Like Beckham? The ramifications of his signing with the Galaxy are still being felt more than 16 years later. Expansion fees have grown from $10 million to more than $320 million, the number of players has more than tripled to about 800, average salaries are up more than 500%, according to the players’ union, and just six leagues in the world had a higher average attendance than MLS. It's a long list of accomplishments since the signed for him & the league. https://huddleup.substack.com/p/the-hidden-details-behind-david-beckhams
And yet the most watched season remains 96. Beckham moved the needle for TV ratings exactly once - against Chelsea, his farcial debut.
The misnomer on the MLS Apple deal is that MLS is locked into it like they can only make money from the $250m yr. Not even counting that thats a minimum amount with escalators the TV side of their deal is only for 4yrs. The rights will be up after the 2026 season. Its fool hardy to talk like that. I feel some are forgetting that or either willfully dismissing that. Do so at the risk of being wrong. Also whatever you think of MLS hierarchy in the rankings its not a question of other leagues displacing MLS in streaming MLS has already carved its stake in the area with the richest company on earth. They"re in the building in a away they never were able to get in on linear TV so far.` So even when the big boys NFL/NBA move heavy into streaming and it cuts MLS from huge rights fee increases them getting in early starts them off at a much higher floor than had they moved in late 5-10 yrs from now where they're fighting for scraps trying to justify why they deserve more.
Different TV era its easy to cherry pick Numbers from all sports are no where close to what they were in the mid 90s. I can just as easily make a argument if you take the current form of MLS in place it in the 90s TV landscape they're pulling evenmore then if not double the numbers then. The product is that much better and it likely would've retained and gained the initial fans that checked in and went woof. The interest on TV side in MLS has tangentially went up since the 2000s I feel this is a argument your making that isn't really based in fact. The league has never been more popular outside of the artificially high first years of curiosity. Stuff like MLS Cup Final that sort of is a landmark event for any league of how popular your league is. How many people can we get to tune into our big most important events. There was the initial peak the first 1-5 yrs then the dark ages before interest really started to rise. I'm sure i'm not the only one that remembers not too long ago where we would get hype and excited if a MLS Cup got over 1m, where as the measuring stick has shifted to "Oh I wonder if MLS can pull close to 2m, that'd be cool"
The highest rated Super Bowl was in 1982. Are you suggesting the NFL was at the height of its popularity 40 years ago?
31 more names added to Apple's coverage (but still no Richard Fleming) https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/appl...1-talented-on-air-personalities-to-the-mls-se
Well, NFL revenues have quadrupled in just the last 20 years. They're 40x higher than they were in 1981. (inflation only tripled in that time) So reality suggests you're very wrong. https://www.statista.com/statistics/193457/total-league-revenue-of-the-nfl-since-2005/ https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1989-01-19-8901040031-story.html You'll excuse me if I don't take your claims about MLS popularity at all seriously then.
It's not about ratings, it's about revenue. Ratings don't mean shit and 1996 is an apple and orange comparison in today's media world. Liga MX has better ratings than the EPL, yet when it comes to revenue....
If you mean because apple tv is worldwide... Still not relevant because epl is not big because of one player.
Basing progress on TV ratings is illogical. Constantly pushing the narrative is trolling. If you actually believe that MLS had its most popular year in 1996.... it's not worth the dialogue.
I don't see how MLS being early in streaming gets them better fees in 2032 - and the amount that networks will pay for non-exclusive games is extremely limited. They are all going direct to consumer in that time - The thought that ESPN is going spend good money for non-exclusive games that they can't stream is absurd. Going with Apple TV all-in removed them from the marketplace to ever get large traditional TV fees.
The NFL rights agreement goes through 2032. I wonder at times whether traditional TV will survive that long.
------------------------ Excellent summary /\ $79 for the season, say a 10 month season = $7.90 per month. killer deal in my opinion. For those who don't like the English TV announcers you can go with the Spanish announcers, try the radio feed or simply turn off the sound !
Twellman > Lalas Will be nice to finally not have to deal with Lalas I hope he doesn't end up on TNT doing the USMNT or worse him working the Women's National Team or WWC in NZ