Team USA Are Favored To “Three-Peat” In The FIFA Women’s World Cup

On Thursday, July 20, the ninth quadrennial FIFA Women’s World Cup will start. The host nations are Australia and New Zealand. FIFA says this year’s tournament will be the largest standalone women’s sporting event in the world, with a projected two billion viewers tuning in and attendance reaching 1.5 million fans.

There will be a few changes from the 2019 World Cup held in France. The most notable will be the number of teams participating has increased from 24 to 32. As a result, there will be 64 matches up from 52. The championship game will be played on Sunday, August 20 in Sydney, Australia’s Olympic Stadium renamed Stadium Australia. Team
TISI
USA has won the last two World Cup titles and have been victorious in four of the previous eight World Cups played. The U.S. is the betting favorite to be the first nation to win three consecutive World Cups. Other favorites include England, Spain, Germany and France.

In the U.S., Fox
FOXA
and cable partner FS1 will televise all 64 matches in English. Fox will televise 29 games with cable partner FS1 the remaining 35 matches. Fox will televise all quarter-final and semi-final matches as well as the third-place match and finale. FS1 will televise a large majority of the group stage matches not involving the U.S. squad. The NBCU owned broadcast network Telemundo will televise 33 matches in Spanish with cable partner Universo the remaining 31 matches. For both Fox and Telemundo, it will mark the third time they will be covering the Women’s World Cup.

The 64 World cup matches will be played in five locations across Australia and four in New Zealand. The nine locations are spread across four different time zones. Compared to Eastern Time in the U.S., the time difference ranges from 12 to 16 hours “ahead”. For Pacific Time the time difference ranges from 15 to 19 hours “ahead”. With the time difference, 54 of the 64 live matches will start between 12:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. (ET). For the group stage the U.S. play all three games in New Zealand with the first two starting at 9 p.m. (ET).

For the “round-robin” portion of the World Cup, Team USA has been placed in Group E with Vietnam, Portugal and the Netherlands. The U.S. had defeated the Dutch in the 2019 championship game by a score of 2-0. Below is the schedule for Team USA in the group stage. All three matches will air on Fox and Telemundo. All times are (ET).

Friday July 21 vs. Vietnam in Auckland at 9 p.m.

Wednesday, July 26 vs. Netherlands in Wellington at 9 p.m.

Tuesday, August 1 vs. Portugal at 3 a.m.

If, as widely expected, the U.S. survives the group stage, they will advance to the Round of 16 scheduled for August 5-8. The quarterfinal matches will be played on August 11-12, the two semifinal games are scheduled for August 15-16. The third-place game will be played in Brisbane (host of the 2032 Summer Olympics) on August 19.

Sportico, citing Kantar, reported in 2019 Fox generated $85.1 million in ad sales, with Telemundo adding another $10.9 million. With 12 additional matches to televise, the continued popularity of live sports and a strong U.S. squad, both Fox and Telemundo are expected to generate far more ad revenue in 2023. In mid-June, Mike Petruzzi SVP, Fox Sports ad sales, said the network had sold 90% of all advertising inventory running ahead of 2019. In addition, Fox Sports notes, ad revenue is up by 50% compared to 2019.

The typical roster of product categories associated with live sports can be expected to advertise during the World Cup including automotive, insurance, financial, snack foods, QSR’s and telecom to name a few. Verizon will sponsor the pre-game program on Fox, Volkswagen will sponsor the halftime show and Google
GOOG
will sponsor the “bridge show”.

The announcement of U.S. roster was a star-studded event featuring Taylor Swift, Shaq O’Neal and the Bidens. Team USA will consist of 23 players including many familiar names to soccer fans. Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Kelley O’Hara will be participating in their fourth World Cup. Alyssa Naeher and Julie Ertz will be playing in their third World Cup. If the U.S. wins the 2023 World Cup, all five players will join Pelé as a three-time World Cup champion. Pelé had played on Brazil’s World Cup championship teams in 1958, 1962 and 1970. Rounding out the U.S squad will be four players participating in their second World Cup and 14 first-time players. Among the players missing from this year’s squad will be team captain Becky Sauerbrunn who is sidelined with a foot injury.

FIFA estimates that worldwide 1.12 billion viewers had watched some part of the 2019 World Cup either on television or online. Globally, the 2019 championship game had an average audience of 82.2 million viewers, a 56% increase from the 2015 finale.

In the U.S., the 2015 World Cup finale was a ratings blockbuster, averaging 26.7 million viewers on Fox/Telemundo. At the time, it was the most watched soccer game in the U.S. and, since then, has been surpassed only by the 2022 Men’s World Cup finale. The game was played in Vancouver, Canada and was seen in primetime across most of the U.S. The U.S. defeated Japan 5-2.

The 2019 World Cup championship was played in Lyon, France and started at 8 a.m. (ET). Despite another victory from Team USA, with an early morning start time in the U.S., the game averaged 16.9 million viewers on FOX/Telemundo, a 37% falloff. Next month’s finale will also start at an inauspicious time, 6 a.m. ET on August 20.

A bone of contention with women’s soccer players has been equal pay with men. Last March, FIFA announced that prize money for the Women’s World Cup will total $150 million, more than three times higher than the 2019 and a tenfold increase from 2015. Nonetheless, it is a fraction of $440 million from last year’s Men’s World Cup. ESPN reported the $150 million payout will be allocated to prize money for the teams which increases from $30,000 in the opening round to $270,000 awarded to members of the championship team. The remaining money will be allocated for the governing bodies of each team. FIFA has set a goal of financial parity with men and women by the 2027 World Cup.

In May 2022, the men’s and women’s U.S. national soccer teams reached a collective bargaining agreement ensuring equalization in pay with identical economic terms. This includes revenue sharing and World Cup prize money. The agreement runs through 2028.

FIFA will vote next year on the location of the 2027 Women’s World Cup. The four candidates are reportedly U.S.-Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and Belgium-Germany-Netherlands. The U.S., Mexico and Canada will be hosting the 2026 Men’s World Cup.