Men in Blazers turned soccer obsession into a media business

In September 2014, the first episode of The Men in Blazers Show on NBCSN asked its guest, Adam Richman, to imagine Tottenham players as food. It was an eccentric way to discuss a football club. It was also a useful demonstration of what Roger Bennett and Michael Davies understood: the game supplies the events, but the audience returns for the company.

The original podcast began in 2010. Bennett and Davies built an American following through conversation about a sport played elsewhere, at hours inconvenient to any reasonable breakfast. By the 2014 World Cup, ESPN was putting them in front of a wider audience. Television followed. The joke had found distribution.

Today, Men In Blazers Media Network produces soccer podcasts, interviews, social video, newsletters and live events. Bennett leads it as founder and CEO. Its subject is global football, but its particular expertise is translating that sport into the emotional vocabulary of American fans. A league table records movement. A good host explains why someone’s entire weekend moved with it.

“Football is the world’s greatest storytelling engine”Roger Bennett · Men in Blazers

02One audience was several audiences

The company’s more interesting expansion happened within the word “fan.” A Premier League devotee, a women’s soccer supporter and a follower of football across the Americas may share a sport without sharing a preferred conversation. Giving all three the same show would be convenient for the producer. It would be less convenient for the listener.

In January 2024, World Cup winner Sam Mewis joined as editor-in-chief of The Women’s Game. Its programming includes Friendlies, her interview series, and Good Vibes FC, featuring Mewis, Lynn Biyendolo and Becky Sauerbrunn. Here, professional experience informs the questions. The people discussing a dressing room have occupied one.

VAMOS, led by former U.S. international Herculez Gomez, addresses football in the Americas and Hispanic American fandom. Early Kick Off, produced with Footwork Media, supplies a daily morning news habit. These products solve different problems: keeping up, going deeper, hearing familiar perspectives. A network becomes useful when it remembers that attention comes with a purpose.

For a reader choosing where to begin, the decision is pleasantly practical. Choose the flagship for broad soccer conversation, The Women’s Game for women’s football, or VAMOS for its regional perspective. Watch an interview when a player interests you. Use a short daily show when the commute is shorter than the fixture list.

03The money arrived after the habit

In January 2025, the network announced a $15 million Series A led by Avenue Sports Fund. Investors included Bolt Ventures, RR McReynolds, The Chernin Group, Ryan Sports Ventures and Wheelhouse. The announced purpose was expansion ahead of the North American men’s World Cup, including women’s coverage, VAMOS and live programming.

The timing matters. This was a business with an established audience before it took outside capital. The investment bought room to expand an existing operation. Fifteen million dollars is the amount raised, however, not the price of building the network. Treating a financing announcement as a production budget would give a tidy answer to the wrong question.

For a business reader, the sequence is instructive. A recurring show creates a reason to return; specialist formats create more reasons; investment allows the company to serve those habits at greater scale. Raising money cannot establish the habit on its own. The subsequent acquisition of USMNT Only added a national-team-focused fan brand. It illustrates another route to expansion: acquire a conversation that already has participants. That choice carries an obligation. People followed a particular account for a reason; new ownership must preserve enough of that reason for them to stay.

04Three customers, one conversation

The audience consumes the shows. Sponsors pay to appear around those shows. Teams and federations seek ways to reach the audience. Men in Blazers operates where those interests overlap, with commercial partnerships, advertising, events and merchandise extending the business beyond a podcast feed.

Canada Soccer’s May 2025 agreement makes the arrangement unusually concrete. The federation provides access to coaches and players, production facilities, equipment and non-broadcast footage. Men in Blazers brings interviews and distribution across its digital platforms. Each side contributes something the other would struggle to produce alone.

The NWSL relationship, announced in 2024 with Ally’s support, similarly gave The Women’s Game access to match footage for its coverage. The commercial opportunity rests on expertise and familiarity: a sponsor enters a conversation people have already chosen. The editorial challenge follows naturally. Access is valuable only while viewers believe the conversation is worth their time.

Against ESPN FC, CBS Sports Golazo, The Athletic and countless independent podcasts, the network’s distinction is its recognizable host-led tone and collection of communities. Its humor makes space for emotional attachment. Fans can be knowledgeable and ridiculous in the same sentence. Anyone who has negotiated a Saturday around a kickoff understands the attraction.

05The fan knows where to go

In May 2026, Visa and Men in Blazers announced fan-powered City Guides, drawing on recommendations and video reviews to connect travelers with local soccer culture and small businesses. The product moves a familiar idea into a new setting: the community possesses knowledge worth organizing.

A listener who trusts a host’s conversation about football may also want help finding where football is watched. City Guides make that connection practical. Merchandise and live gatherings serve a related desire: to carry membership into the physical world. A media business can travel some distance on the ordinary human wish to find one’s people.

The lesson for another publisher is specific. Establish something people return to. Notice the distinct interests inside the audience. Give credible specialists their own editorial space. Then build adjacent products that answer an actual request. Copying the blazer, the banter or the sponsor list would miss the work that makes them commercially useful.

There are limits. Tournament attention can fade; a familiar host cannot be replicated by decree; a sponsor’s enthusiasm is not the same as a listener’s loyalty. The approach depends on repeat participation beyond the big event. Men in Blazers’ year-round leagues, women’s football and daily formats give it several reasons to keep the conversation going. The final whistle remains an excellent place to begin.