Major League Soccer recently hired Radhika Duggal as its newest chief marketing officer, looking to build on the growth it’s seen since Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami last year—and with an eye toward new attention on the sport domestically as the World Cup comes to North America in 2026.
Duggal, who is also now a senior vice president for MLS and Soccer United Marketing, joins the league after serving as CMO for fintech and ecommerce company Super.com. She is also an adjunct assistant professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and the author of a book on consumer behavior.
“Radhika is a thoughtful, innovative and forward-thinking executive with experience building best-in-class marketing organizations in diverse industries,” MLS EVP Camilo Durana said in a statement.
Last summer, previous MLS CMO David Bruce left the league to take a position as chief brand and commercial offer at English club Sunderland AFC.
MLS set a regular-season attendance record in 2023 with 10.9 million visits, up from 8.6 million in 2019. The 30th team will debut in San Diego in 2025. MLS also boasts the youngest average fan among major team sports leagues in the US and Canada. It has put a particular focus on international development and unscripted storytelling after signing a global media partnership with Apple. Box to Box Films is currently working on an eight-part docuseries for the league.
Duggal said “how you build fandom” is by relying on “well studied consumer psychology.”
She cited three key elements in the equation for growing American soccer fans: ensuring that the product is high-quality, that it’s accessible, and that it generates positive emotions.
“What I think is particularly exciting for MLS is: It’s not just about us forming that fandom,” Duggal said. “We have an incredible ecosystem of partners that are going to help us do that. And so that’s, for me, what I’m really excited about.”
—Additional reporting by Asli Pelit