Rob Stone talks FIFA World Cup coverage, USMNT’s potential ‘crash out’, and Fox’s possible ‘last hurrah’

Few American broadcasters have covered more soccer than Fox’s Rob Stone. And for the first time next week, Stone will get to broadcast a FIFA men’s World Cup on home soil, as North America hosts the largest tournament in the competition’s history and the USMNT looks to make good on a once-in-a-lifetime home-field advantage.

Stone will anchor Fox’s traveling studio coverage throughout the World Cup, as he has done each year since the 2015 women’s tournament in Canada. The host talked with Awful Announcing last week about his expectations for the U.S. as a host country and the USMNT’s chances, as well as how Fox is approaching a competition ripe with political ramifications as part of the America 250 anniversary celebration — one that could be the last on Fox’s airwaves.

The opportunity of having this home tournament with the World Cup has been a light at the end of the tunnel for a while. Do you feel the momentum in the country heading into the World Cup is where you hoped it would be when we first learned this was going to happen, this generational event?

Rob Stone: When we first found out, live on our air, literally sitting in Moscow’s Red Square, that the World Cup was coming back in 2026, and that was in the year 2018, I definitely thought that here in late May (2026), that it would be louder, it would be certainly more optimistic about the U.S. men’s national team. But I understand society these days. And it needs to be in your face, in the moment, so you can’t give too much hype too early, or people won’t exactly digest it properly.

So having said that, I would have that there would be more now, but every time I walk around my neighborhood, or I go in the grocery store, I’m watching a television, or I drive on the 405, I see ads, I see things associated with either the World Cup or the U.S. men’s national team. So I think it’s here; I think it’s finally coming to our shores.

It’s definitely getting ramped up on the exterior, but the interior, meaning the Fox Sports world, since 2018 our executives have basically been saying [with] every decision they make, ‘How does this help the World Cup in 2026?’

What are you expecting in terms of the atmosphere at games? We’ve also heard stories about ticket sales and prices. I would imagine that will be less of an issue with the U.S. team, but what do you expect?

I think that’s one of the great unknowns. We are so used to every World Cup just essentially being a sellout. And now with an expanded format and more games and more minnows, if you will, invited to the Big Dance, I am curious to see what the stadium capacity is going to look like.

I think in the end, the buzz is too strong, the FOMO factor is too great in this country, and the energy around this sport and this event will provide you with packed houses from coast to coast.

Going to a World Series or a Super Bowl, all these things are fantastic. But there is nothing like the atmosphere and the energy around a World Cup game, particularly if it is one that involves your home country. I think in the end, places are going to be packed, the buzz is going to be palpable, people are going to want to be a part of this in any way imaginable.

And this is the way most of these big sporting events tend to go in the lead-up, whether it’s an Olympics or a World Cup. People want to talk about and write about these events, and until the games actually start, the trend is typically negative. Like, what’s the problem, what’s the concern? But once that ball is kicked, I think it’s just going to be this summer of joy and this summer of love around the summer of soccer.

What is the biggest U.S. storyline and something from a different nation that you expect Fox’s crew to be most focused on in the coverage of this tournament from the outset?

We at Fox have always been in favor of star power, whether that’s the people we hire like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Tom Brady, or the stars on the field. And obviously here this summer, you know it’s going to be the Lamine Yamals, the (Cristiano) Ronaldos, the (Lionel) Messis, the Neymars even, to whatever extent he plays.

I think we always go into these tournaments with thoughts and plans, but as we learned four years ago when Argentina and Messi lost their opening game to Saudi Arabia, you have to be able to pivot and pivot quickly. You can’t be a large luxury cruiser or battleship that takes forever to pivot and change direction. You need to have that speedboat mentality, where all of a sudden the conversation changes, and you’re ready to be nimble enough to handle it.

We’re surrounded by two GOATs that are still playing. Like four years ago in Qatar, we thought that was a farewell to Messi and Ronaldo, and yet these two players that are in the Mt. Rushmore discussion of the greatest players ever are still here and still at a really high level. I think that will be a fascinating talking point.

For the U.S., I think it’s almost an introduction to who a lot of these guys are. People know the Pulisics, and for the most part they know a Weston McKennie or a Tyler Adams, but for the rest of the roster, I see it as an opportunity to sell yourself to Americans, sell yourself to the soccer world as a whole.

