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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 12:05 PM, randomhorn said:

Yay!

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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
  On 2/24/2025 at 9:30 PM, 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.

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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
  On 3/13/2025 at 11:46 PM, 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

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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 3/14/2025 at 12:47 AM, 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. 

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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)
  On 3/16/2025 at 7:14 PM, 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.

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

  On 3/16/2025 at 10:57 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?

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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.

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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]
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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
  On 3/17/2025 at 6:25 PM, ztejas said:

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

 
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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
  On 3/17/2025 at 6:25 PM, 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. 

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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 10:57 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?

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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 ...

  On 3/17/2025 at 6:25 PM, 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. 

Expand  

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
  On 3/18/2025 at 2:19 PM, 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.

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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
  On 3/18/2025 at 2:22 PM, 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.

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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
  On 3/18/2025 at 2:27 PM, 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+.

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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.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

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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
  On 3/19/2025 at 6:37 PM, 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

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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
  On 3/19/2025 at 6:47 PM, 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.

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

Posted
  On 3/19/2025 at 6:37 PM, 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

Expand  

 

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

The Des Moines Menace team that just beat SKCII in The US Open

image.png.f0e8caf7e33b3242a568c25c4de13edc.png

I watched the game, and it looked cold as hell. SKCII should have won, but it'll be fun to watch them again in the next round.

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Posted
  On 3/11/2025 at 6:45 PM, ztejas said:
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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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Posted (edited)

Anybody consider an $8 subscription to an IPTV provider? Run with a VPN, thousands of channels and it's rare I can't watch anything I want here or in Europe. Just came here to comment on Messi's goal on Toronto. 

Edited by beer
Posted

Yeah that's a weird process. What happens if two teams want to list the same guy on their "discovery list"?

Also, how does Miami apparently have unlimited money?

Posted
  On 4/8/2025 at 2:44 PM, tokamak said:

Yeah that's a weird process. What happens if two teams want to list the same guy on their "discovery list"?

Also, how does Miami apparently have unlimited money?

Expand  


The money, I get because the team is “managed” (should be “owned”, but technically it isn’t) by billionaire brothers.

The question is “salary cap”.

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