Fox had two hours to set the tone for five weeks of World Cup coverage. They spent a chunk of it broadcasting from an empty SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles while the actual atmosphere — thousands of fans buzzing around Mexico City's Estadio Azteca ahead of Mexico vs. South Africa — was happening without them.
That's not a quirky editorial choice. That's a fundamental misread of what makes a World Cup opening day appointment viewing.
The atmosphere problem
Compare this to Fox's last two World Cup setups: the 2023 Women's tournament broadcast from in front of the Sydney Opera House, the 2022 men's tournament on the Corniche in Doha. Both felt like events. SoFi Stadium, cavernous and empty at kickoff time, felt like a pre-season friendly nobody asked for.
The "U.S. Soccer House" at Venice Beach — home to Rob Stone, Clint Dempsey, and Stu Holden — didn't help. Aerial shots of the cramped, half-empty venue actively undermined any sense that a global tournament was beginning. If your own broadcast location looks like it has a attendance problem, you've already lost the casual viewer you were trying to hook.
Jules Breach, Chicharito, and Peter Schmeichel eventually delivered something worthwhile from Mexico City, but it took too long to get there. And when Shakira performed live during the Opening Ceremony, Fox kept cutting back to its three-panel studio setup. They chose a talking head over Shakira. Live.
The commercial that cost fans actual football
The broadcast team — Ian Darke doing most of the work, Landon Donovan largely along for the ride — was fine. Darke has always been reliable at a World Cup. Donovan, despite being one of the finest Americans to ever play the game, hasn't translated that status into sharp punditry.
But the real talking point wasn't anything said on air. Fox opted to run full-screen advertisements during FIFA's sanctioned mid-game hydration breaks — a first at any World Cup. The concept was already going to be unpopular. Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo chose not to run ads during the same breaks, which told you everything about where viewer goodwill sits on this.
FIFA's own guidelines require broadcasters to return to live coverage at least 30 seconds before play resumes. Fox made it back in time during the first-half break. During the second half, they returned after the ball was already moving. Fans watching the first-ever commercially interrupted World Cup match missed actual play on day one.
There are 102 games left in this tournament. The chemistry between Zlatan Ibrahimović, Thierry Henry, and Alexi Lalas will either develop or it won't. The production values can improve. But cutting back to a live match after it's already restarted isn't a chemistry issue — it's a logistics failure with a straightforward fix. Whether Fox bothers to make it is the only real question.