This is a shop window for these players. You do well at the World Cup, there’s a big payday waiting for you down the road. I’m not saying that that’s what they’re thinking about, but that’s the reality, the opportunity that these people have.

For the U.S., they have a unique opportunity that we haven’t seen since, frankly, ‘99, when the U.S. women had that amazing run that summer where they can capture the hearts, capture the minds, capture the attention of this country with a successful tournament that needs a successful start.

So I think for the USMNT, so much hinges on that first match and what is their confidence level? What does that home-field advantage really look like? Are they playing with a refrigerator on their chest, or are they playing free and embracing this home-field advantage and this home crowd and these heavy expectations? They need a strong start in that opening game (in) L.A. and then heading north to the amazing soccer city that is Seattle and the embrace that they’re going to get for game number two. They need some energy right off the bat.

We used to talk about in our production meetings the World Cup being like a rocket ship. It’s gonna take off, and it’s gonna keep rising, and it’s also a marathon at a certain point. This World Cup, even though it’s longer, it feels like an Ultra-Marathon that you need to come out of the gates sprinting. Because there’s so many games and the U.S. is playing Day Two, the energy level and the awareness needs to be there right out of the gate. It’s not this build-up once the first ball kicks.

Do you think the team needs to go further than the Round of 16 to feel like this home World Cup was not a wasted opportunity?

I don’t, I don’t. I get it. I would love to see this team break records and reach the semifinals. I think Round of 16 is a really fair expectation. Some might even say it’s a bit of a stretch.

But I don’t think they’re going to lose an opportunity by reaching the Round of 16 at a maximum. This soccer culture has grown so much since 1994 when the U.S. last hosted a men’s World Cup. The tent is so much larger. It is an incredibly intelligent and passionate soccer base that now resides here in the United States, whereas in ‘94 it was much more educational in nature.

Having said that, we still need to educate and bring more people inside our tent. We want to be as welcoming as possible. But soccer has done nothing but grow in this country since 1994. This is another opportunity to make a real positive jump on that curve. And because the population is so intelligent and passionate about this game, they don’t need the U.S. to go into the semifinals.

People here are fluent on the English national team, and what’s happening in Latin America and what’s going on with the South Korean national team. We don’t need to educate as much as we used to, and I think that’s just going to help. I think this is going to be the biggest-viewed soccer event in the history of the world, and I don’t think that’s ever going to change, either.

But if they crash out in the group stage, that will be a big discussion, and that will be a big problem. That will be a failure.

We’ve seen many big names announced as part of Fox’s coverage, including some colleagues across the soccer media world. What aspect of the network’s broadcast plans is most exciting to you as we get this thing underway?

We’ve been used to being in Canada and France and Australia and Russia and Qatar, but this is kind of ours. And our colleagues are going to be watching our coverage here in the United States, and I’m excited to show them what we can do and that this sport matters to us as well.

I’m excited to take this World Cup on the road. In the past, we’ve been in a singular location, and essentially locked and loaded. This tournament is going to have more of a Big Noon Kickoff-type feel, to use Fox speak. And going on the road and being some place daily at that biggest game, at that biggest event, at that biggest moment.

I’m excited to take this tournament to the fans’ turf and being with them as they lead up, throughout, and conclude their day at a World Cup match.

Your ‘Coaches Corner’ show with FanDuel, how did that come together and what kinds of things do you think we can expect from picking those guys’ brains as the tournament rolls along?

These three guys have reached the absolute pinnacle of American coaching, and the things they have seen, the players that they have dealt with, the incidents that they had to manage are singular and unique to those three. And the fact that we’re able to tap into them ten separate times through the course of the World Cup is going to be amazing.

We always seem to get the player perspective, and I appreciate it, and I enjoy it. But coaches are dealing with so much else. What’s the locker room like? How do I properly build this team up to game one? If game one goes great, how do I deal with them? If game one didn’t give us the result that we needed, how am I going to manage those next couple days? What happens with tweaking lineups and how I manage that messaging, and how do I deal with playing minutes and egos and attitudes, or being an underdog or being a favorite?

These three have seen it all from an American perspective, and to have them hit pause and just kind of watch this as a fan, and Gregg Berhalter’s going to be watching it as a fan and as a dad as well, I think it’s a really great opportunity and I think the audience is really going to enjoy the unique insight that these three American coaching legends can bring to the conversation.

