The FIFA World Cup comes to a close on July 19. Over the past month, the tournament has transformed Boston as visitors came from around the world to join locals as they watched the games, not only live in Foxborough, but at fan fests and bars across Greater Boston. With soccer in the spotlight this summer, Boston’s own Major League Soccer team, the New England Revolution, is hoping to keep the enthusiasm going as the MLS season resumes in the last week of the World Cup.
For more details on how The Revs are capitalizing on the moment, GBH’s Morning Edition guest host Tori Bedford spoke with Brian Bilello, president of the New England Revolution and board chair for FIFA World Cup Boston, the local host committee. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Tori Bedford: Local matches are over, but we have more watch parties coming up. How do you think Boston’s World Cup experience has gone, so far?
Brian Bilello: I think it’s been amazing. I think if you look at fan sentiment across the country, I said in an interview earlier, that I think Boston may have won the World Cup. The reviews that we got about the venue here, Gillette Stadium, have been tremendous. And then I think the city, itself, just is a welcoming place for fans. It’s a really walkable city if you think about [it compared to] some of the other host cities. So, once you’re here in Boston, you can do a lot. I think fans who arrived here were really pleasantly surprised at both the litany of things to do, but also it’s small enough that it’s compact. And so, I think that combination really set Boston apart from some of the other host cities.
Bedford: This whole thing is really such a feat of coordination. So much juggling between renaming Gillette to Boston Stadium to permits for host parties to street closures, paying for security at events. Gov. Maura Healey, who recently described the tournament as a huge success, she came on Boston Public Radio a month ago, and she said that in getting to know FIFA, they, “don’t make it easy for anyone.” What was it like to be in the middle of all of that coordinating those logistics? Do you think this is going to build a roadmap to better prepare Boston for more big sporting events?
Bilello: Yeah, it’s interesting. The organizing committee, the Boston Soccer '26 committee that I was the board chair of, in many ways, that was our role, to sit between FIFA and everyone else and try to make everything work for our state and our city and then the other constituents that come into this, because when you have an event like this, I think the first thing you have to do is make sure everyone understands that it’s not really a venue event. It’s not really a Gillette Stadium event. It’s more of a regional event with a very specific focus around Boston because that’s where people want to stay and hang out and do all the fun stuff. So, then who benefits from these events? Well, you have the really direct benefits, right? But it’s really a tourism event. And so, all the restaurants, bars, hotels and other activities that do that, they benefit greatly from this. I think its just about helping everyone understand what this event really is and what it isn’t, right? It’s not like having a concert or a Revolution game at Gillette Stadium. It’s a very different type of event. In fact, FIFA takes over the whole venue. So, you’re kind of giving the venue to FIFA and letting them run wild with it.
Bedford: In terms of soccer, there’s always this constant fight in, I think, all of America to develop more of an interest in the sport. Do you think that having the World Cup here has sparked a renewed interest in soccer?
Bilello: I think of it more as, there’s a pretty big fire right now, and we’re feeding the fire with more fuel. I think there’s this weird misnomer that there aren’t a lot of soccer fans in the US or people don’t like or engage with soccer. When the US National Team played in this World Cup, the ratings were higher than the NBA Finals. So, I’m not sure how that translates to soccer needs more fans or soccer is not a big sport. I think some of the sports that have been around on a professional level for a longer period of time, I actually think people who aren’t engaged in sports that much think they’re bigger because they don’t know any better. But I think when you look from a sporting perspective, soccer is already a massive sport. I think for us, with the Revolution and Major League Soccer, we’re trying to tap into that fan base. But I’d say it’s more about capturing the soccer fans that already exist in our country than it is necessarily creating more soccer fans. And what you see today is way more casual soccer fans.
I’m 51 years old, so when I was growing up, soccer was more of a niche sport. You either loved it or you didn’t like it at all. Now, it’s more of a traditional sport in the sense of like some of us are still the soccer sickos, it’s our favorite sport. We love soccer. But a lot more of the people nowadays are just casual sports fans and they like soccer and it’s part of their sports ecosystem. And so, it’s a matter of getting them to watch one more soccer game and one less basketball game or two more soccer games and two less baseball games. It’s really more of a subtle shift in the casual sports fan who now has embraced soccer as one of the sports that they enjoy and will engage with.
Bedford: You mentioned that the interest is in engaging people, keeping the interest growing. What is Major League Soccer doing to keep more people coming in and getting more interested?
Bilello: We have a few things we focus on. Obviously, the product on the field is always going to be paramount to that. Having a great soccer league that’s exciting, fun and has great players. We do that by, both, recruiting internationally and bringing players over here, but also through what we call our pro-pathway, which is our youth academies, our second teams, which is like a kind of minor league, if you will. And really developing our own players regionally and locally to fuel that engagement, and frankly, the quality of play. So, that’s where it all has to start. I think over our history, which is not that long, if you think about either other sports leagues in the US and certainly other soccer leagues around the world, we’re a relatively young league still, but over the course of our history, I think we’ve shown that we’re dedicated to consistently improving that over time and we’re going to continue to do that. Then there’s the fan experience and how you differentiate from an in-venue perspective. And that’s a big reason why The Revs were looking to build their own stadium over in Everett; to create that really fun, awesome, unique experience. So that if you’re a soccer fan, you can be a fan of a European team, but when are you going to go see them play a game versus a local team that has a really great, fun, vibrant experience?
Then for casual sports fan, the goal is how do we create the best sports experience in Boston, so that when you come to a Revolution match, you’re like, “That was actually more fun than going to a game at TD Garden, Fenway Park or even Gillette Stadium.” So, that’s part of the goal, to create that venue for that casual fan who likes two, three, four different sports, they’re going to judge on where they just had the most fun and the best experience. Now we know with soccer, they’re open to soccer being their favorite, most fun experience. We just have to deliver and build the experience. So,I think we do a very good job of that today at Gillette, but both from a location size, etc., it’s a little bit more difficult to do and reach all the urban soccer fans that we have and that’s a big piece of why we’re looking to build this venue.
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