this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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United States | News & Politics

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The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks—and Everyone Absolutely Hates It (www.wsj.com)
submitted 2 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml
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As the World Cup landed in the U.S. for the first time in three decades, international soccer fans have been acquainting themselves with the distinctly American pleasures of barbecue, highway traffic jams and Texas summers.

But there’s one American tradition that fans of the world’s most popular sport simply cannot tolerate. This summer, World Cup games have introduced commercial breaks smack in the middle of each half.

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[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

The US is money grubbing like never before. Many of these matches don't even have full attendance from what I read, because of astronomical hotel and parking costs and the like. A shitty little swamp in New Jersey is now the most expensive place in the country or something.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/motels-marshland-luxury-rates-welcome-world-cup-new-jersey-2026-06-13/

' Summary

New Jersey hotels hike prices for the FIFA World Cup
Rates near MetLife Stadium list as high as $5,300 per night
Parking spots going for $450 for night of final
MetLife to host eight World Cup matches, including the final'
[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

These mid-half money breaks are truly terrible. But they are so very American.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Not only American, Polish TV is choke full of ad breaks and in real shitty moments. Football matches are one of rare exceptions though.

[–] superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

That's nothing my friend. The NFL has TV timeouts after every change in possession.

[–] azimir@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 days ago (4 children)

When the US fist really started showing Fußball/soccer on TV it was such a shitshow. They kept trying to put in ad breaks, showing individal players while play was happening, and generally not showing the action.

The US doesn't get it yet. Whatever it is about Fußball/soccer. The broadcasters are too stuck on the money during the broadcast instead of the whole experience that the world understands.

[–] Weydemeyer@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

This may be true for the World Cup, but the MLS broadcast I think is much more aligned with how the sport is shown across the world.

[–] ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Interesting when you think about the two most popular "American" sports, American Football and Baseball. Both of these games have large amounts of dead time built in that advertisers and broadcasters are used to taking advantage of. You have all the time in the world while teams are setting up for plays, taking the field, coming off the field, etc etc etc. Neither of these sports are constant action the way Soccer is. It'd be interesting to find out the effect the dead time in American Football/Baseball has had on the advertising industry over the years, as well as on the advertising culture in the US in general.

[–] marker2002@midwest.social 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I saved this from 2017... Damn I'm old. But it depicts this pretty well. I couldn't imagine the updated 2026 version of this.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The issue I have with graphs like this is that there is a very restrictive view of what "live action" means. For American football in particular, they seem to limit their analysis to the time the ball itself is "live", in a play, and don't count time when the clock is running between plays. And a fair amount of American football strategy, though, is the time period just before the snap where the offense lines up for their play and the defense tries to position itself to counter. It is an essential part of the game, but since the ball isn't in motion, this analysis discounts it.

Similarly, a fair amount of the strategy in baseball is in how fielders are positioned. Its something that is hard to see on TV, although a good announcer will pick up on it and relay it to the audience.

Soccer can be fairly slow moving in comparison, even though the ball is "live" the whole time. I have seen some analysis online that state that there may only be 12 minutes or so of "attack" time per soccer game, with the rest spent on passing to set up plays and keep possession.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Also, both sports have actively participated in adding more ad time. American Football has specific "TV Time Outs" sprinkled through the action. Most people don't notice because they come earlier in the half. (The timing rules also change in the last 5 minutes of the half, although some of those rules speed up the actual gameplay to make more room for commercials).

A televised Baseball game also has much longer breaks between half-innings. Normally 2m 15s, it becomes 2m55s in the playoffs. It used to be that minor league games that weren't televised ran much quicker, because there was no clock between innings and play started as soon as everyone was ready. But, when the pitch clock came to the minor leagues it also came with a between-innings clock, no matter whether it was necessary or not.

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

The US should've never gotten the worldcup in the first place, we don't even like soccer particularly.

Guaranteed we paid FIFA bribes to get it.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Fusseball?

[–] meowcar420@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's german for football and the ß is pronounced as voiceless double s

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

So it is fusseball?

Or like, fooseball?

[–] meowcar420@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

fooseball

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

voiceless double s

Figures Germans would even have a special letter for SS but make it voiceless

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone -2 points 2 days ago

I think they mean table football, which is often called fussball.

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

haha no way did they really?

[–] farting_gorilla@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They are calling them "hydration breaks" and spinning it like it's to make sure players are ok in the heat/humidity.

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

They should just continue playing and let the idiot countries that bow to the corporations run their ads.
The rest of us should see an uninterrupted game.

[–] Moonrise2473@lemmy.ml -4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not a soccer fan, but I was under the assumption that during the middle of each half they always had ads since decades? Otherwise they show the empty field for 10 minutes?

[–] brennesel@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

A soccer game lasts 90 minutes. After 45 minutes, there is a half-time break that lasts 15 minutes. During this break, there are often commercials or updates on the game. But now, for the first time, there are also additional commercial breaks DURING each 45-minute half.

[–] Moonrise2473@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol and what happens if there's a goal during the ad break? Or they stop playing for an ad break using some BS excuse??

[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

They stop playing to drink water.

[–] JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone 6 points 1 day ago

Essentially they have gone from halves to quarters, but kinda wishy-washy about it.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As far as I knew they had always ads on the middle break, but I think it was 2002 the last time I saw a world cup game

[–] brennesel@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, during halftime break, but now it's in the middle of a 45 min half.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 5 points 1 day ago

Ah, ok I get it. So now they have 3 breaks. The regular one in the middle of the match and other two for ads.