MLB is one that the Premier League can catch’ – NBC’s Rebecca Lowe on the growth of soccer, the ‘incredible’ Emma Hayes and ‘profile-raising’ Mauricio Pochettino

“To get in at the beginning of when the Premier League really started in America, is a real honor. It actually gives me chills thinking about it,” she says. “It’s like, my baby.”

These days, Lowe gets recognized everywhere, and even though she is reluctant to acknowledge it, her voice in the media landscape has helped boost soccer into the mainstream sports conversation. But it hasn’t been entirely easy, Lowe admitted. For nearly 10 years, her work, and Premier League in the United States was still “hippy,” something that catered to a niche audience.

Now, though, with viewership in the millions, NBC’s weekly programming has brought football families together – and ignited excitement around the game 18 months out from the 2026 World Cup.

And Lowe still has so much to accomplish. Her new podcast, It’s Called Soccer, co-hosted by Premier League legends Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher is yet another attempt to impact the landscape – one that Lowe believes the country is ready for.

The London-born broadcaster talked about USWNT coach Emma Hayes, the Premier League, and why soccer can overtake baseball and basketball in the U.S. sporting landscape in this edition of Mic’d Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL US taps into the perspective of broadcasters, analysts and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.

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  ON THE GROWTH OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE

  You’ve been on NBC for 11 years now. How have you seen the game grow? Obviously audience sizes, right? It seems like you’re hitting new benchmarks every year in terms of viewing figures? Maybe interest in the Prem, or just in general?

  The growth of the Premier League has been incredible. I’ve been here over 11 years, and I feel like from where I started in 2013 to where I am, there’s been a really stark difference. When I came, we lived in Connecticut, I would see a Premier League shirt maybe once every six months. Now, I see one almost every day, and in the most random places.

  The other thing I’m finding is that people talk to me much more. The first three years, we were just introducing the Premier League to America. It was on before NBC had it, but now we were showing every game. It was in the same place every week. It was much easier to find. Covid helped, because with everyone being at home, and we were one of the first sports to come back. On June 17, I’ll never forget it. Everyone was still at home, and we were showing 10 games in two days. And it was insane work, but people were watching it.

  Since COVID, there’s been a real shift again. I get spoken to, and people want to talk about football at the checkout at the supermarket. That never happened five or six years ago. The other day I called (our provider) sort out our internet, and the guy was like, ‘What Rebecca from the Premier League?’ I’m like, “OK, can we just sort out the internet, though? Can we not talk about who’s gonna win the league?” That would never have happened seven or eight years ago.

  For us, there’s much more recognition out there. I see a lot more Premier League stuff. We have a little place down in the south of California, and it’s a sort of a big loop, and you can see into people’s houses if you go for a walk. They’re watching soccer. I’m just looking at their houses like, ‘oh, my God, you’re watching soccer!’ It’s growing really, really, really fast. There’s no signs of stopping. It’s on a trajectory unlike any other sport.

  NFL is maxed out. It’s always going to be the huge, huge, huge, biggest sport in this country. It can’t really get much bigger. That’s why they keep going to other countries, because they’re trying to grow in the rest of the world, because they already maxed out.

  Basketball’s always going to be big. Major League Baseball is one, I think ,that the Premier League can catch. I know there’s not a tradition in the Premier League like there is in the baseball world right now. But we’re making it, because every Saturday and Sunday morning, families are sitting down, having their breakfast together as a tradition. I’ve met families who say to me “Well, our kids have now gone to college, and now we’re like, this is a nightmare! The four of us used to sit, watching the football. Now they’re at college, and it’s like a huge hole in our lives.”

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  ON PREMIER LEAGUE FANDOM IN THE U.S.

  I don’t know if you can necessarily pinpoint a starting point for soccer in the U.S., but it kind of still, still feels like you can jump onto it. Like, if it’s a wave, like you can still jump on it before it’s broke. Bad metaphor, but you know…

  When I first moved here in 2013, soccer was a little bit niche, a bit hippy, and a bit European hipster. Now people are jumping on that bandwagon. And I think one of the things we do at NBC, and hopefully with It’s Called Soccer as well, is that we’re not ever talking down to the audience. Because I meet people all the time to honestly who say to me, ‘Oh my god, I just started watching you six months ago,’ and I’m like, “Jesus, where have you been?”

  Of course, I get people who’ve been watching it for 10 years. We’ve got to find a way, both through the podcast and the show, to talk to both of those audiences. Don’t talk down to the people who’ve been there forever, and don’t go over the heads of the people who are just six months into this. So you’ve got to find a balance, and that’s really, really important, because we’ve got to keep people coming on the bandwagon. And when somebody turns on a Saturday morning for the first time because their kid wants to watch it and the dad’s like, ‘well, what’s all this about?’ He’s got to understand what we’re talking about.

