Why it Matters

I just came from Soccerex Miami 2026 at Inter Miami's Nu Stadium. Lots of panels and speakers. Three days at the center of the business of soccer in the Americas.

And before you dismiss this because you think it's only a sports marketing story: stay with me. My main takeaway was one question that few asked out loud. What about the casual fan?

And I think this applies to entertainment just as much. Because we're all so focused on our core fans and how to attract new consumers that nobody is thinking about the ones who come and go. Call it churn. Call it casual buyers. Either way, it's a strategic priority that the room is yet not having.

Because when we're in PR or branding, we need to understand who our emotional gateway is. Why they care about us at all. And in reality, this isn't just a communications challenge. This is the largest untapped revenue opportunity sitting directly underneath the biggest entertainment events in the world.

The World Cup just happened here. Millions of Americans who don't own a jersey, don't follow a club, and couldn't name a starting lineup sat in front of their televisions and felt something. They watched Vozinha become a king of hearts. They watched Argentina suffer in the way only Argentina can suffer and win anyway. They experienced what soccer actually is when it's allowed to be itself.

And then the industry moved on to talk about rights deals, international expansion and investment strategies.

Food for Thought

The casual fan is the most misunderstood figure in communications. The sports industry, as much as the entertainment one, treats them as a failed conversion. Someone who watched the World Cup but didn't become a season ticket holder, didn't subscribe to a streaming service, didn't buy a kit. A missed opportunity.

That framing is wrong. And it's costing us enormously.

The casual fan isn't a failed die-hard. They're a different audience entirely, with different motivations, different entry points, different influencers and a completely different relationship to the sport (or the IP). They show up in herds to watch Messi play at Inter Miami but don't know any other player, or simply don't care. That's not a weak connection. That's actually the most powerful one the sport has.

The problem is that our entire PR and marketing infrastructure was built for the fandom, and to catch new attention. And nearly 50% of younger Gen Z sports attendees are neither die-hard loyalists nor completely disinterested, as we explored in a recent edition. They are casual cultural observers with no strong allegiance and everything to be won. The communications architecture designed to reach them simply doesn't exist yet in soccer. And I'll venture to say, in entertainment neither.

If there is one thing I take from Soccerex, it's this: the casual fan represents an audience nobody has cared enough to understand because they looked like a failed marketing example. But underneath that, there are emotions and connective tissue we could tap into. An authentic connection yet to be explored. Not to convert them into season pass holders, but to understand that they could easily purchase a jersey, show up three times a year, and consume in the stands.

Emotional memory is a form of PR. Of branding. Of marketing. We just need to care enough to understand it and connect with it.

The die-hard will always be there. The casual fan is the growth. And right now, very few are building the communications infrastructure to reach them.