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Posted

Even though my personal life(kids sports) is more entrenched in soccer by the day my MLS viewing has gone in the shitter with the Apple Deal.

Personally, I think I  need advertisements/reminders of games to drive my consumption.  I just don't have the timing of games built into my life and brain like CFB, NFL, MLB and NBA.  Full disclosure I didn't grow up with soccer and never gave the sport much care until my kids got involved.  I watch WAY more EPL than MLS.  I know every Sat and Sun  Aug to May morning games are going to be on.  Probably also ease of access with USA/NBC is a part of it.  Apples production is not great as well, feels very sanitized/detached.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 2/17/2025 at 6:05 AM, randomhorn said:

Yay!

When I signed up for T-Mobile, one of the things was “1 Year of Apple TV”…

And then almost immediately everything on Apple TV went behind an Apple TV+ paywall. I basically gave up on All Apple programming because fuck them, that’s why.

Posted

FYI. You can buy MLS Season Pass as low as $15 on eBay. People are selling the codes they received. Just make sure seller has good reviews.

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Posted
5 hours ago, TxEx84 said:

FYI. You can buy MLS Season Pass as low as $15 on eBay. People are selling the codes they received. Just make sure seller has good reviews.

Thanks for the tip. Just paid $21.50. Activation successful.

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Posted

I realized midway through the FC Dallas/Houston game on Saturday night that I should check to see if T-Mobile was offering the season pass for free.  To my surprise, they were.  I signed up, turned on the game, and a 1-0 deficit turned into a 2-1 FCD win.

 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Took a newbie (huge Cowboys and college football guy) to two Austin FC games to start the year and he was asking me all sorts of questions about MLS saying how fun the games where even for soneone who knows nothing about soccer. His family probably spent close to $200 on merchandise at the 2nd game they were so into it. As we're talking he got to, "Where can I watch the away games at?"

 

His response to MLS Season Pass was basically "Oh never mind"

 

Not a good look with the World Cup coming up

Edited by SimonBolivar
Posted
58 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Took a newbie (huge Cowboys and college football guy) to two Austin FC games to start the year and he was asking me all sorts of questions about MLS saying how fun the games where even for soneone who knows nothing about soccer. His family probably spent close to $200 on merchandise at the 2nd game they were so into it. As we're talking he got to, "Where can I watch the away games at?"

 

His response to MLS Season Pass was basically "Oh never mind"

 

Not a good look with the World Cup coming up

He spent $200 on merch at one game but $100 to watch every game, every team for the whole season was a bridge too far?

Honestly I think it’s a pretty fair deal. MLB is $150 for the year and you can’t even watch your local team. 

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Posted (edited)
On 3/13/2025 at 7:47 PM, tokamak said:

He spent $200 on merch at one game but $100 to watch every game, every team for the whole season was a bridge too far?

Honestly I think it’s a pretty fair deal. MLB is $150 for the year and you can’t even watch your local team. 

He didn't even seem interested in what the price was, more like he knows he's not adding another streaming service for something hes casually interested in. The merch in the stadium was mostly for his kid, but yeah doesn't make much sense.

 

Also you could get season pass for like $60 on ebay. It's the only service I'm paying for right now on TV but still a tough pull for adding fans.

Edited by SimonBolivar
Posted

Personal opinion, if ESPN, Fox, ABC, TNT, etc wanted MLS on tv, it’d be on tv. But MLS is up against March Madness, the end of the NBA regular season and playoffs, the end of the NHL regular season and playoffs, MLB, NASCAR, and then college football and the NFL at the end. Outside of some Messi games, what’s going to draw in viewers?

Posted

Nobody watches MLB or regular season NBA. NASCAR? That’s not the same demographic lol. The Apple deal is so dumb and all so they could bring Messi over idk. I hate switching over to apple even to watch my own team and I’m definitely not doing it to casually watch a random game. If it was streaming on network (my direct tv stream lets me flip between live sports v easily) I would watch more MLS. A lot more. 

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Posted (edited)
23 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

Also you could get season pass for like $60 on ebay. It's the only service I'm paying for right now on TV but still a tough pull for adding fans.

But that's on top of needing Apple+ or whatever, right? 