  It has to be welcoming and open. People have to understand. It doesn’t have to be inside baseball. It has to be open for everybody to jump on, because this is a big bandwagon. There’s a lot of space.

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  ON THE U.S. NATIONAL TEAMS

  I did want to ask you about the men’s and women’s national teams. One thing that has come up around Mauricio Pochettino a lot is the role Emma Hayes played in his hiring. What did you make of that?

  It’s incredible. We did the podcast with Ted Lasso’s Brendan Hunt, it was Women’s World Cup, and our last podcast was “OK, who’s going to come in?” Because the U.S. women’s national team were just on the slide, and I said, “You’ve got to get Emma Hayes.”

  I’m so grateful they went and got the best person for the job. With Emma Hayes comes such a credibility, unlike any other figure in women’s football – not just because of what she’s won, but also the way she is, her aura and her being and her vibe is so credible and knowledgeable and experienced. She takes no sh*t, she’s just such a good magnet to get people to come to women’s football.

  She was the first person Mauricio phoned. That tells you everything about Emma, but I also think it tells you everything about soccer these days, that he wants to call the head of the women’s team, because it might give him an insight into what his job’s going to be. That would have been a joke 20 years ago.

  I think U.S. Soccer has made some big mistakes in the past, quite recently, actually, with the rehiring of Gregg Berhalter, with the whole situation, and the whole thing was a disaster. But, these two decisions? Well played!

  ON POCHETTINO HIRE

  So, as for Pochettino? Yes or no?

  Yes! Would I like him to have signed a longer contract if I was a USA fan? Yeah. Do I think he’s leaving after the World Cup? For sure.

  But for right now, if nothing else, it just raises the profile of the job and that can only be a good thing to attract better coaches. This country has everything. What it doesn’t have is good enough coaches. We need better coaches in this country from the grassroots. So bringing in likes of Pochettino puts a spotlight on soccer, is profile-raising for the USA job, and little by little, adds to improving soccer in this country.

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  ON THE USMNT’S WORLD CUP CHANCES

  And last big, unnecessarily large question, what’s next for soccer in the U.S.?

  I don’t think they’ll win the World Cup…

  C’mon, believe!

  I think the quarterfinals would be incredible. What’s next? It’s a no-rush, upwards trajectory, as in, let’s keep building it. Let’s not rush it. Let’s not push people, force soccer down their throats. Let’s be very clever with marketing, very clever with branding, very clever with selling the game, but not so much that it starts to annoy people, and they get turned off by it.

  Just enough so it intrigues people, and then you just keep going, chip, chip, chip away. I’ll be long dead, but in 100 years time, I would say that the Premier League football will be second only to NFL. But we can’t rush it. We have to do it right. We have to do it at a steady pace, and just keep doing the right things.

  PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF MIC’D UP:

  Oct. 17: Jamie Carragher talks USMNT, slams Man City over legal case, questions Maurico Pochettino despite ‘great’ hire

  Oct. 24: Apple TV’s Andrew Wiebe on MLS playoffs, Lionel Messi’s ‘nuclear form’ and how Inter Miami can become league’s ‘greatest team of all time

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    ON IT’S CALLED SOCCER

    GOAL: So you guys have just started this show, It’s Called Soccer, with Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville. What do you think its position is in the US landscape, and what does it say about US Soccer at the moment?

    Lowe: I’ll ask the second question first. So what it says is, there’s a market [in the U.S.]. There are very few places left in the world where soccer is growing. In fact, I would say it’s probably only this country. And therefore, there is a market in all sorts of areas linked to football that still has a huge amount of growth. It’s growing, and there’s a massive potential for it.

    In terms of where do I see it sitting? I think if you ask a regular Premier League fan in America and you say, Do you know Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville? They will say yes, but we don’t actually get to see them very much. But of course, we know them from their playing days and maybe from clips here and there on the internet – but we don’t get to hear them. That’s certainly my experience, anyway. And so this is a chance for the American Premier League fan to hear from two of the best pundits in the world, two of the players that have won, between them, absolutely everything multiple times. They’ve been there, done it. They can answer any question you have.

    When I started on NBC, one of the biggest things they wanted was authenticity and credibility. And I think we’ve got that on NBC. I really believe strongly we have a lot of credibility and authenticity. Gary and Jamie are both of those things. There is a lot of space in people’s diaries still for another podcast, and there’s definitely space for another Premier League one, especially one that mixes two former pros who’ve done everything.