I Gazed Into the Future of American Soccer. It Was Incredible.

The elevator landed on the suite level of Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio, and emptied out into a miniature CES full of soccer's latest and greatest technological achievements. On July 24 and 25, as a sort of VIPs-only sideshow to the Major League Soccer All-Star Game, the MLS held this expo to demonstrate what's next for the sport, a commercial for what the league says soccer will soon be. That future, it seems, is rich with data--more than you can appreciate. Every slight movement and every split-second reaction is converted into data and then informs some other system: on-field reviews, advanced statistics, generative A.I. chatbots, and virtual reality experiences. The promise is that it'll unlock plenty of new, custom experiences on the field and for viewers at home.