The most marketable soccer property in the USA isn’t American; it’s Mexican. The Mexican national team, also known as “El Tri,” plays numerous games a year in the USA that regularly outdraw games played by the U.S. national team. And millions of Latinos from across multiple generations tune in to Mexican games on Telemundo and Univision.
“There are two national [soccer] teams in the United States,” Doug Quinn, the president of Soccer United Marketing, said. “One with red, white and blue, and one with red, white and green.”
El Tri’s staggering drawing power has attracted a sponsor roster of the biggest names in sports marketing, such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, AT&T, Visa and Home Depot. Television superpowers ESPN and Fox Sports have also recently tapped into the rich ratings that Mexican soccer provides. National team games and Mexican league games consistently produce the highest-rated sports programming for ESPN Deportes and Fox Sports en Espanol. And Mexican soccer accounts for the highest-rated programming of any type for Spanish-language channels Telemundo and Univision.