Rob Stone has spent half his life broadcasting World Cups. This summer, he leads what could be Fox’s last.

NEW YORK — So much in American soccer is defined by change that sometimes the constants get overlooked.

But one constant will be front and center during the World Cup and hopes to be welcomed by longtime and new fans alike.

This will be Rob Stone’s 13th tournament between men’s and women’s, in a 28-year run that spans nearly half his 57 years. His first was in 1998, when he was a reporter for ABC and ESPN, and he worked seven for those channels through 2011. In 2012, he moved to Fox, where he became the lead studio host for every World Cup the network has aired since the first in 2015.

Now comes a summer like none before, from a logistical and personal perspective.

“The fact that it’s on home soil, you do allow yourself a moment to hit the pause button,” he told The Inquirer, “and rewind back to old MLS Cups in the ’90s and covering the U.S. team in ’98. And then do the math of where you are now, and the responsibility that’s on all of our shoulders. It’s a cool moment.”

The interview occurred amid mountains of preparation for the first World Cup with 48 teams and 104 games. It’s so much time and tonnage that Fox will have four studio hosts: Stone, Rebecca Lowe (borrowed from NBC), Jules Breach (from England’s TNT Sports and Channel 4), and Pien Meulensteen (from England’s Sky Sports).

» READ MORE: Fox plans to take its World Cup studio show to games, college football-style

“I’ll probably reflect better on it in late July when it’s done,” Stone said. “Right now, it’s like a refrigerator on your chest, and you’re just trying to catch your breath and be healthy and ready to run at a sprint pace on Day 1. This is a massive undertaking for our network, for sure, but I think more so for our country.”

Most of Fox’s studio coverage will come from the network’s Los Angeles headquarters, a perk of a home World Cup. But Stone will be on site at U.S. games, and perhaps other big ones, and is happy to be taking the show to fans. He has experience with it, too, as the host of Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff college football pregame show.

“College football and soccer have always, to me, been kind of blood brothers,” he said. They run in the same circles: it’s the same amount of passion and that energy and that tailgating and that tribalism. So I’m really excited that Fox is saying, ‘Let’s get out with the people’ and really do have our finger on that pulse.”

That will be the most true for the U.S. team’s second group-stage game, against Australia on June 19 in soccer-crazed Seattle. It’s the most-anticipated group game for many U.S. fans, not because of the opponent, but because of the expected atmosphere.

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“That home-field advantage from Seattle should be amazing,” Stone said. “And I am so happy for that city that they get the opportunity to host their national team, and not just in a tuneup game, but in a game that could absolutely determine where they go through the course of this summer.”

The studio sets’ locations hadn’t been finalized when Stone spoke, not least because there are a lot more security layers at a World Cup than a college football game. But the idea is as clear to him as it undoubtedly is to fans: to “have a much better vibe and be able to report that, and let the viewer understand a little bit to a better extent what World Cup soccer is all about.”

How does he handle the always-delicate balance of teaching new fans while not alienating diehards who don’t want to be condescended to? That exists in other sports, but it’s especially pronounced in soccer.

“It’s a really interesting conversation because if you compare the soccer tent in the U.S. to ’94, it’s worlds apart, right?” Stone said. “This is much more of a distinguished, educated soccer culture than it was back then in the early ’90s. But there’s still growth. There’s still opportunity for more.”

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The specifics of a home tournament come into play for him here, too, with the potential for even bigger audiences than World Cups already draw on U.S. television.

“We definitely want to make sure that the newbies feel welcome to come in with the soccer intellectuals, if you will, and make it one big happy family where we can all get certain levels of enjoyment out of it,” he said. “But we have to be welcoming to new people and that new generation of the soccer fan, and this is a great opportunity to do it.”

He added that he thinks “about the millions and millions of people who became soccer fans in our country because of ’94. We have another opportunity to do that this summer.”

Stone’s experience and professionalism have long drawn praise from across the industry.

“I mean, Rob Stone is American football for me,” Lowe said, only to realize her British roots had spun a double entendre. “I mean, he’s also American football, right? He’s American soccer.”

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Then she turned serious.

“His passion, his depth of knowledge, and his experience means that when you turn on your television, you are listening [to] and watching somebody you can be safe with,” she said. “There are so many avid football fans in this country who know everything about the game, and so does Rob. They need somebody on their screen reflecting back that level of knowledge, but also that depth of passion. He just gets it.”

Longtime Fox analyst Stu Holden played for the U.S. national team in the 2010 World Cup, which was Stone’s last for ESPN. The two have known each other well for a long time; Holden joined Fox in 2014 and quickly became its lead game analyst.

“He is, and will be, remembered long, long after he’s done in television as one of the most important people in sports broadcasting for American soccer,” Holden said.

Stone also can teach his Fox colleagues who don’t know the sport well. Though it isn’t to some fans’ taste, the network is unabashed about wanting to bring in big names from other sports and popular culture.

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“If you’re coming into a World Cup cold, I’m worried about you,” Stone said. “Alexi [Lalas] and I have talked about this for decades. Whenever a new talent comes in, and usually it’s a former athlete, we get to him or her really fast and [are] just like, ‘Hey, this literally is a marathon, and you need to be prepared mentally and physically before it starts.’”

As much of a grind as a World Cup is, he said this edition is “a grind-plus-one.”

For all the highs and lows to come this summer, the end also will bring a major moment. This tournament is Fox’s last of its 15-year contract with FIFA. The women’s World Cup will move to Netflix for next year’s tournament and 2031, and negotiations for the next round of men’s tournament rights haven’t started.

Stone doesn’t know what the future holds for those rights or for him. But he is aware that this World Cup could be not just Fox’s last, but his last.

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“I’m not ready to say it’s an end of an era yet, because who knows where the next men’s World Cup is going to go,” he said. “I’m 100% looking at it like I’ve got more to go, and I’ve got plenty more in the tank. … There’s certainly that possibility out there that’s it for Fox. And if it is, we’re going to finish with a bang, just like we started.”

The World Cup in Philly

Nine nations will compete in five group stage matches this summer, plus two more in a knockout game on July 4. Here’s what you need to know about those countries — and what those fans need to know about Philly. Click here for more.