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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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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.

 

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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
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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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Posted
2 hours ago, ztejas said:

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. 

I think you hit the nail on the head with this paragraph. If I'm a casual fan and I just want to watch soccer, and I don't care much about the teams involved, I'm going to pick Premier League, etc every time over MLS. They've got to get people invested in their local team.

So in light of the fact that the networks and ESPN are not clamoring for a bunch of Nashville-versus-Salt Lake City MLS inventory, I think the Apple deal is fine. $100 one time to watch every game of my beloved Houston Dynamo, plus whatever else games I care to watch for the entire season ain't bad in this day and age. No blackouts, no bullshit. Clear, simple. I don't have to go hunting for tonight's game or have multiple services. The NFL is starting to walk down this road and it's going to bite them in the ass eventually. I have to have the networks, ESPN, NFL Network, and now Amazon and Netflix to watch NFL every week? Nah, fuck that, I'll just do something better with my time.

They need to communicate better that you don't need to subscribe to Apple, I'll give y'all that. But this is just an MLS-specific streaming service that you happen to click Apple's app to access. MLB's TV situation is a total disaster in comparison. I'm not an NBA fan but I doubt it's better.

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Posted

I'll say this about the MLS Season Pass - I use it much more than I thought I would. 

Obviously for Austin FC away games, but I usually re-watch home games too.  I'll watch a random afternoon game on Saturday or Sunday.  I'll go back through most of the weekend's games and watch the 7-8 minute recap.  If I'm home on Friday nights, I'll turn on the Austin FCito game.

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Posted
On 3/16/2025 at 6:57 PM, 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?

I've been heads down in doc work the last few days, but nah. This isn't it. You're talking about blips on the schedule or things that don't put up a massive fight.

March Madness - A total blip - Basically 4 days of crazy, this week, from Thursday to Sunday and then it cools. Next week 2 days 4 games a day, 2 days 2 games a day. They lose maybe 1 weekend.

The regular seasons of MLB, NBA and NHL are pretty nothing burger - even their playoffs aren't as stuffed.

NASCAR? Not even the same target audience

Football - sure this has always been their fall killer.

But you do miss the real point, from basically next week until late August, the TV audience is WIDE OPEN. That's like 5 months!

And ...

18 hours ago, ztejas said:

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. 

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

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. 

This is the real thing. Their huge mistake in the Apple TV deal was killing the local games. I live in Boston, if I want to watch Austin FC, I gotta get MLS Season pass. But I can't even watch the damn Revs here! That's a crime (2nd rate, don't get me started on the stadium)

Despite being a 29 year old league, they are still growing. Sure you can get money, but if you aren't growing your fan base, you have a problem. The local games were a way to draw in the casuals and get eyes on the sport. Before Apple TV, my dad and BIL in Austin used to watch games on TV and chat occasionally about it via text. Now, radio silence from them for the MLS. It's that way a lot of places.

Right now the MLS is very stagnant, they could be losing fans. With all of the European leagues available, I know a lot of people are hard pressed to pay for more. And frankly you're only getting the fanatics for Season Pass, not the normies. And that's not a good thing.

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Posted
59 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

If I'm home on Friday nights, I'll turn on the Austin FCito game.

I'll watch, but half the time I'm asking myself "who was that?" because the feed is so bad. Much like some MLS feeds were on ESPN+ a couple years ago.

Posted
Just now, SimonBolivar said:

I'll watch, but half the time I'm asking myself "who was that?" because the feed is so bad. Much like some MLS feeds were on ESPN+ a couple years ago.

Yeah.  The feed isn't great.  Some of the 1st team feeds are great either.  I finally had to turn off the NYCFC game the other day - played in Yankee stadium with pinstriped touchlines and the wires crossing the middle of the picture.  I'm so glad that Austin has a dedicated soccer stadium.

Posted
2 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

Yeah.  The feed isn't great.  Some of the 1st team feeds are great either.  I finally had to turn off the NYCFC game the other day - played in Yankee stadium with pinstriped touchlines and the wires crossing the middle of the picture.  I'm so glad that Austin has a dedicated soccer stadium.

I remember almost cutting off an Austin @ RSL game in the ESPN+ days because the camera was a million miles away and just a dogshit production all the way around. I miss local commentators with Season Pass but the production quality is waaaay higher than it was with ESPN+.

