That doesn't mean ESPN, NBC/Peacock or CBS won't pick them up. Could this be an option: 1) Every game on AppleTV. 2) One game per week also on that OTA channel's streaming app at a time when there's no other MLS game. 3) Some of those games simulcast on OTA or a pay channel.
I would be elated if Fox lost the rights. Their soccer coverage is atrocious. Give the World Cup back to ESPN who at least treats it like an event. Fox's graphics, video, and production look no different than their Nations League group play broadcasts.
MLS cut doyle. It has been coming. https://bsky.app/profile/mattdoyle.bsky.social/post/3mem2hdsx4s2e Theyre probably thinking it's time that the league was done doing its own written coverage. Of course the athletic and other publications dropped their coverage recently too
I'm afraid MLS is going to start using AI. There's something disconcerting about reading something for a while thinking "this seems reasonable" then coming across some fact or point-of-view that is just whack.
I belong to a subgroup of the American Philatelic Society called "Writer's Group 30". In our last newsletter, one of our members wrote about using AI to help with writing an article, just to see what it would do. He noted that it was a really good article with a couple of very nice quotes and references. One problem. Two of the quotes were completely fictitious. One never existed, and the other quoted a book that didn't exist (that was also on the reference list). As a result, some editors are now running AI detection programs. I'm too stinkin' proud to let AI do my writing for me--that said we all use it in the form of spellcheckers, and many of the translations programs out there use it. Since I "work" in the area of German philately, I'll use it to check my translations (it misses subtly), and we use it to correspond with Mrs KG's Italian cousins, as we only know enough to say hello and goodbye and basics like that. ..and how to order a cappuccino! Some of these issues predate AI, of course. You may have heard the 50th Anniversary of Super Series 76 come up recently. That's where the Red Army team and Soviet Wings team came to the US to play NHL team. For the most part, the Soviet teams dominated, tho in the end the then current Stanley Cup champion Flyers kicked the snot out of the Red Army. Still, it's been purported to show the superiority of the Soviet Clubs over the NHL clubs for some decades now. Except.... The Russian teams both had ringers. They supplemented their rosters with all star players from other teams (like taking Gretzky's Oilers and adding Mario and Lindros to them)--and that info's gotten increasingly hard to find.
Which one of you wants a free AppleTV subscription? https://www.mlssoccer.com/how-to-watch/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianqui...s-year-4-on-apple-tv-heres-whats-new-in-2026/ So there *is* officially an option for $99/yr, despite what @KCbus couldn't find, but got charged for anyway.
You can ask for a refund if you want. I already get it as part of a discounted sub to Apple Music, so I immediately was like UMM NO and I got a refund in like 24 hours.
All of these people are still covering the league, just not getting paid by the league. Wiebe, Bogert, Doyle, a bunch of these peeps are all out here doing their thing. Bogert has a newsletter than the sends out... I know that it isn't the same as being on the site but the league is getting cheap, and apparently thinks they can get something for nothing.
You list some great examples of the status of AI these days. I dabble a bit in studying AI and creating really simple AI agents. I'm struggling to figure out what it is good at, where it sucks, and what are potential tasks that can move from the sucks column to the good at column. I find it useful to come up with first drafts of things I could've done myself, such as an outline for a presentation, a tech manual, some code - that kind of thing. Then I spend some time reviewing the result. I find that it can save me time, point out things I didn't think of, and fixing the gaps/mistakes are not difficult because it's my area of expertise. Your story reminds me of the lawyer who asked an AI chatbot to find citations for a case he was working on. He ended up citing cases that never existed. Got in a lot of trouble for it. I think DC United should try using AI to scout for a new midfield. Who knows? It might find real people who play soccer.
So, Mrs KG and I just watched the first two episodes of Ted Lasso tonight. We really liked it. Glad we're getting full Apple TV this season....
