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As cohosts of the hit podcast Unfiltered Soccer, US soccer legends Tim Howard and Landon Donovan are capitalizing on America’s soccer boom ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup while warning about the rising costs of youth soccer’s pay-to-play system.
Although it’s the world’s most popular sport, soccer has historically existed on the fringes of American fandom. But this summer, the United States will host the World Cup, which is expected to be the biggest soccer event in history, and could mark another turning point for the sport domestically.
“In 1994, we weren’t ready for a World Cup,” legendary U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeeper Tim Howard tells Entrepreneur. “Soccer was still in its infancy, and American sports fans weren’t going to watch on the weekends.”
Today, that’s started to change. Major League Soccer, which was born out of that same 1994 World Cup, will now help provide the infrastructure for the tournament’s return to the U.S. more than 30 years later.
“In 1994, there was no league, so the jump from zero to 60 was huge,” Howard explains. “We’re in such an amazing place in soccer now that I don’t think the next leap is going to be this massive leap. It’s going to be a step.”
Howard and fellow World Cup legend and USMNT all-time leading goalscorer Landon Donovan are guiding the next step through their podcast, Unfiltered Soccer, produced with AMP Media.
Since launching in November 2025, the show has quickly grown into the No. 1 soccer podcast in the United States, capitalizing on the sport’s accelerating popularity ahead of the World Cup.
“Soccer’s growth in the United States is impossible to ignore right now,” says Richard Cooke, Vice President of Audio Programming at Sinclair, Inc. “Talent-led content is leading the media industry, and we believed there was significant potential in creating a platform where we can reach fans wherever they consume content.”
Keeping the ball rolling
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