Posted
13 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

I remember almost cutting off an Austin @ RSL game in the ESPN+ days because the camera was a million miles away and just a dogshit production all the way around. I miss local commentators with Season Pass but the production quality is waaaay higher than it was with ESPN+.

Last year you could choose the local feed instead of the national feed.  This past Austin FC game didn't have that option.  Maybe only on home matches.

Posted

Here's an interesting article The Athletic did a couple weeks ago. Survey of MLS executives on league issues. This is actually Part 2 of 2. Part 1 covered on-the-field stuff and has a lot of charts that I can't copy/paste. This definitely goes into the TV stuff that we've been discussing.

Spoiler

MLS anonymous executive survey, Part 2: Messi, rule changes, USL and the future

Paul Tenorio, Felipe Cardenas

33–42 minutes

One theme kept coming up in conversations for our annual survey of top-ranking MLS club personnel: As league officials workshopped potential seismic changes to the competitive format, including moving to a fall-to-spring calendar, sporting executives were actually included in the studies and analysis.

The more inclusive approach to studying the upsides and downsides of the impact on the business was a refreshing change for many who have worked in the league for a long time. The hope is that the small-group sessions with those executives might help the league find the right solutions at what feels like an inflection point for MLS with the U.S., Mexico and Canada co-hosting a World Cup next year.

As the league has grown and matured, the diversity of experience and opinion in sporting departments has evolved, too. The Athletic reached out to all 30 teams to take part in the fourth edition of this annual exercise. While some teams declined, 21 sporting executives opted to take part, and they were asked a wide variety of questions. Part 1, published Friday, dealt mostly with picks and preferences for the 2025 season.

Part 2 is more open-ended with an eye on the future. Execs were asked about several topics, ranging from USL’s push for first-division sanctioning, to a potential change to the MLS calendar, to rule changes and how MLS teams will fare in this summer’s Club World Cup.

In exchange for their candor, execs were granted full anonymity, and their answers to our questions are below:

Do you think MLS has taken full advantage of Messi and the upcoming 2026 World Cup?

In 2024, “Messi fatigue” became a popular attitude among fans on social media. When Messi first arrived, global coverage of his exploits in America became part of the 24/7 news cycle. Messi was doing what he was brought to the league to do: showcase it. But the presence of one of the most famous athletes ever has become tiresome for MLS die-hards. It’s an odd gripe for fans of a league that needs as much promotion as possible.

Messi is all over Apple TV’s MLS campaigns. He’s the face of the league, and if he plays in the 2026 World Cup, he’ll further his claim as one of the most important ambassadors in the history of American sport. That’s a nice story, but will Messi change MLS? And has the league done enough to leverage the Messi brand?

“Sometimes people say that Messi has gotten rammed down their throats,” one MLS executive said. “I just think: what else are they supposed to do? They’re trying to capitalize on the biggest-ever icon that’s playing in the league.”

“I don’t know what else they could do,” another said. “He’s visible everywhere all the time. The schedule is programmed around him.”

One CSO said that MLS “saturates” its fans with Messi content. Another said that giving Inter Miami certain financial concessions is a byproduct of bringing a player of his stature to a league.

“The league has to make sure that (Miami) have what they need in regards to their team and how they’ve gotten rid of players and brought players in and all those things. I’m not even complaining about it,” an executive said.

Said one sporting director: “I think going after the world’s best player and bringing them here shows that it’s pretty damn important and a pretty big statement.”

Said another: “I would say MLS has done a good job, but sometimes it’s overwhelming. It’s Messi this. It’s Messi that. It’s all Messi and I understand it. It’s a marketing thing. It needs to be done.”

There is frustration, however, that MLS is not moving forward swiftly enough. “What has considerably changed with Messi here?” asked a CSO. “(MLS) is afraid of changes.

“I think the awareness about our league has grown a lot since Messi’s arrival, everywhere in the world. People would have probably started to joke, if they haven’t already, and called the league Messi League Soccer. So you also have to be careful that it doesn’t become negative at some point.”

Maybe there has been too much promotion of Messi, but one can’t argue with his performances since coming to the league.

“I think that clearly Messi’s been a monster,” a CSO said. “And the real question now is what is this going to lead to after he goes?”

Is fall-to-spring scheduling good or bad for MLS?

As first reported by The Athletic last October, MLS is considering a change to its calendar to sync up with European leagues.

