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👰‍♀️ Invitation, declined. Just about everybody who was anybody attended last weekend’s wedding between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, even Dean Blandino. Not Sir Charles Barkley, however, who had no interest. “I don’t go to weddings or funerals,” Barkley said. “But I did get an invite, and I politely declined because I thought it was going to be a crap show.

🔍 Open investigation. FIFA is investigating Argentine fan behavior at the World Cup after two separate incidents of fans performing racist taunts towards popular livestreamer iShowSpeed, who is attending and streaming games via a partnership with Fox Sports. Speed, perhaps the most popular streamer in the world, is a Black American who came to fame in part because of his fierce love for the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, whose rivalry with Messi fuels much of soccer’s online fan culture.

⚾ Derby bound. Michael Irvin will be part of Netflix’s production of the Home Run Derby next week, the Playmaker told On3. Irvin has been one of Netflix’s most prominent sports personalities since the platform launched The White House in January — Netflix’s first original sports podcast — which Irvin co-hosts with Brandon Marshall twice weekly.

Read more of today’s top stories at Awful Announcing.

Millions of Americans dared to dream the impossible dream as Fox’s World Cup ad campaign so aptly described throughout the U.S. Men’s National Team’s run in a once-in-a-generation World Cup on home soil. Alas, many of those millions of Americans were left with the same feelings of emptiness and disappointment, as has become so familiar for men’s soccer in this country, when the USMNT’s run came to a screeching halt at the hands of Belgium in a last-16 tilt on Monday evening.

It was the fourth consecutive time the American men have exited a World Cup in the round-of-16, barring the disastrous 2018 tournament that the Yanks failed to even qualify for. As you probably heard many times throughout Monday’s telecast, one would have to trace all the way back to 2002 to find a USMNT World Cup run beyond the final 16; a quarterfinal berth that still proves to be the U.S.’s only in the modern World Cup format.

But judging by the social media reaction on Monday night and throughout the day on Tuesday, and the record-setting viewership figures USMNT games were putting up throughout this World Cup, there was a resonance about this team that hasn’t necessarily been the case in prior years. Fox is touting an audience of 30 million viewers for Monday’s game, which will likely increase once Nielsen releases its final tally. More than 26 million viewers watched the first knockout game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. And USMNT group-stage games were clocking near 20 million viewers. Those figures aren’t even counting Telemundo’s Spanish-language audiences.

To put these audiences in perspective, the USMNT averaged viewership anywhere from a solid Sunday Night Football game to the NFL Wild Card round during its run. The English-language audience for Monday’s game against Belgium will likely surpass the College Football Playoff National Championship between Indiana and Miami (30.1 million viewers) when all is set and done.

Obviously, the momentum of a home World Cup helped draw in a lot of casuals. This country felt the excitement in real ways. Fan fests sprang up across the U.S. Every sports bar became a de facto watch party for whatever game happened to be on. And, of course, the time zone convenience made this year’s World Cup much easier to consume than, say, 2022 in Qatar.

But perhaps an underrated part of the USMNT’s run in the tournament was the newly expanded format. For the first time, the World Cup featured 48 teams instead of 32. The result? More days between games to build momentum. Instead of a match every four days, as under the previous format, the U.S. played about once a week, guaranteeing a longer stay in the tournament regardless of performance. 48 teams also meant weaker competition, equating to more U.S. wins and more goals. (This was also helped by the U.S. hosting the event, placing it in a pot with other top-rung countries during the draw.)

Here’s a handy chart made by our own Ben Koo.

As you can see, the USMNT spent 10 extra days still alive in the World Cup this year as compared to the three prior tournaments, despite exiting at the same stage each time. That’s valuable time to keep the American audience engaged, and dreaming the impossible dream.

The step down in competition also created a mirage of sorts that this team might’ve had a deeper run. The Americans put 11 goals into the back of the net, more than double their previous four World Cup appearances. Additionally, the team won more games in this World Cup than any American team ever had in a single World Cup and equaled the combined win total of the past three appearances.

To be sure, this was the most talented roster the USMNT has ever brought to a World Cup, and advancing past the round-of-16 was a reasonable expectation to have. People’s high hopes were justified. But the new format helped build expectations to new heights as well.

It’s why the disappointment around this team is palpable. No longer are American soccer fans simply happy to make the final 16. We all saw the flashes of brilliance. Instead of sweating through two weeks of tight games capped off with a loss to a superior European side, Americans cruised through the World Cup for nearly a month, only to get trampled by a Belgian team that, by market value, isn’t that far superior to the USMNT.

For a solidly middle-of-the-road team like the U.S., the expanded format is a recipe for dreaming. Perhaps as the cadence of the 48-team World Cup becomes more normal during future editions, those expectations will be adjusted. Maybe there will be less stake given to the group stage. But for now, FIFA has successfully captured the imagination of soccer fans in America for longer than any prior World Cup. Keeping fans engaged longer could prove just as valuable as the added game inventory itself in how media companies evaluate the World Cup as a television product. (More on that below).

ICYMI, check out this incredible kid who can recite every NFL team’s schedule and result dating back to 2009.

Several of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies will be knocking on FIFA’s door in pursuit of U.S. broadcast rights to the 2030 and 2034 World Cups.

Netflix, Disney, and YouTube “are all interested in challenging Fox for the U.S. broadcast rights to the 2030 and 2034 World Cup,” according to CNBC’s Alex Sherman. The report adds that Amazon “could also enter the mix.” FIFA is expected to hold talks with prospective buyers in the next three months.

Per Sherman, FIFA plans to package both the English-language and Spanish-language rights for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups together, adding that “executives at various media companies are budgeting between $1.5 billion and $2 billion for the U.S. rights to each tournament across languages.”

One of many interesting nuggets from the report, however, concerned the ongoing World Cup.

Sherman noted that FIFA may look to bundle the English and Spanish rights together for 2030 and 2034 to avoid the “tensions between rival media companies airing the same games,” as is happening between Fox and NBC-owned Telemundo.

The report explains that Telemundo has claimed “some unknown population of English speakers” who are watching the games via Peacock, which has “dampened” Fox’s potential World Cup reach. According to a recent report by NPR, 20 percent of Telemundo’s World Cup viewers say English is their “primary language.”

It seems Telemundo has been intentional about this initiative as well. The network tapped actor Owen Wilson, who is not Latino nor known to speak Spanish, for an ad campaign ahead of the World Cup. A Telemundo announcer even broke into English during a recent match, thanking non-Spanish-speaking viewers for tuning in.

If NPR’s report is accurate, and one-in-five Telemundo World Cup viewers is primarily an English speaker, that is potentially hundreds of millions of viewers across the entirety of the World Cup that Fox is missing out on.

But this is competition, right? After all, there are plenty of reasons an English speaker could choose to watch on Telemundo. Peacock is cheaper than Fox One. The goal calls are more exciting. There aren’t full-screen commercials during hydration breaks. And a certain someone isn’t there.

Add this to a growing list of recent beefs involving Fox Sports.