Can World Cup mania grow MLS in the U.S.?

This is Planet Money from NPR. A few weeks ago, we accidentally recorded world history. I was calling up my friend, for an interview. Jenny. Hi, Becky. How are you? NPR sports correspondent there, Becky Sullivan. Becky had found the oddest watch party for the World Cup. Hi, Kenny. I'm, I'm on a barge. A barge here in Seattle. A like a boat. Like a really like a like a working boat? It is even more working than I could have ever dreamed. Becky is at a World Cup watch party in Seattle. In fact, this is the official watch party hosted by Seattle's Major League Soccer Team, their MLS team. Now MLS, as many of you know, is the top men's professional soccer league in The United States and Canada. But, also, maybe many of you don't know that, which I suppose is why a team like the Seattle Sounders have decided to convert a commercial shipping container barge into a welcoming space where people can watch World Cup matches. So you're on a boat, a really big boat. I'm on a boat. You wanna set the scene? Just describe it a little bit for me. This is a boat. This is an actual barge. The interior of the barge has been transformed into this, like, beer garden watch party situation. Like, down on the deck of the barge is, like, turf. There are, like, families. I'm, like, watching a toddler kick around a soccer ball. And then at the end of it is a gigantic screen set up with big, gigantic speakers. Surely, you can hear behind me. And on that gigantic screen and through those speakers is Uruguay versus Cape Verde. It's, in fact, Cape Verde's first ever World Cup. And, Uruguay is the big, big, big favorite, but the game has just started. Uruguay has a corner kick, it looks like. Yes. And, we'll see. Now even if you've never watched a soccer match in your life, this whole scene, it is part of one of the most fascinating real time business case studies you are gonna find because Major League Soccer, MLS, is facing what we here at Planet Money have come to call a real big problemtunity. The problem part of this is that in most countries, soccer is the number one sport. It's not really even a competition. But in The US, it is so far from being most people's favorite sport to watch. And and even if it is your favorite sport, like, is MLS your favorite version of soccer that you love to watch? But the opportunity right now is that Major League Soccer has the World Cup in town. It's happening, and The US is one of the hosts. And that seems like a once in a generation chance if all these MLS teams can somehow find a way to capture all of this World Cup attention for their local MLS clubs. Yes. There's a lot of different ways that …