The CSOs were nearly unanimous that this would be a positive for MLS. (There was one GM who said he was “not convinced” it’ll be good, but was “hopeful” it would be.)

“We can’t keep playing where our season ends in October and then all of a sudden you play a round of playoff games and then you have an international break, then you play another couple rounds of playoff games, and you’re in a thick of it, and then you have another international break,” one CSO said. “I mean, you lose all momentum as a team. It’s terrible for our game, fans, everybody. I just don’t see how it works. And then the other thing is we’re not aligned with the rest of the world on the acquisition and transferring of players. And I think all those things are incredibly important in order to take the MLS to another level.”

Aligning the transfer window came up often with a group of sporting executives.

“We have to do it … if we want to improve the league like everyone wants,” one exec said.

Said another: Right now, “if we go to secondary markets, we’re basically asking for the team’s best players, and they’re like, ‘You kidding me? We’re qualifying for Europe. No chance.’ So either you grossly overpay or you don’t get your guy. Competing in the summer is going to be a little easier.”

Other GMs pointed to how it will elevate the playoffs.

“The biggest thing for me is our premier event, MLS Cup, at a time where we’re not fighting football. Right now, the playoffs start and playoffs go on (with international breaks), college and NFL football are on, my friends just kind of stop watching it. Having it at the end of May or early June, when there is not as much competition, is better for us.”

The GMs in the northern markets said it won’t make everyone happy.

“Depends on which team you ask. The southern teams will say it’s great, and the northern teams are wondering how often the southern teams visit the north in the winter,” one exec said. “There are challenges for the northern teams that need to be addressed through this scheduling construct, to no surprise of anyone. Not just games, it’s training, as well.”

Added another: “I know there’s challenges around playing in the winter months, in cold weather environments, but it seems like the league has plans and ways to mitigate that. If you ask our commercial department, there’s less enthusiasm. So there’s kind of the separation for me between the commercial side, in terms of selling those dates in a cold-weather market, and the technical side, which — I haven’t spoken to a (sporting) executive that thinks that it wouldn’t be a good idea.”

How will Miami and Seattle fare at the Club World Cup?

There’s a consensus among MLS executives polled that the tournament will be a difficult but valuable experience for both clubs, but there were some blunt reactions regarding the Sounders’ expectations.

“Seattle in that group – it’s going to be a bloodbath,” said one CSO.

MLS at the Club World Cup

MIAMI'S GROUPSEATTLE'S GROUP

Al Ahly (Egypt)

PSG (France)

Palmeiras (Brazil)

Atlético Madrid (Spain)

Porto (Portugal)

Botafogo (Brazil)

The drastic gap in both spend and talent between MLS teams and top European and South American clubs will be on full display. FIFA has now incentivized clubs with a $1 billion prize fund. That should be enough for the tournament’s best teams to try hard. Miami and Seattle will have a steeper hill to climb, but most CSOs believe that at least one MLS team will advance to the knockout round.

“Tough groups, but I think Miami will be second in the group and they’ll be in the knockout stage. I don’t think Seattle will,” said one sporting director.

“Miami is a little bit different, but I still think that they’ll both have a difficult time with the competition,” said another. “If I had to pick one team to advance from the group I’d have to pick Miami because everyone is always in awe of Messi.”

Quipped one CSO: “I think they’ll (both) massively struggle.”

“I think that Seattle is the better team for such a competition, because they’re the best defensive team in our league,” a team executive said.

“Miami, it depends if their golden goose is healthy,” said one sporting director. “He probably played in half the games last year. He’s a year older. He’s not gonna play more games.”

Miami’s veteran-led locker room features two World Cup winners in Messi and Sergio Busquets. Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium will host the inaugural match with FIFA president Gianni Infantino watching closely. So how far can Messi lead an MLS side against major international competition?

“This is anonymous, right?” asked one CSO with a laugh. “Because I think that FIFA loves Miami. Seattle is going to depend on how well they jell until they get there. They made a lot of changes. The odds are against them right now. Miami will find a way to get out of the group.”

Could USL’s D-1 league be a threat to MLS?

This question elicited the most “no comment” answers, as nine of the 21 respondents decided to pass. Those who didn’t offered a full spectrum of thoughts on whether USL – and its potential implementation of promotion-relegation – could ever threaten MLS.

“I don’t think we should see a new league as a threat,” one CSO said. “If you are the big player in a market, you better react in such moments with confidence. I always say that more competition is welcome.”

