Opening a panel on team ownership at the ’16 CAA World Congress of Sports, Proskauer's Joe Leccese posed a question that has been asked many times: Has soccer finally arrived in the U.S.? “My family has been in the soccer business since 1967, 50 years,” responded FC Dallas Chair & CEO Clark Hunt. “Which was 40 years too early.” Hunt: “You can tell we’ve reached the tipping point. It happened about the time when Seattle came into (MLS). It was a watershed moment. It shows soccer is here to stay and has arrived.” Fanatics Founder Michael Rubin said soccer is the e-tailer’s “fastest growing business” and biggest growth opportunity, despite the fact that it has sold soccer gear for only about a year. “It’s a $100 million-plus business, our fourth biggest. We think the soccer business will be a $1 billion business over the next decade.” All the panelists agreed that soccer is a great avenue to market to millennials. Orlando City Founder & President Phil Rawlins said, “The U.S. audience has taken soccer to heart and it’s predominately 18-to-35-year-old millennials who want to be connected to the world. And soccer is the only global sport. ... It’s the sport of choice to the American millennial. We’ve been slow to the game, but sponsors and broadcasters are picking up on it very quickly. It’s a great mix of affluent millennials [and] families and they enjoy the game.”
