30 years in the making: Kevin Casey’s journey to voicing the World Cup in Philadelphia

In 1995, Kevin Casey was sitting on the bleachers in a small gym at Eastern University in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, watching a college basketball game with his girlfriend, Aimee. He heard his soccer coach and athletic director, Wayne Rasmussen, doing the public address announcing.

“I leaned over to my girlfriend, who is now my wife of 27 years, and said, ‘I think I could do that. I’d love to give that a try,’” said Casey.

Casey, an education major, quickly approached Rasmussen with the idea. The 2019 Eastern University Athletics Hall of Fame inductee handed the role to Casey, helping kick-start a career that has lasted over 30 years and is now at the center of the largest sporting event in the world.

Casey, who is the de facto voice of soccer in Philadelphia, has served as the PA announcer for the first five 2026 FIFA World Cup matches at Philadelphia Stadium and will be there for the sixth game at the stadium on July 4.

While the goal of calling World Cup games has been on Casey’s radar since Philadelphia was announced as a host city in June 2022, his journey to this point began just after the U.S. hosted its first World Cup in 1994.

Soccer Balls and Jock Jam CDs

Growing up in the late 1980s, youth sports were seasonal. Year-round travel sports didn’t exist, so Casey played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. He really took a liking to soccer, which was just starting to gain popularity in the U.S.

One of Casey’s earliest soccer memories was watching the U.S. men’s national team defeat Russia at Franklin Field in Philadelphia in August 1989. He also attended the 1994 World Cup, watching Ireland face Norway at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“It was very reminiscent of what we’re seeing now,” Casey said. “Supporters’ groups from each nation were singing and chanting, sometimes at each other. In the end, everyone was shaking hands with each other, and there was no hostility, just positivity. That’s what we’re seeing now and what I recall from 1994.”

For Casey, it took him almost two entire games and 30 years in between to see a live goal at the World Cup. In 1994, the match he attended finished scoreless. On Sunday, June 14, Casey attended his second World Cup match, this time working as a PA announcer. The game between the Ivory Coast and Ecuador was headed for another scoreless draw until Amad Diallo scored a 90th-minute winner for the Ivorians.

Along with his fandom, Casey was talented enough to play Division III soccer for Eastern University, but stopped playing a year and a half in.

“I realized I was probably a little bit too slow afoot to compete,” Casey said. “That’s when I hung up the boots and picked up a microphone.”

While Casey was studying to become a teacher, he was also invested in his role as a PA announcer at Eastern University. During his first game behind the microphone, Casey pulled out all the stops. One of his dorm neighbors was a DJ, so he brought the DJ equipment and ESPN Jock Jam CDs to the arena, creating the type of game-presentation atmosphere common at major sporting events, especially basketball. Casey’s performance was well-received, which helped him earn more PA announcer gigs around campus.

Casey’s first professional opportunity came with the Philadelphia KiXX, a now-defunct professional indoor soccer team that played in the Spectrum. He started by calling the youth soccer games before the KIXX matches, but was then elevated to the full-time PA announcer.

From there, doors opened for other professional opportunities with the Philadelphia Wings and Philadelphia Phantoms. Casey also spent close to two decades working in minor league baseball. After graduating from Eastern University in 1998, Casey got a job with the Allentown Ambassadors before spending two years with the Atlantic City Surf and then 15 years with the Camden Riversharks.

Mr. Casey

“Going into college, I wanted to be a sports broadcaster,” Casey said. “Teaching was the safer option. I worked at summer camps in high school and always enjoyed being around kids, so I thought education was a good path for me.”

It took Casey some time to find his specialty in education. He thought he would become an elementary school teacher, but his first job was in special education. That role didn’t click with Casey, who then explored avenues outside of education.

He attended Temple University in North Philadelphia and earned a master’s degree in Education and Sports Management. While at Temple, he started working as a history teacher at Ann A. Mullen Middle School in Sicklerville, New Jersey.

“That’s when it all clicked,” Casey said. “As a kid, I had a love of baseball history, absorbing the sport’s history. That naturally rolled over into U.S. history. Once I got that position, I felt like I hit my sweet spot, and I’ve been teaching history ever since.”

Casey spent 10 years at Mullen before transitioning to Pitman High School in Pitman, New Jersey.

Primarily teaching sophomores, Casey enjoys diving deeper into history at the high school level, something he didn’t really have the chance to do as a middle school teacher.

“In middle school, there’s a lot of behavioral management, so I wanted to steer more towards the actual content of the class,” Casey said. “The running joke is that I just wanted to find out what happened after the Civil War. At the middle school level, you only teach up to the Civil War, so I wanted to find out what happened beyond it.