Some CSOs seemed downright miffed about the move.

“It’s stupid,” one said. “Just f—ing stop. You have an established league (in MLS) that’s beginning to thrive, and like, who are you?”

Added another: “Zero threat. No chance.”

A few other GMs offered more measured takes and a few good thoughts about the ripple effect it might have if USL does decide to move toward pro-rel – especially as it pertains to American players.

“My stance on USL is I don’t think they’re ever going to be a threat, but I hope they can be the best league possible,” one GM said. “It’s great they are being ambitious. If MLS wants to be ambitious, why wouldn’t USL? Every country with great domestic soccer leagues has strong second and third divisions. We need to create more avenues and pathways, so it’s positive, particularly for the American player. I hope we can all move past MLS and USL being competitors. Both leagues are trying to do their best to improve the sport. That’s how fans can look at the two different leagues.”

Said another: “It will be kind of like the Premier League and the Championship in England, where the money in the Premier League just got to a point where … you still have Englishmen penetrating into the Premier League squads and especially in the bottom half of the Premier League, but a lot of players are making their names down in the Championship and then going abroad. … I think that’s basically what’s going to happen (with USL).”

Most saw it as a bigger threat to MLS Next Pro than to MLS.

“It’s pitching the American people the culture of promotion-relegation, which is not easy,” one exec said. “I think medium to long-term it will be an attractive competition. I think it’ll make the life of MLS Next Pro even more difficult. I always thought Next Pro was coming to try to kill USL, and I think USL is fighting back. I think they are going to still be more relevant than MLS Next Pro, and they’ll have more independent clubs going to USL vs. MLS Next Pro.”

Added another exec: “It’s not a threat to MLS. Now, I think it’s an interesting model for them, and I think the grab for them is a lot of these markets surrounding big-market MLS teams. I think on the local level, it’s exciting for their league, but I can’t see them ever getting a market share of the big soccer markets and MLS that are established already.”

How does the new internal cash market impact MLS?

The 2025 MLS primary transfer window was one of the most active in recent memory, in part because teams could start selling players to each other for cash. What’s common around the world is now allowed (with a few restrictions) here.

“I think it’s one of the only new rules in the past three or four years that makes total sense,” one GM said.

Unsurprisingly, a few teams jumped in with both feet, and right away, GMs could show how the system they’ve wanted for years improves MLS.

“Without that mechanism, with almost certainty, (Dejan Joveljić) would be playing in Mexico right now,” one GM said. “So it’s good for us and it’s good for the league to be able to retain some of those players.”

The CSOs believe it is a “revolutionary” and “transformational” moment for the league.

“I think it’s tremendous for a couple reasons,” one GM said. “Let’s say (an international) club suddenly comes in and wants to buy Evander. They already know that they’re not getting him for less than what we just did internally. It’s raising the market value of our players instantaneously, because we’re not waiting on somebody outside of here to do it. And you’re keeping the money within the league, which is a good thing.”

Said another: “It’s going to benefit MLS over time because you’re going to keep the better players in our league, and we have to be incredibly careful that you also don’t just become a consistent seller of players, and I mean outside of the league, because then all sudden, you lose your competitiveness, your entertainment value.”

One more offered: “The league is evolving, and common sense should always prevail. If a player wants to stay in the U.S. and they have interest in the U.S., there should be mechanisms in place that allow that to happen.”

One exec offered a warning shot at an issue he’s already seeing play out, as teams start to “tap up” other MLS players.

“My concern is tampering,” he said. “With the internal transfer market, MLS has to figure out ways of protecting clubs.”

Still, as the league pushes to open up a bigger revenue stream in the transfer market, this is “a more opportunistic way for owners to generate value in players without an over-reliance on an international market that fluctuates,” one GM said.

More importantly: MLS needs to improve its on-field product. This helps accomplish that.

What can MLS do to get more people to watch?

The leagues faces the same issues it did when David Beckham arrived back in 2007. How do you attract more people to watch games?

MLS has healthy attendance. It fills stadiums across the country. Expansion has helped increase its relevance in more markets. But soccer, like most sports, is driven by media rights. MLS faces stiff competition on TV. Americans can watch the Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Liga MX and any number of other pro leagues. They also have a wide array of other sports offerings: the NFL, NBA, college football, MLB and NHL, etc.

