world. In this thesis we explore possible reasons as to why soccer and Major League Soccer is not as popular in the United States as it is in other countries as well as compared to the other major sports in the US. This is done through an extensive literature review, followed by an online survey to answer questions that were not answered using past research. The data collected was then analyzed through testing six hypotheses. All of the information collected is then used to formulate five major recommendations for MLS to grow the popularity of Soccer in the United States. These recommendations include building a community of soccer in the US, enhancing the fan experience at games by building soccer specific stadiums, raising the caliber of players playing in the US within MLS, building awareness of the sport through the reach of hosting the 2026 World Cup, and finally furthering this research by looking into the US Women's National team.