As someone who's railed against needing to go to the MLS website as our main source of "news" it would be hypocritical of me to now bemoan MLS getting rid of that coverage. So I won't. As eboe points out, Bogert and Doyle, at least, are moving over to other platforms. Wiebe, near as I can tell, is shifting over to the league's Apple TV broadcast effort. Re: Bogert, I happen to have a NYT subscription that also nets me The Athletic, so I can read him - and lots of other soccer content - there. It's far, far superior to anything MLS produced. And at least has the promise of being actual independent journalism, since Don Garber isn't siging those paychecks. So, yes, Bogert, but also Henry Bushnell who I used to see occasionally on Yahoo sports. The guy is a damned good sports journalist. I can tag MLS, the Crew, writers I wan to follow, the WC, Premiership, Bundesliga... wharever I'm interested in. Doyle will be available in various places: https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1r24hef/matt_doyle_an_end_to_my_days_at_mls_and_my_plan/ https://kickbacksoccer.com/ I'll give MLS credit for stepping itno the (more or less) void of professional soccer journalism back in the day and producing its own newsy content. Of course, that also allowed the league to manage its messaging, which I hated from day one. They created the illusion of being a creator of MLS-related sports news, but for the most part twisted the product to become another marketing tool for the leaguie. Which was their right; MLS was paying the bills, after all. It seems now they'll focus more on what they produce on Apple TV. There will still be news on the league website, but much of that will be basic announcements and other technical content (like the Roster Rules, etc.). That content now says it's produced by "MLSsoccer staff" which could be a real person, a bunch of interns, AI... I have no idea. But little of it is substantive enough to give the writer any credit. Works for me. Do you go to the Big Ten website to read news about the Buckeyes? The NFL website to read about the Browns or Bengals? NHL for the Bue Jackets? MLB for the Reds, etc.? I mean, sure, there's info there, but I think what MLS is doing now better aligns the league with the way other leagues function in this way. They pour resources into their visual productions and expect to get lots of essentially free coverage from sports media. MLS can't expect that the coverage the league gets for free will be any more than a sliver of what MLB, the NBA, NHL or, goodness knows, the NFL receives. Still, the price is right. And I'm sure carrying a team of paid sports writers on the league's payroll certainly was not. I have to assume, as well, that Garber and Co. looked at the paltry readership/viewership this content generated and concluded that it wasn't coming close to paying for itself. Going to the MLS website for everything made us into lazy fans who got used to being spoon-fed what the league chose to say about itself. I'm glad those days appear to be gone. At least I hope they are. By the way, I mentined Buchnell above. Here was his Yahoo sports MLS seaosn preview for 2025: https://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/art...whats-new-predictions-and-more-000026534.html Pretty thorough and completely independent content. My guess is that anyting like this he produces again will be only available behind a paywall. We may need to dig a bit more to read about the league or the Crew. Hell, we may even may need to pay to read some content, like what Bushnell and Bogert. But the way I see it, there's every reason to expect coverage to improve now that it's not all coming from the league.
Are they still going to overlap the radio call on the broadcasts? Please don’t screw that up. Even for away games, I tend to listen to the other team’s radio homers.
I agree with most of this. The one part I would take issue with (slightly) is the idea that they needed to do it, in part, to save money. Even if it was a net financial negative, I can't imagine the guys they were paying to to write articles for the website once or twice a week were breaking the league piggybank. I can't imagine the cost was prohibitive. In the early days of the league, they needed to paint as pretty of a picture as they possibly could. And since mainstream outlets weren't going to just line up to do it when it wasn't justified (yet), having some people on staff to do... well, propaganda, wasn't a terrible idea. But there are enough places you can go now to get MLS-related coverage that it isn't necessary to have a sunshine brigade. The thing is though... the guys from ExtraTime didn't strike me as cheerleaders. They struck me as being more than capable of giving insightful, objective breakdowns of all things MLS. And it's not like the other leagues don't have people whose job it is to provide content for the league website. The NFL, NHL and NBA all have columnists who do that. Ultimately, I would have preferred that ExtraTime stuck around. I would have preferred that all of their main contributors stayed on. If nothing else, it meant that there was always going to be some quality content available that wasn't paywalled. But there's probably enough out there that it was no longer necessary, so they cut the cord. Fine. If it turns out down the road that it was more necessary than we're all giving it credit for, they can start some newer version of it.
The lack of previews and coverage on Apple to build up anticipation to the new season is maybe a bigger problem than cutting doyle.
https://tvanswerman.com/2026/02/19/directv-expands-apple-tvs-live-sports-to-homes-bars-restaurants/ If your local bar or restaurant doesn't have AppleTV, it will soon. In addition, if you subscribe to AppleTV via DirecTV, you'll get a method to watch AppleTV via your DirecTV equipment. (Hopefully they figure out a way to include season ticket holders, but I somehow doubt they will.)
If it doesn't already happen, Apple Store locations would be a hell of place to advertise MLS games via player appearances, in-store advertising, promotions/giveaways, etc.
They do now show MLS Countdown at 6:30pm on Saturday and MLS Wrap-up at 11:45pm on Sunday. That wasn’t there a few days ago. But I agree. Especially with a 30 team league, a bulked-up TV presence with a season preview and weekly highlights and analysis program would be very welcomed.