“The reason why people don’t watch (MLS) now is as simple as you can watch anything all over the world,” one GM said. “You can watch American football, soccer. The amount of hours to dedicate a weekend to watching something, you can choose one of hundreds of things to watch. If you want basketball, no offense to MLS, but are you going to turn on the Serbian league? You’re not. You’re going to watch the best product.”

For many of the GMs, it comes down to the quality on the field.

“We have to capitalize on the World Cup to grow the fan base and viewership, and really it’s about increasing the quality of players and rosters and having exciting teams,” one executive said. “That’ll come with more changes to salary cap and rules and regulations and giving more flexibility to bring more players to the league.”

One common theme from GMs: the Apple deal is proving to be too much of a barrier for new fans.

“Change the format, change the salary cap, allow us to bring more attractive players,” one GM said. “But also they have to end the deal with Apple. It’s bad for the fans.”

Said another: “I think we have to be on more linear outlets. We have to be on ABC, NBC, Fox more regularly because I think a lot more people watched our games when we were in that space. I think Apple and the whole streaming thing is really innovative and it’s probably where things will be going, but I don’t think that MLS is the leader of that. I don’t think enough has been put behind the subscription model. You’re a different league when you’re a subscription-based league. I don’t think the effort has been put in like it should be. It’s like selling tickets. You need people out there selling. You can’t just hope that people are going to sign up.”

What is one MLS rule change that needs to happen?

The most common answer: declassification of roster spend. In other words, no more TAM players, U22 players, special discovery players, etc.

“Eliminate those barriers,” one GM said. “It would make the league better. Right now it’s way too restrictive. Look at what Toronto’s spending on [Lorenzo] Insigne. What if they spent that amount on five or six players?”

Said another: “Deregulating. At the end of the day, you can go through all these rule changes, and the CSOs are unanimous (on deregulation). I mean, everybody wants that.”

One answer highlighted the overall mood of CSOs as MLS seems to waffle about the league’s direction as World Cup 2026 approaches.

CSOs are “disenchanted with the direction,” an exec said. “There doesn’t seem to be a mission statement or a direction from ownership. They don’t have confidence that the, let’s call it less-ambitious owners, are going to change. And so (debate over smaller changes) is kind of pointless.”

It’s a fair argument. But let’s play the hits on other rule-change suggestions.

Discovery rule: “We have 30 clubs and five players protected per club. That’s 150 players protected and the majority are not signing the players they’re protecting,” one exec said. “They’re using it to not allow teams to sign players. As a league we need to bring the best players in.”

Luxury tax: “I’ve just been around a lot of NBA guys. The luxury tax – if you go over an amount, other teams should be compensated internally. Just to try and ensure that that parity remains in some form,” one official said.

Decrease the DP charge: Right now, MLS sets the DP charge at 12.5 percent, which means if you have three senior DPs you are eating up more than a third of your salary budget on that trio. Decreasing that charge would “just help you get one or two more players on your roster,” one GM said.

“This is from a time that 12.5 percent sounds like a good number,” another exec said. “Great. That needs to drop, and then you can have more money to put in the middle of a roster.”

Amortize fees in sale calculation: Right now, MLS teams must recoup all discretionary transfer spend in an outgoing transfer before they can convert incoming fees to general allocation money (GAM). The problem: that math is done based on the initial fee, with no amortization of money spent over the years the player was in the league. So, for example, if you buy a player for $4 million and he stays for three years of a four-year contract in MLS, you don’t need to recoup just that final $1 million of the final year of the deal. You can’t begin to convert money unless he’s sold for more than $4 million. Multiple GMs brought this up as an example of ways MLS can look to add more GAM into the system, which gives teams more room to spend.

“We have all these limits and rules on when you can get allocation on a transfer or sale,” one GM said. “Just eliminate all these restrictions on GAM. It’s not a cost to teams.”

The benefits go beyond just helping quality of play – they help the league build healthier storylines and championship windows that drive buzz in markets.

“We need to be like other sports where you can have a cycle or a window where you have a championship-caliber team,” the exec said. “Why can’t teams who are not as big spenders take advantage of a good era? Like Montreal in 2022.”

Increase senior roster size: As teams compete in more competitions, and especially as MLS continues to struggle in Concacaf Champions Cup, the need for more quality players has increased.

