The winner of FIFA's Club World Cup gets more than bragging rights. $1 billion is on the line.

With falling ticket prices and protests from MLS players ahead of the tournament, buy-in from fans and players has taken the spotlight.

The debate that roiled soccer fans for generations was also its most unanswerable: Which clubs, on which continents, played the best soccer?

Unlike national teams that played one another in the quadrennial World Cup, there was rarely overlap between the top teams in Europe and South America or North America except for summertime “friendly” competitions.

The FIFA Club World Cup, which begins this weekend across the United States and runs through the final on July 13, expanded its previously smaller format in an attempt to provide an answer. It now features 32 teams, from six continents, playing for a total prize money pool of $1 billion.

“This is for bragging rights,” said Jill Ellis, the chief football officer of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, and a former World Cup-winning coach of the U.S. women’s national team. “Prize money is a part of it. But most importantly, this is a chance to be the first-ever club world champion.”

As the tournament opens, however, the money is more than just a small part of it. Falling ticket prices and accusations from Major League Soccer players that the league had agreed to participate in a “cash grab” that unfairly compensates them have raised the question of just how much buy-in the new tournament has from U.S. audiences and players.