Joel Bulkley
Fox Sports will use nine broadcast teams for World Cup 26 games at 16 sites.
John Strong (play-by-play) and Stu Holden (analyst) will do Team USA games for the third consecutive WC. Ian Darke and Landon Donovan are the number two team. Darke is well-known in the U.S. as a soccer voice from England, and Donovan a popular former U.S. star.
I’m not familiar with many of the other crews. I know some of the individual broadcasters. They are a mix of U.S. and international voices. I haven’t seen a game assignment list either.
Other teams: Derek Rae and former keeper Robert Green, Daren Fletcher and Owen Hargreaves, Jacqui Oatley and Warren Barton, Ian Crocker and Danny Higginbotham, Mark Scott (making his WC debut) and Cobi Jones, former U.S. player, Tyler Terens and Maurice Edu, veteran JP Delacamera and Lori Lindsey.
Fox plans 340 hours of WC coverage. That’s 208 hours for games and the rest for studio programs, pregame, postgame, ancillary shows. These add little for soccer fans, with many ads and few insights. They are geared for first-time viewers and generally boring.
Fox has some big names on the payroll–Thierry Henry (France), Ziatan Ibrahimovic (Norway), Clare Seedorf (Netherlands), Carli Lloyd (U.S.) and blowhards like Lexi Lalas, Clint Dempsey. Hosts are Rebecca Love, Rob Stone and others. They have several reporters for the easy stories and Tom Rinaldi for the tougher ones, plus rules analysts.
Telemundo/Peacock operate differently. The top team is Andres Cantor and Omar Zeron, with another person hosting from the game day stadium (Cantor/Zeron with Alejandro Berry on site for US/Paraguay); Number two team is, I believe, Jose Luis Lopez Salido and Jorge Calvo who will do Mexico-S. Africa, with Miguel Gurwitz hosting from the field. Number three is Luis Omar Tapia and Diego Balado.
They have a number of entertainment and music, culture specials scheduled in connection with the WC.
One of the most interesting pre-WC stories was from the Washington Post on how FIFA developed “super” grass for the 2026 tournament.
The Top 100 Players were ranked by Fox Sports in a January story (no byline). Top 5 were Yamal, 2 Mbappe, 3 Kane, 4 Dembele, 5, Olise. No. 100 was Pervis Estupinan (Ecuador).
Credit Shelby Swanson of the N&O for continued interesting stories on UNC sports like Roy Williams being the voice for North Carolina’s PitchCom that calls the pitches and makes fielding adjustments for UNC baseball. Williams, a UNC baseball fan of long standing, has been the voice in the ear for two seasons. It replaced hand signals by the coach which often were stolen by the opposing team.
Here are some news tidbits related to previous CSN stories where a lot more information was needed but not available for additional reporting.
The two Savannah Banana baseball games at Kenan last month generated $17M in direct economic benefit from visitor spending.
Duke’s Dec. 21 men’s basketball game with Michigan on Amazon Prime may be played at the Miami Marlin baseball stadium rather than MSG in New York to avert TV rights dispute with Fox. It’s an enclosed stadium.
Greg Olsen, the Fox #2 NFL analyst behind Tom Brady, won a Sports Emmy for broadcast excellence. Another award winner was “Not So Fast, My Friend” for outstanding extended sports special from ESPN on broadcaster Lee Corso. Emmys were awarded in 47 categories for 2025 programs.
Five new red wolf pups were born in Durham.
NFL QB Russell Wilson retires and joins the CBS studio NFL show with Kyle Long, whose dad is on the Fox pregame show. Former Steeler coach Mike Tomlin joins NBC as studio analyst.
Former UNC player Caleb Wilson was selected by the NBA as player correspondent for the Finals on ABC. He was one of five players named.
The golf cart barn at Chapel Ride golf course, Pittsboro, was destroyed by fire last month.
Several area golf courses including Occoneechee in Hillsborough are charging convenience fees (3 percent) to use credit cards for green fees. That’s a 3 percent price hike.
The President plans to spend $1.7M for fireworks in Washington, D.C., on July 4. The money came from National Park Service admission fees, the Post reported, while NPS maintenance needs total in the millions.
Former WCHL reporter Draggan Mihaillovich, the executive editor of 60 Minutes, was among the talented folks fired in the CBS shakeup.
News Emmys were awarded. 60 Minutes won two–outstanding hard news short form, The War in Gaza, and outstanding extended breaking news coverage, The Fires, before the pro-Trumpers fired much of the show’s staff.
The exciting Canes chase for the Stanley Cup is bringing a lot of smiles to the Triangle.