One advantage comes in coordination. Hopefully, anyway. In the past, these tours have sometimes come across as antagonistic to MLS. Teams have come here and virtually ignored the league, competed with it for media attention. I'm not saying that Barca will play friendlies against MLS sides; I have no idea. But it may be that they use MLS practice facilities, play some scrimmages, schedule some photo ops. Maybe their players attend a few MLS games and the league can use their presence as a marketing hook. The Champions World approach was to view MLS as the enemy. SUM, for obvious reasons, won't do that. From Barca's perspective, this may just be a summer pre-season La Liga tune-up. If MLS can position itself so that you see its players, its jerseys in the same photos as Barca stars on a practice pitch or scrimmage, eh, it's something anyway. Not a strategic partnership, but a good sight better than the way things operated when that asshat Chinaglia was running these things. Too, from Barca's viewpoint, SUM are professionals, with a track record of managing huge soccer events. SUM has deep pockets, ain't going away. Unlike, oh say, Champions World.
I can see how this might be good for SUM -- they stage some friendlies, some with MLS teams, some perhaps with FMF or other teams. That may be the real story here. After all, SUM is also the official U.S. marketing agent for Chivas, InterLiga and the FMF. I see how this helps SUM, but aside from a couple friendlies, how does this help MLS at all? It would be nice if SUM were a bit more transparent and told fans, even in some very general way, how any of the money they make off partnerships like this gets invested into MLS to promote this league. If this only results in selling more Barca shirts and some moeny for the owners who also own a piece of SUM, well, good for them, but why should MLS fans care? BTW, SUM managed successful Barcelona's tour of the United States in 2006. This simply seems to be a renewal of that marketing arrangment. Link: http://www.ppchampionship.net/about_sum/
What it looks like is that this arrangement extends an ad hoc arrangement out to the next 5 years. As to what good that does in the big sense? Well, I'd say that SUM, being the one stably profitable part of MLS, is a big chunk of the reason why there are so many more prospective investors than in the past. Also, it does allow you to promote some players that you might well eventually sign. Thierry Henry is still not on the same plane name value wise as David Beckham is, but if you put him out there to dazzle large audiences, he might increase his visibility. Also, I think it gets some people's interest in the sport rekindled. Some portion of what's happening in Seattle right now is probably traceable back to the Real Madrid game there. There was a time, before the league found its feet, that these types of barnstorming tours might have hurt MLS. Now, as a more self-confident league, I think it probably helps.
SuperLiga needs one thing to make it more meaningful - a berth for the winner in the SUlamericana or Libertadores (or maybe one in the Lib for the winner, and for the Sul for the runner-up)., Ok, that might count as two things - but then, SUM also run InterLiga, so they could push to have the third CL slot awarded by InterLiga go to SuperLiga instead, perhaps. And it'll be interesting to see what happens with this agreement - and oh, the irony there would be if their highlight match in Northern America for 2008 was against RSL... (Oh, will they be visiting a Canadian city on their tour this year, or just the US? Shame it's too late to ask them to play in the All-Star game... sorry, Hammers.)
From what little has been in the public domain, you are correct that SUM appears to be the cash cow. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought not all of the I/Os owned a piece of SUM though. (My understanding is that it isn't structured like NFL Properties, which is essentially a captive entity of the NFL itself.) As for the tours, I think it does matter who plays in the games. Again, aside from SUM raking in some more cash, I'm not sure how it benefits MLS to schedule games for Barca against Chivas and America. Gulati noted in his lukewarm reaction to the U.S. hosting Premier League games with no involvement of MLS teams that "We understand it's a global sport but it's about nurturing the home game." He was speaking for US Soccer, but you would think the test should apply even more with SUM. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.
Of course, Barca is a club that will tyically carry players MLS wouldn't mind looking at as future DP targets. Middlesborough and Tottenham, not so much.
well, not sure if it is related news, but it might be: Real Madrid just cancelled their planned friendly at RSL for summer 2008. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=694422