“How are we going to compete with the best teams in Mexico? With what we spend we should be way closer to it and we probably are, but how can we have rules in MLS where you can sign 30 players, but 33 percent of them are making $80,000 or less?” one GM said. “They’re kids. To build a strong roster to compete in MLS and multiple competitions … give teams a chance to have a 24-man roster. If you want 10 homegrowns, who cares? Let them sign 20 if they want to. There should be nothing stopping teams who want to take their senior roster from 20 to 24.”

On that note, one GM believes the supplemental roster actually hurts young American players.

“MLS has to find a way to have young domestic players treated differently,” he said. “There are so many calls to GMs (to trade for a young homegrown) who says, ‘No way I’m selling him, he’s off-roster (budget).’ The supplemental roster kills young players in this country. These guys are cap-friendly and nice to have around and good training players, but there is no pathway to succeed.”

What do you think of Leagues Cup? Will the new format help?

The impact of Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup title in 2023 set a precedent that the tournament’s organizers have since been chasing. An inspired Messi hopped off a private jet in Fort Lauderdale and proceeded to carry Miami to its first trophy. Messi’s arrival masked the tournament’s flaws, including lackluster attendance and a format that heavily favored the home MLS sides. The 2024 edition featured an all-MLS final for the second consecutive time.

Liga MX executives justifiably voiced their disdain for a tournament that has become immensely unpopular in Mexico. That led to major changes for 2025’s edition, which will run from July 29-Aug. 31. MLS will send the 18-team playoff field from 2024 — nine from each conference, though expansion San Diego FC takes Vancouver’s place – and the first round will feature only MLS vs. Liga MX matches. Travel across the U.S. and Canada for the Mexican sides has been significantly reduced, and intra-league matches are guaranteed in the quarterfinal round, too. More importantly, the domestic leagues will not be put on pause.

Some MLS CSOs have a positive impression of Leagues Cup, but overall, opinions are divided. If MLS and Liga MX are meant to build a lasting sporting relationship, said one CSO, Leagues Cup is a platform that can help with that objective. But will an overhauled format save the tournament?

“It keeps it around longer,” said one CSO. “I was a fan in the beginning, but we have too many interruptions during our season and our playoffs. We have to fix that. Our season has to be continuous.”

Another CSO believes that the end of Leagues Cup could come sooner than later. “I think overall (the new format) should help, but I don’t know if it saves it. I could see this being the last year of the Leagues Cup. They’re trying to force it to work because of revenue, but I think Liga MX blows it up, because I’m not sure they need it as much as MLS does.”

“I prefer Leagues Cup to U.S. Open Cup, but I don’t think (Leagues Cup) is a great tournament,” another sporting director said. “I just think it was lightning in a bottle because Messi got signed.”

An MLS sporting director whose club did not qualify for the 2025 edition of Leagues Cup said he was “not extremely disappointed” to be left out of the tournament. “I’m not convinced this is the thing that makes sense over the long haul,” he said.

Said another: “I don’t know if the new format is made to save the tournament. It was probably a reaction to some of the challenges we had. Can this new format be the next step? It’s a 2-year-old competition. I sometimes think that we shouldn’t be too aggressive with our expectations for such a new format.”

Opinions are divided. A number of CSOs see real value, and patience was a popular sentiment.

What area in sporting infrastructure needs more investment?

MLS has made massive strides across various areas of the league’s infrastructure. The stadium experience, for example, is a model for leagues around the world. There’s still work to be done, but MLS training facilities continue to set the standard for what a modern-day athletic complex should look like.

However, the product on the field remains an area for improvement and one that is consistently viewed as the reason why MLS is inferior to leagues across the globe. Interestingly, CSOs we spoke to had varying opinions on what the league should focus on to close that gap. The academy system was the prevailing topic for those who participated in the survey, but their opinions weren’t always aligned.

“I always think you can invest more in the academy,” said one CSO.

“Easy answer for me is the academy. I don’t think teams do academies properly here,” another one added. “A healthy academy is vital for long-term success.”

Said another sporting director: “I think MLS owners have invested a boatload of money over the years in the academies. They’ve invested a ton of money without enough return yet. So I would say that the second team and first team, we have to continue to invest in international players.”

It’s an interesting debate. If MLS wants to make bigger strides from a global perspective, increasing first-team spend is arguably the fastest way to do that. Player development is a challenge for leagues around the world, leagues that are over a century old. In its 30th year, MLS should accept that its youth system and academy methodologies are at best a work in progress.