Gregg Berhalter, as the team’s head coach, was stoic, kind of inscrutable. Now, with Mauricio Pochettino, his contract is already a topic of conversation, with rumors swirling about club openings and things like that. How do you see him as a sports character for this summer for us all to consume?

Mauricio Pochettino is an interesting coach to me. He’s got that Argentinian background and that Argentinian World Cup intellect and expectation as well. And I think he’s done a really nice, quiet, thorough job of going through potential candidates and building this roster to maximize its capabilities, whether that’s in the locker room or on the field.

I feel like, and it’s the hope, we’ll find out more after these two tune-up games, that he’s getting the team to peak at the right time. Clearly, we haven’t seen them peak the way we want to, and I’m OK with that. I do a lot of college basketball and college football coverage, and everyone wants success at the beginning of the season. But what matters is how you’re doing at the end of the regular season and how you’re doing leading into conference championships or the NCAA tournament.

And if you look at it through that lens, Pochettino needs to use these two games in the lead-up to Game No. 1 against Paraguay as an on-ramp to the expressway. We need to be getting some energy and some momentum, and I think he’s got them in a good place to do that.

As far as the job conversations that have taken place behind the scenes for Mauricio Pochettino, we all knew that this was a short-term gig. We all knew that he was going to be in charge of the USMNT through the World Cup and then it was over. So if my deal was up in a few weeks, darn-tooting I’m looking around for my next gig and talking to people.

Is that going to slow down his process or his care level around this USMNT? Absolutely not. Do we really expect these coaches to coach 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Are we yelling at them if they take an hour-and-a-half break to watch a movie with their family? No, we’re not, because they’re human. So are we upset that they took an hour-and-a-half break to have a meeting with AC Milan to talk about their potential future? It doesn’t bother me one bit, because I know the class level that Pochettino runs at, and this will not be a distraction for this USMNT.

This World Cup won’t be an exception; politics always being a conversation. How do you expect Fox to cover that aspect of things if, say, as we saw at the Club World Cup, Donald Trump makes an appearance or is strongly involved in even a game, let alone the trophy presentation, things like that? Especially given that you guys are speaking to an American audience and it is on American soil, which is unique compared to covering a foreign leader?

I think we certainly are not going to lean into political coverage of this tournament. In the end, this is a sporting event and people want to watch sports. They want a break from everything that is happening around them, and sports and soccer offer them that opportunity.

Will we have our head in the sand about certain incidents? Absolutely not. Will we pile up on it and continue to badger you with news about what our president is doing or what’s happening with ICE? I hope not, and I don’t foresee that.

Will that be an element? Absolutely. If it comes into play, if it’s right in front of our faces and we need to discuss it. But at the end of the day, we’re here to celebrate this sport; we’re here to celebrate these stars; we’re here to celebrate this moment that we as a country, on our 250th anniversary, get to bring the biggest sporting event the world has ever seen right here on home soil.

Fox leadership has acknowledged, they used the word ‘rebalance,’ with sports rights. We know Fox’s deal with FIFA is coming to an end. I’m curious what the feeling is in a situation like that, being with the massive opportunity that this World Cup and all of them present while also probably being mindful of all of those dynamics. Does it feel like a last hurrah?

There’s no time to even think of this as a last hurrah, because I don’t think anybody at Fox wants this to be the last hurrah. And we also know, speaking of my people in production or whatever, it’s out of our control. I’m not writing the check. So control what you can control, right?

And this tournament is just going to be so fulfilling in a beautiful work sense, that we’re not going to take up brain space with that.

We would love for it to continue, but again, who knows what the world is going to look like? And we just have such a big workload in front of us and such an amazing opportunity that that’s what’s at the front of my brain, at least, is to make the greatest sporting event that Fox has ever put on the air and to be a part of it.

But I understand the point. I’m not naïve that yes, this could be our last World Cup. But I think you could do that with everything. Like, last winter was my last time calling bowling. I’m bummed, and I’m sad about it, but that’s the reality of what this sports television universe is these days. You’ve got contracts, but it feels like once those contracts are signed, you’re almost immediately up for renewal anyway. So that is not something that’s playing in my brain at all.