On ExtraTime they said they will put up all the player interviews they did on media day. Probably some other stuff as well.
Interesting. With money being somewhat tight at the moment, I’m wondering if I’m going to miss something by getting the MLS Season Pass in 1-2 weeks rather than tomorrow? EDIT: My preference is to get it tomorrow, of course, so that’s what I’ll try to do. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
My guess is that the player interviews will be available to watch all season. They so far have not announced any reason you should subscribe early so my advice would be to save your money (I know - easier said than done). In fact we already know the opening weekend will be free for everyone. It's unlikely but there is a chance they could do some promotional deals for those who are sitting on the fence.
If you're doing the full-season price, which is a much better deal, you don't save anything by waiting. If, for whatever reason, you're going to do the monthly rate, it would make sense to wait until March 1 after the first free weekend.
This is a stupid question, but other than a few national Fox broadcasts (I think they are a few), does this mean Quakes games will no longer be on Comcast sports or U-verse at all? So the only way to watch MLS will be on Apple TV?
"MLS embarks on new era with Apple partnership and debut of MLS Season Pass" (Yahoo! Sports - Tuesday, 1/31/23) MLS Season Pass on Apple TV debuts Feb. 1. (Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Hard to imagine not being able to DVR a Quakes game anymore . Although, the last few years, I stopped watching the games I recorded and just deleted them. I don’t know how many people in the Bay Area are still on cable and how many of those watched Quakes games. But with no cable presence, it sure seems like interest in the Quakes will decline a lot. And Californians who get the MLS Season Pass will probably become fans of an LA team (or POR or SEA or Austin, anyone who is winning). Maybe interest in the Quakes will become so minuscule that MLS will institute promotion and relegation just to get rid of this underperforming club.
The problem is not everyone who is a huge fan of an MLS team will get the MLS Season Pass. It's probably not a huge problem for MLS because It's already been announced that 40% of games will be available to watch free of charge (more than has ever been available before). On top of that subscribers of TV+ will have additional games available to them (don't know how much more). If I didn't need to see every Quakes games I would probably be happy to just watch what ever is available with TV+.
It's a huge problem because MLS is now invisible to channel surfers, which is to say most red-blooded men.
When an owner in MLS spends several hundred million to join, you can be sure part of the deal is that they will never be "relegated" to a lower division of anything.
Oh right, a bunch of games will be free — again, probably not the games of us small market teams, unless they want to show a beatdown. Now that I understand this Apple thing a little better, I am a little more nervous for MLS. Although, I guess Apple has a lot more to lose.
I’m gonna withhold criticism until I actually see what they create. The quality of Amazon Thursday Night Football telecasts has been STUNNING. If Apple are close to that with Quakes, Next Pro and Academy games then it will be more than worth it.
It's a problem but I don't think it's huge and over the course of the 10 year deal I think it will shrink to nothing. I don't think MLS was benefiting from channel surfers too much in the first place. Their TV ratings have always been poor except for maybe a few games and those games will likely be on Fox this year.
I think MLS has far more to lose than Apple does. In fact I don't think Apple has anything to lose at all. I don't think any Apple investor believes ratings are going to be better than poor and I can't imagine that they care as long as Apple is still making iPhones. MLS on the other hand needs to grow and right now they're on an island by themselves on Apple. I think it would be huge for MLS if Apple some day gets the Premier League rights and throws in MLS for free with it. Although that's many years away.
It's midnight on the east coast and MLS Season Pass is now available: https://tv.apple.com/us/channel/mls-season-pass/tvs.sbd.7000 Anyone subscribe yet?
The organization is fantastic. Love that they already have every regular season game loaded up in order. I've already watched the Quakes profile video which was cool - it's too short but it covers all the major milestones of the club. It even includes training camp footage from this year I think. Wondo has an "Iconic Player" video which is way too short. I also watched some of the 2022 highlight videos. I'm not subscribed and so far I haven't found anything that's not free to watch. Everything looks great so far. Pretty sure this is the best way to watch any sports league ever in the history of the world.
I know that Old Farts like Don will lament the passing of channel surfing, but those days are gone. Even those few who still use "Regular TV" cable or satellite probably have DVRs and so record games etc. for later watching. But streaming is the next phase of video entertainment. The upcoming MLS fans are not me, or Don or MJ. They are the under 30 crowd who are growing up with streaming. Apple knows the demographics of the growing young fan base and realizes that now is the time to lock them into Apple streaming services by offering a stellar (I hope) MLS package. I, for one, am supper happy about this. I hated the Comcast broadcasts and very amateurish quality. I expect a significant quality bump with Apple TV Season Pass. And I am one who thinks MLS viewing will go up, not down when any young streaming fan can watch any MLS game anywhere in the World. The cost is only a few lattes for an entire year of soccer .