“I would say salary cap. Is that an option?” asked one sporting director. “I don’t know how much return there is in the youth space by spending that much more. I think (MLS) Next Pro, spending more in that space could have a more robust standard for our second reserve league, which was a U23 league. So I’m not quite sure how much more you should spend there. The answer is all of them. Spend more on all of them. But the best way to help our league is to enable us to have more money to spend on players for our first team.”

Another MLS executive had a different opinion, saying, “Investment can also be in finding better ways or better strategies. I would say one area where I think we all need to invest more energy is domestic player development. Because to take the next step as a league, you also need a wider and better domestic player group. You cannot build the league only on international players, especially also with our rules.”

A more sophisticated approach to scouting was also mentioned as crucial to future success.

“I think over the next decade, you’re going to see a significant increase in scouting and analytics,” said a CSO. “Soccer is such a subjective sport that I think we’re still, as a league, not all the way there yet on analytics. I think if you were to talk to Major League Baseball, it’s such a number-driven sport. We’re not. Over the next decade, you’ll see, hopefully, tremendous strides in the analytics side of things, when it comes to even the assistance and aid of scouting.”

And if MLS switches its calendar to a fall-spring schedule?

“If the league changes, I’m going to say everybody’s going to have to think about their facilities,” said one team executive. “A lot of teams are going to have to invest in heated fields. If you’re playing all through the year and starting early, you’re going to have to do that to training fields as well because you have to be able to practice.”

Are there emerging markets from which MLS can scout and sign players?

As MLS scouting continues to evolve, clubs have gradually expanded their recruiting networks outside of traditional markets. South America remains a go-to region to find both experienced players and U22 prospects. Argentina’s place in world soccer and Messi’s influence elevates the perception that players from that country are virtual locks to succeed in America.

Thiago Almada, whom Atlanta acquired and then sold for an MLS-record fee, stands out as both a financial success and an example of how inflated expectations can fall short on the pitch. We asked CSOs if other markets have begun to emerge that could break with the tradition of signing Latin American players. South America, said one CSO, is also “massively overpriced.” A pair of CSOs held back their opinions in order to safeguard their own trade secrets.

“I would prefer to not comment on any specific leagues, but I think you’re starting to see more and more sophisticated chief soccer officers and scouting departments that are fishing in ponds that maybe they haven’t traditionally been fishing,” said one executive.

“Emerging market? Absolutely, but I won’t talk about it. They’re not emerging markets if we talk about them,” said another. This CSO added that Europe has become a more fruitful market for MLS clubs. The influx of European players of late proves his point.

“You can argue that there’s a Big Five league or two where you can still scout a player from a dollars and cents perspective,” he said. “You can still strike deals in those leagues, for sure. So, yeah, emerging markets don’t have to be Uruguay or Australia or somewhere in Asia. It can definitely be Poland.”

“With the amount of money that teams are spending, we’re now getting into countries that in the past … for one we’re getting into countries like France,” said another executive. “We’re getting into top-flight teams in top leagues, and we’re now participating in that market. It’s more on a transfer level. We’ve entered an area that we didn’t have before.”

“It’s not really a new market, I wouldn’t say, but I think the Eastern European market, there’s still value there in terms of young players,” said one sporting director. “You’re not quite paying the European premium in that market yet.”

Africa was mentioned by several sporting directors as a market that remains somewhat untapped, but one with several challenges that MLS clubs aren’t equipped to handle yet. Seattle’s Cameroon international Nouhou Tolo represents a blueprint for what a successful African signing can deliver.

“I think Africa is really interesting, and I think it’s still probably under-scouted from an MLS standpoint, just for lack of resources,” said one CSO.

“Africa is still the most reasonably priced market with the most talent level, but (those players) need support,” said another sporting director.

“If there is one market we could all do a better job in, it’s probably Africa,” opined another.

One CSO pointed to the increasing reliance on data and analytics in soccer that has resulted in a more open market in regards to recruiting.

“It’s almost too much,” he said. “There are way more markets that clubs can assess in terms of player viability. The world is super small now.”

“There’s no untouched market,” said another executive. “Africa is a big challenge. Whoever can figure out a good way to go to Africa has a big advantage. In Europe, I think you’re seeing a lot more (signings). You saw it there in Atlanta, right? Crazy, the amount of money spent on (Miguel Almirón and Emmanuel Latte Lath).”

