U.S. Soccer Launches Ambitious $250M Plan to Expand Game Beyond 2026 World Cup

When the United States last hosted the World Cup, in 1994, the tournament's organizing committee walked away with a $40 million surplus. They handed it to the U.S. Soccer Foundation, the federation's charitable arm. Two years later, Major League Soccer was born. The money had seeded something.

This time is different. The 2026 World Cup belongs to three countries—the United States, Mexico, and Canada—and FIFA is running it, not a local committee. The financial windfall will flow to FIFA, not to U.S. Soccer's coffers. The federation will not inherit a sudden fortune. Instead, it has decided to build one itself, and to spend it before the tournament even ends.

U.S. Soccer is chasing a $250 million goal through a campaign called Behind the Dream. The money will fuel Soccer Forward, an initiative launched last year with a simple motto: "Soccer Everywhere for Everyone." The idea is to plant the game where it hasn't taken root—in schools that have no sports programs (one in four across the country), in neighborhoods where soccer remains a foreign concept, in communities that lack the resources to build fields or hire coaches. The federation is offering schools a blueprint for expanding their programs, bringing portable mini-fields into underserved areas, and providing grassroots organizers with fundraising guidance, grant-writing tips, and coaching resources.

In October, the Kansas City Current, a women's professional team, partnered with Soccer Forward to host an event at Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy. More than a hundred girls played small-sided games and participated in programming centered on women's health. They also assembled hygiene kits for women in need. It was soccer as a vehicle for something larger than the sport itself.

Equity has become central to the federation's vision. Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League and also of teams in Europe, donated $25 million specifically to grow women's soccer through research and innovation. The money signals a commitment to ensuring that opportunity in the sport is not rationed by geography or gender.

JT Batson, U.S. Soccer's CEO, frames the federation's role as fundamentally changed. "We already have this massive engine that is people who love soccer in this country," he said, "and the infrastructure of our professional leagues and clubs, and all the youth soccer across the country. That's a really powerful group that if organized and supported, can do some pretty incredible things." The shift, he explained, is toward seeing U.S. Soccer as in service to the sport, not the other way around—supporting the coaches, organizers, and volunteers who bring soccer to life in their communities, rather than dictating from above.

Dan Helfrich, a former Deloitte executive hired this month as the federation's chief operating officer, will oversee the overarching strategy, called In Service to Soccer. "It is our responsibility to drive lasting legacy from hosting the World Cup," he said. "We take that responsibility very seriously and believe that we will have national holistic impact that comes from this World Cup, not just sporadic impact limited to a few communities or cities."

The federation's finances have shifted dramatically. In 2023, expenses outpaced revenue. By the 2025 fiscal year, U.S. Soccer had taken in $257.4 million—a 36 percent jump from the year before, driven partly by sponsorship deals and fundraising tied to World Cup anticipation. That growth has given the federation room to invest in soccer development at scales that would have seemed impossible five years ago. The question now is whether the momentum will outlast the tournament itself.