"I'm putting this on my resume," said Kevin Akoto. He's not joking. Akoto and Austin Franklin are getting paid $50,000 to watch every single World Cup match from a glass cube in the middle of Times Square. All 104 of them.
FOX set up the installation and ran an open application process. Thousands applied, because of course they did. Franklin and Akoto got the gig based on their content creation backgrounds and, frankly, their ability to make a crowd feel something. Franklin has 200,000 TikTok followers. Akoto cleared 168,000 on the same platform. These aren't random fans off the street — they were cast.
What the job actually involves
The cube is 32 by 16 feet. Two 85-inch screens with soundbars and subwoofers. Reclining sofas. A foosball table. Snacks provided. No bathroom — which, after four espressos each per day, becomes a logistical problem that apparently requires strategic sprinting at halftime.
They don't live there. FOX has them in a nearby hotel, location undisclosed. But the commute into Times Square each morning, through the noise and the crowds, sets the tone for what follows: 39 days of consecutive watching, reacting, engaging and filming.
The late-night matches are the real test. When Times Square empties out and two teams are passing it sideways for 90 minutes, the energy doesn't generate itself. "My voice is already gone," Akoto admitted midway through the tournament. The goal is always to get outside, work the crowd, manufacture the atmosphere. Sometimes the match helps. Sometimes it doesn't.
The fans are the actual story
What Franklin and Akoto have stumbled into — or been carefully placed into — is something genuinely interesting. They are neutral vessels for everyone else's passion. Akoto supports Spain. Franklin got adopted by the Brazilian ultras, who handed him a piece of their flag and told him he was one of them now. One of them took off his jersey and gave it to him on the spot.
Thousands showed up for the Senegal-France match. Mexico, Brazil and Argentina supporters have come out in numbers. The Tartan Army. Norwegian fans "rowing" through Times Square. Franklin hung a Norwegian flag over a statue and pulled 1.6 million views on the clip.
This is what the World Cup in the United States has looked like from ground level — chaotic, communal, louder than expected. Franklin and Akoto didn't create that. They just had the best seat for it.
"Coming together, throwing away the outside problems and just coming together and having a good time," Akoto said. Four espressos deep, voice half gone, 104 matches to get through. The job is real. So is the exhaustion.