Japan and Korea were popular picks as emerging markets, as well.

What should MLS look for in its next commissioner?

MLS commissioner Don Garber recently inked an extension that will keep him in the job through the end of 2027. Presuming this is his final contract — Garber recently celebrated 25 years atop MLS and will be 69 when this deal expires — we asked GMs what they think owners should be looking for in the next commissioner.

The consensus can be summed up by one exec: “Someone with fresh ideas that hasn’t been a part of the MLS ecosystem,” he said. “They can push for change in areas where the league has felt like it’s been stuck.”

That was echoed by another GM: “New blood. New ideas. New energy. Someone coming in and taking MLS properly into the 21st century and trying to build it into one of the top leagues. MLS realistically is the only league in the world that can rival the Premier League considering the power of the country and the willingness of top players to play in the U.S. But for that to happen, a new MLS has to emerge.”

Others said replacing Garber shouldn’t be just about filling the commissioner role, but rather looking at areas that haven’t been reinforced at MLS HQ, where leadership has remained largely the same for over a decade — and longer in some cases.

“It’s way more than just a commissioner,” one exec said.

“A competitions commissioner,” another GM said. “You need a couple different people. And it’s not just like you get a commissioner that is excellent with media rights, but you also have to get somebody in there that is all about the competition, because, let’s be frank, our fans, even coaches in our league don’t even know what the playoff format is. … Don’s done an unbelievable job at building the league. There’s no doubt about that, 30 teams, it’s incredible. But you need somebody to come in and now solidify the competition and all the competitions that we play in, and all the formats that we play in.”

With frustration about what feels like a stagnating soccer product, some said a commissioner with experience in the global soccer business is necessary: “I don’t know that a non-soccer guy can take us to the next level,” one said.

“I like Don a lot and I think he did an amazing job, (but) the next frontier is to have someone more aligned with the game itself,” another said.

Others disagreed: “Somebody that gets us a (big) TV deal,” one exec said. “I don’t think it necessarily needs to be someone with enormous soccer knowledge.”

It really comes down to one crucial skill, one GM said.

“The most important job of the new commissioner will be how to manage the balance between the legacy clubs and the recent expansion franchises,” he said.

The same tough job Garber is navigating now, to varying degrees of success — and depending on who you ask.

 

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
Posted

All-star game in Austin this year.  I thought about going, but at these prices, my air-conditioned living room seems pretty good:

Sec 121-127: $105
Sec 130-134: $210-226
200s East side: $143-160
300s: $160-182
Non-Lexus Club West side: $193
Lexus Club: $321-326
Field Club: $588-782

Posted
9 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

All-star game in Austin this year.  I thought about going, but at these prices, my air-conditioned living room seems pretty good:

Sec 121-127: $105
Sec 130-134: $210-226
200s East side: $143-160
300s: $160-182
Non-Lexus Club West side: $193
Lexus Club: $321-326
Field Club: $588-782

Well my boss paid $1200 for his family of four to see Messi vs Dynamo a couple weeks ago. Turns out Messi never even set foot in Houston. Whoops.

Posted
1 minute ago, tokamak said:

Well my boss paid $1200 for his family of four to see Messi vs Dynamo a couple weeks ago. Turns out Messi never even set foot in Houston. Whoops.

I've never seen that many people at a Dynamo game.  Messi is just as impressive on TV, when he's actually playing.

Posted
9 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

All-star game in Austin this year.  I thought about going, but at these prices, my air-conditioned living room seems pretty good:

Sec 121-127: $105
Sec 130-134: $210-226
200s East side: $143-160
300s: $160-182
Non-Lexus Club West side: $193
Lexus Club: $321-326
Field Club: $588-782

 

I really don't see the draw of the ASG. It doesn't mean anything, but more importantly - who is it? If it was a top Europe team - they MIGHT play their B+/A- squad. But I'm reading MLS vs. LIGA MX, so you might be posting in this thread next ...

 

Posted
On 3/11/2025 at 2:45 PM, ztejas said:

I'll give my guys in Charlotte some credit for finding a way to get things OTA, even if it's on a delay. Paywalling a league that is trying to grow its exposure is friggin stupid, especially when it's on a service that has quite limited scope to begin with. 

https://www.charlottefootballclub.com/news/charlotte-fc-matches-to-re-air-locally-on-tv64

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