Episode 39: Alan Rothenberg, Former President US Soccer, Author, “The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S.

ALAN ROTHENBERG was asked to be a part of the team that put together the 1984 Olympics and that led to his role as president of U.S. Soccer, which put together the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., and created Major League Soccer as well. As a young lawyer in Los Angeles, he went to work for the mercurial sports owner Jack Kent Cooke. Rothenberg jokes he was a sports lawyer before they were called sports lawyers. Rothenberg talks about his life and his sporting life in the book “The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer,” and in this chat with John Shrader. Recorded May 15, 2026 THE SHOW: American soccer’s frontline storytellers interviewed by Emmy Award-winning John Shrader. It includes insight from the editors of Soccer America, the nation’s longest-running soccer publication, founded in 1971. New episodes released weekly. You can get more information on the program, produced by the John Shrader Media Group, at https://shradermedia.com/John Shrader's 30 years of TV and radio sports broadcasting included MLS, NBA, NFL and NHL. He is professor of Broadcasting and Sports Media & Communication at the University of Nebraska.