This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.
The Super Bowl halftime show is arguably as iconic as the match itself. But take a sport like soccer and it’s a different picture. Despite the sport’s European bosses investing big money in pre-match entertainment, and plans for a half-time show at the next World Cup, it’s not certain that huge shows are something fans even want.
If you turn on this weekend’s Champions League Final, one of the biggest games of the year in global soccer, between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan, you’ll also get a pre-match show from Linkin Park. The game itself usually reaches a global audience of close to 450 million people, so the Champions League Final Kick Off Show should be a huge draw. Yet, despite this being its ninth year, the big-show concept has struggled to gain traction.
Paul Mueller, a sports business journalist based in Florida, thinks it’s down to cultural differences between the U.S. and Europe.
“In the U.S., the fans are consumers. They want us to buy hot dogs, tickets, jerseys and hats. In European football, the atmosphere is created by the fans. It's [created] by the chants and the singing and the kind of comradery,” Mueller said.
This is something non-American soccer fans will get a taste of first hand next year when the U.S., Canada and Mexico host soccer’s most iconic tournament, The World Cup. Despite the halftime break in soccer being only 15 minutes long, the sport’s bosses have announced plans for a full halftime show during the World Cup Final.
Soccer journalist Ed McCambridge, who’s based in Berlin, thinks it’s something fans are just going to have to get used to.
“Last season in the Premier League, ten of the clubs were majority owned by Americans. That includes some of the biggest teams in the Premier League — Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United.”
More than 130 million people watched this year’s Super Bowl halftime performance — compared to the average viewership of 128 million for the on-field faceoff between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
And McCambridge said soccer bosses could see music as a way of reaching people who might not be tuning in for the sport.
“In the next 10 or 20 years, every Champions League final, every World Cup final, will have a proper halftime show with a big performer,” he said. “And that would probably get more views and more clicks than the highlights of the actual game.”
It’s a prediction that some soccer fans might find bleak. But if clicks and views equal money, it’s hard to see the sport turning them down.