“That’s why I made the jump, and it’s been the best move I’ve ever made. I enjoy the age group that I work with, and I love the staff I work with at Pitman.”

Casey credits his mentor, John McAdams, for helping him pave his career path, both in education and in sports.

McAdams was the longtime voice of the Big 5 and college basketball in Philadelphia. His voice echoed around The Palestra, an arena considered the mecca of college hoops. He wore many different hats for the University of Pennsylvania until his passing in 2005.

“I was under the assumption that I could make a full-time career out of PA announcing, and that’s just not the case,” Casey said. “John gave me direction in that respect. He knew I was an education major, so he encouraged me to continue pursuing that while doing PA on the side. His advice really helped me figure out my career path and what it was like to work in this market.”

Opportunities arose at the University of Pennsylvania following McAdams’ passing. Later in 2005, Casey would also begin announcing for La Salle University. During his career, Casey would spend close to seven years announcing for Drexel University. While his days working in college athletics are mostly over, he is still the voice of the men’s and women’s soccer teams at the University of Pennsylvania.

A Major Opportunity

Casey had been working minor league and collegiate freelance gigs in the Philadelphia area for more than a decade. His outlook on his career as a PA announcer had changed. His goal was to be the voice of one of Philadelphia’s four major professional sports teams.

There was one problem…

None of the four teams had openings. The Flyers and the Phillies had Lou Nolan and Dan Baker, while the Sixers and the Eagles had Matt Cord and Gary St. Ours.

Despite the lack of openings in Philadelphia’s major sports market, Casey had established himself as one of the area’s top PA announcers, enough so that he would likely be in line for the next big opening in the city. Eventually, that job would come, and his reputation helped him achieve his goal.

The Philadelphia Union was announced as an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer in 2008. It was a full-circle moment for Casey, who was recommended for the Union’s PA announcer job by Rasmussen, who was working with the club as a consultant.

“Wayne really went to bat for me,” Casey said. “That was a guiding factor in getting the job.

“I was fortunate and blessed to be in the right place at the right time, and have a love for soccer. There was definitely a sense that I was jumping in at the right time, especially in 2010, when it was clear MLS was here to stay. It’s cool to say that I’ve been with the team since they started. There aren’t a lot of people who can say that or get that opportunity.”

On the World’s Biggest Stages

In 2025, Casey was behind the microphone for the FIFA Club World Cup at Lincoln Financial Field. He was pulling double duty, too. Usually, Casey is stationed in a booth on the press level, announcing goals and substitutions. This time, he was also serving as the in-stadium host. Casey relocated to a platform on the concourse to perform both roles.

“I absolutely loved it,” Casey said. “Being out on that platform and feeling the vibe of the fans was so awesome.”

In the back of his mind, Casey knew much more was at stake during the Club World Cup.

It was an unofficial audition for this year’s FIFA World Cup.

“There was definitely an understanding that this was an audition run, so you wanted to put your best foot forward,” Casey said. “It was an audition across the board, not just for me; it was for the stadium locations and in-stadium entertainment. Things went smoothly; it all gelled together. I felt good about everything.”

Casey’s feeling was right. The audition went well enough that a high-level FIFA stadium entertainment employee told Casey he would see him “same time, same place, next year.”

A weight was lifted off Casey’s shoulders after hearing those words. He first learned he would announce the World Cup matches in Philadelphia around Christmastime and signed his contract in the spring.

Before Philadelphia hosted its first World Cup match, the stadium entertainment team rehearsed from Monday through the morning of Sunday’s game. Casey did a lot of individual preparation early in the week. He focused on player name pronunciations thanks to the phonetic guides provided by the delegations of each national team. The latter half of the week was spent perfecting every minute of the pregame and in-game entertainment with the entire production team.

Casey was so busy with his preparation and rehearsals that he didn’t realize the magnitude of what he was doing and the stage he was on.

That all changed when Casey was driving to the stadium for the first game.

“It really sunk in when I was leaving the house for the game,” Casey said. “There were emotions, realizing what I was doing. Getting a send-off from my family was super special, and seeing how proud my kids were, it was such a cool experience.”

Before a crowd of 68,274 fans and millions watching on television, Casey welcomed Ivory Coast and Ecuador to the pitch in a monumental moment for soccer in Philadelphia, but also in Casey’s illustrious career.

His family had a chocolate cake and balloons ready for Casey’s arrival home, celebrating a moment that culminated a 30-year journey to the biggest sporting event in the world.

“I prepared for this for 30 years,” Casey said. “It’s really a culmination of every minor league script I read and college gigs I had. To finally get to this point has been a rewarding and humbling experience.”

Owen Boyle

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