As the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across North America and Formula 1 arrives in Barcelona, two of the world’s biggest sporting properties find themselves in the same commercial conversation.
Both have spent the past decade chasing the same prize, building remarkably similar commercial structures, and targeting the same audiences in the same markets, while often using the same people to do it.
The World Cup opens tonight at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, the first of 104 matches across the United States, Canada and Mexico over the next month.
For F1, Barcelona marks the seventh race of the current season – but the commercial story of both properties increasingly runs through the same place: the US.
Professor Simon Chadwick, an expert in the geopolitical economy of sport, told Sector the starting point for both properties was the same enormous prize.
“The US domestic market for sport is the biggest such market in the world. Bigger than China, bigger than India, bigger than Saudi Arabia,” Chadwick said.
“It accounts for approximately one third of global sport industry size. In some respects you could say there is a kind of parallel development – a parallel engagement with the US market by both Formula One and football at the same time.”
The US market
Both properties have treated the US as the main target of this commercial era and both have seen the value of their American broadcast rights roughly double as a result.
F1’s US broadcast rights were given away for free when ESPN first picked up the sport in 2018.
By 2022, ESPN was paying $75-90 million a year. For 2026, F1 sought $150-180 million – nearly double again – eventually moving to Apple in a five-year exclusive deal.
US viewership grew from 554,000 per race in 2018 to 1.3 million in 2025, a 135 percent increase.
FIFA has been spooked by the advances and the developments that motorsport, particularly Formula One, has been able to make in the United States.
Professor Simon Chadwick
The World Cup has followed a similar curve. US broadcast rights for 2026 have risen 94 percent compared with Qatar 2022, with Fox and Telemundo paying a combined $1.25 billion.
Total broadcast revenue for the tournament is projected at $3.8-4 billion, up 22-30 percent on the previous cycle.
For Chadwick, F1’s progress in America has not gone unnoticed by football’s governing body.
“FIFA has been spooked by the advances and the developments that motorsport, particularly Formula One, has been able to make in the United States,” he said.
“That primarily comes out of Drive to Survive and Netflix and Gen Z engagement and an increase in audience numbers.”
“What’s really interesting about Florida and Miami in particular is you’ve got a local community of approximately 70 percent of individuals with Hispanic origin. There is a natural predisposition of people towards football and towards tournaments such as the World Cup.
“In the case of the circuit in Miami, you’ve got a very strong, very strategic, and actually quite a commercially aggressive relationship – which potentially poses a direct threat to the connection between football and the local community.”
The commercial architecture
F1’s commercial structure has evolved into something that increasingly resembles FIFA’s own tiered sponsorship model: global partners, team-level partners and race promoter-level activations operating as distinct but connected layers.
That evolution is most visible at the top end of the market. F1’s total 2025 revenue reached $3.87 billion, with sponsorship alone passing $2.5 billion – up 22.1 percent year on year, closing the gap on the NFL.
The luxury sector’s arrival reflects the same dynamic playing out at the very top of the pyramid. LVMH’s reported $1 billion 10-year deal with F1, and Gucci’s incoming title partnership with Alpine from 2027 mirror the kind of premium brand positioning FIFA has long attracted around the World Cup.
“This is simply what the global sports commercialisation model looks like,” explained Chadwick.
“FIFA has Americanised – it’s drawn from sports in the United States to create these sponsorship categories. The big players are being called by North America. FIFA is simply following.”
“Formula One, having followed what Formula One has been doing since 2017, 2018 – many of the people that have advised Formula One have also previously advised FIFA and previously advised American sports like the NBA. In many ways this is Formula One playing catch up rather than necessarily breaking new ground.
“LVMH is clearly investing heavily in Formula One, but at the same time is also beginning to make inroads into football too – not just through commercial deals, but LVMH owns Paris FC, a direct rival to Paris Saint-Germain.”
Chadwick also identified one area where F1 has genuinely broken new ground rather than following football’s lead.
“It’s notable how this is developing because we’re beginning to see Formula One sponsorships creating some first mover advantage for the sport,” Chadwick said.
“I’m thinking specifically of Aramco and its relationship with Formula One, which involves creating and introducing new forms of fuel.
“That kind of product development, specifically related to meeting the demands of a sport, is something that is actually quite different to football. There is something distinctive and differentiated from what FIFA and other sports are doing.”
The demographic shift
Both properties have been keen to attract younger, more diverse, more female audiences as a deliberate commercial strategy.
F1’s average fan age has dropped from 36 to 32 since Liberty Media’s acquisition, with female audience share now at 42 percent and the global fanbase reaching 827 million in 2025, up 12 percent year on year.
Formula One and football are working hard to keep their existing fans, but also to ensure that if they are seeking new fans, they’re able to keep them.
Professor Simon Chadwick
“The sport that you first engaged with, probably under the influence of parents or family members or friends, is likely to be the sport that stays with you for the rest of your life,” said Chadwick.
“When I was a kid, football and motor racing were the sports – and here I am now, a long way from being a kid, and football and motor racing are still my sports.”
“There is this view that to acquire a new fan costs five times more than to keep an existing fan. So Formula One and football are working hard to keep their existing fans, but also to ensure that if they are seeking new fans, they’re able to keep them – looking beyond traditional demographics to women, to different ethnicities, and to new markets in the Gulf, Southeast Asia and Africa.”
Where does this lead?
Asked whether F1 ultimately ends up looking like FIFA if it continues on its current trajectory, Chadwick replied: “The simple answer to that question is yes.
“The reason is because FIFA is doing it, the IOC is doing it, the NBA is doing it – everyone’s doing it. There’s a kind of inevitability about what’s happening in F1.”
But Chadwick believes the more interesting question is what comes next, as both properties confront disruption from AI and new technology.
“As its commercial activities mature and become more accomplished, it creates the question of in what ways can F1 create its own points of competitive advantage as opposed to just copying others,” he said.
“That has to be couched in terms of what additional value, what distinctive value, the sport can deliver to commercial partners, to broadcasters, to fans.
“The way in which relationships between tech companies and Formula One develop will be significant – especially around augmented reality viewing and consumption opportunities for fans.”
The parallels between F1 and the World Cup are real and what is clear is that the blueprint for turning a global sport into a commercial entity increasingly looks the same, regardless of what happens on the pitch or the track.
