With the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup coming to the Bay Area, KQED and Arizona State University’s Great Game Lab present “Bay Area Soccer Legacy,” a one-hour program that explores how Northern California became a dynamic hub of soccer in the United States.
This special airs on 88.5 KQED News on Sunday, June 21, at 6 pm. Latino USA, which normally airs during this time, will return the following week.
“Bay Area Soccer Legacy” is a production of The Great Game Lab at Arizona State University, which explores how sports connect us to the world.
“Bay Area Soccer Legacy” portrays the rich diversity of the region’s soccer subcultures and how they connect so many of our communities to the rest of the world. The program examines early attempts to launch professional leagues in the United States, the vital role played by Bay Area universities in growing the women’s game overseas, the importance of tech giants like Apple (with Ted Lasso and MLS streaming rights) and Electronic Arts (with its legendary FIFA video game series) in connecting us to the global game, and the groundbreaking work done by organizations like Soccer Without Borders and Oakland Roots and Soul to leverage the power of the global game to improve lives across our communities.
Laurence Scott, a longtime Bay Area sports journalist, hosts the program. Scott has been rooted in the growth of soccer in the Bay Area since his early memories of watching the San Jose Clash play at Spartan Stadium in the inaugural season of Major League Soccer. Scott’s enthusiasm for both the global game and the Bay Area comes across vividly as he journeys throughout the region, exploring ephemera of the game’s earlier days at History San José, examining the NWSL’s future with Brandi Chastain, chatting with a Leeds United supporter whose diaspora keeps growing, and detailing the work of social activists in making soccer pay dividends for youth in our communities.
With support from The Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Great Game Lab launched its Great Game Cities project that examines how five of the U.S. World Cup host cities (Kansas City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, in addition to the Bay Area) became connected to the global game. In each of these regions, the resulting program airs on local public media.