19 hours ago, randomhorn said:

Personal opinion, if ESPN, Fox, ABC, TNT, etc wanted MLS on tv, it’d be on tv. But MLS is up against March Madness, the end of the NBA regular season and playoffs, the end of the NHL regular season and playoffs, MLB, NASCAR, and then college football and the NFL at the end. Outside of some Messi games, what’s going to draw in viewers?

But they had a ton more games on TV before the Apple deal. Like it already existed and was on TV and the league is trying to get more and more popular. 

Quote

The 2022 MLS regular season broadcast schedule features the largest USA network coverage in league history.

A record 48 matches will air on network television across ABC, FOX, Univision and UniMás.

MLS action will air on ABC nine times in 2022 with a total of 34 matches aired across ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2, all of which will also be available in Spanish on ESPN Deportes.

FOX Sports will showcase 34 matches in the upcoming year, highlighted by 27 on FS1 and seven on FOX, with twice as many primetime windows as the network’s 2021 slate of games.

Additionally, all 34 matches will air in Spanish on FOX Deportes.

Thirty-two matches will be broadcast in Spanish across Univision and UniMás.

In addition, ESPN+ will stream all regional broadcasts nationally, out-of-market, in the US and any nationally televised matches not aired by an English-language network will again be streamed live in English on Twitter.

In Canada, eight matches will be broadcast to a national audience on CTV, and TSN and TVA Sports will once again return with extensive coverage of Major League Soccer.

TSN will carry all matches played by Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC. TSN will also televise select CF Montréal matches, as well as additional MLS games between US-based clubs throughout the season.

TVA Sports serves as the broadcast home for CF Montréal.

This season meanwhile there are 34 games in total on national TV/cable which is barely one game per team. 

Compare the MLS coverage/reach to the WNBA's:

Quote

National

[edit]

This was the eighth year of a nine-year deal with ESPN,[71] the second year of a three-year deal with Ion,[72] and the first year of a two-year deal with CBS Sports and Amazon.[73][74] Select games also aired on NBA TV through the WNBA and NBA's shared ownership.

  • ESPN aired 25 regular-season games across ABCESPN and ESPN2. Additionally, ESPN aired the 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge, ABC aired the WNBA All-Star Game, and ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 exclusively aired the WNBA playoffs and WNBA Finals.[75]
  • Ion Television aired 47 regular-season games, exclusively on Friday nights. Select games were showcased nationally with others only shown to regional audiences. This was the first season Ion aired a weekly WNBA studio show.[76][77]
  • NBA TV aired 40 regular-season games.[76]
  • Amazon Prime Video streamed 20 regular-season games, 18 of which aired on Thursday nights. It also exclusively aired the championship game of the WNBA Commissioner's Cup.[74][76]
  • CBS Sports aired 20 regular-season games, with eight airing on CBS and 12 airing on CBS Sports Network.[78]

During the league's Olympic break, the WNBA announced on July 24, 2024 that a new 11-year media rights extension was made with ESPN/ABC and Prime Video, as well as a new deal with NBC Sports. These new deals, which were announced in conjunction with the NBA's new media rights deal with the three parties, will take effect starting with the 2026 season.

Local

[edit]

It just feels like it was a shortsighted move by the MLS to take the money and as a result seriously restrict where casual fans and local fans can view matches. There are a lot of people (like me) that are soccer fans and sports fans in general that want to watch their local team play 5 or 10 or 15 or whatever matches per season and they turned that into a pain in the ass. I'm not interested in paying to watch Charlotte/Nashville or DC United/Chicago or even spend $20 or $25 on a month subscription where I don't wind up watching one Austin game.

It seems like the move for MLS is to grow the sport locally/regionally and have people follow THEIR team/club - because there are much better soccer leagues out there that the soccer fans in America are already watching - on top of international soccer. It isn't like the NBA or NHL or MLB where fans of the sport are going to tune in marquee national matchups because those leagues play the game at the highest level - and because of that I would think it requires a different marketing strategy. 

The exception, obviously, is if you get superstars like Messi that already have a following - but if you're someone that only wants to watch Messi or (going back) Ibra or Kaka or whoever then you got paywalled just like anyone that only wants to watch their local club. 

 
Edited by ztejas
Posted
33 minutes ago, ztejas said:

But that's on top of needing Apple+ or whatever, right? 

 

Nope I only have MLS Season Pass not AppleTV+ but that's part of the confusion as well since it isn't bundled that really limits who watches the game. If it was with AppleTV+ then you'd get some casuals that happen to watch a game. 

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