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General MLS Talk 2024


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The Messi effect has been more muted this year on English & Spanish language tv in the US.

Miami vs Orlando got 517k on Fox & Fox Deportes. 200-300k higher than normal for MLS on Fox since MSP came to be but much below last year's US Open Cup numbers. And only 76k of 517k on Spanish FOXD.

CCC Leg 1 of Nashville v Miami produced only 238k with 101k on TUDN & 137k on FS2. Leg 2 delivered 158k on FS2 with no Spanish language numbers which usually means below 100k. Later match of Club America v Chivas got 348k on TUDN.

Over the same period, Man City v Liverpool garnered 1.7m on USA/Telmundo and Man City v Man United got 1.1m that was only shown on Peacock.

On the merchandise front, adidas is apparently set to report that Messi's jersey is their top seller across all sports. It isn't clear yet whether it is for Messi's Argentina or Miami jersey or a combo.

In terms of MSP, Garber said average viewer watches 55 minutes of whatever match they've tuned into. But he didn't offer average viewer numbers. Other sources have said even high-level executives within the league office itself that don’t see these numbers. $2 million was cut from MSP budget this year as it isn't yet breaking even.

MSP helped reduce Appe TV+ churn to below 6% during the MLS season last year. After MLS season ended, it went over 10% as MSP subscribers started cancelling. Overall, MLS & Prem followers believe streaming platforms are best for providing coverage of their leagues.

StreamingPreferenceMLSPL.png

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Anyone know how DC handled the game without Messi from a ticketing perspective?  I'm guessing they jacked up the prices - or did they?  He didn't play, so you have to imagine there were some empty seats or some sour fans. 

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MLS continues to embarrass itself with the referee lockout

Good article from the LA Times on the issue, saying calls are being overturned and questioned at a much higher rate this season than last with the scab refs brought in

https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/story/2024-03-19/mls-referee-strike-lockout-embarrassment

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5 hours ago, narduch said:

All 3 MLS Next Pro teams that participated in the first day of the US Open Cup were eliminated yesterday by teams from lower tiers.

Not a good look for the fledgling reserve league.

8 more Next Pro teams will be in action in the Cup over the next 2 days 

It would be a bit ironic if next year Garber had to walk back forcing the Next Pro teams in because he couldn't afford them getting embarrassed. It's one thing when an MLS team gets upset (since cup upsets happen the world over), but I sort of feel that if Next Pro is routinely getting upset then it's a bad look for that league.

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On 3/20/2024 at 2:38 AM, narduch said:

All 3 MLS Next Pro teams that participated in the first day of the US Open Cup were eliminated yesterday by teams from lower tiers.

Not a good look for the fledgling reserve league.

8 more Next Pro teams will be in action in the Cup over the next 2 days 

Day 2 went much better for Next Pro, with all 3 teams winning quite comfortably (5-1, 6-0, and 3-0).

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19 hours ago, Watchmen said:

Day 2 went much better for Next Pro, with all 3 teams winning quite comfortably (5-1, 6-0, and 3-0).

Charlotte's Next Pro team were eliminated yesterday.

But all the others advanced.

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R1's win-loss tally of the US D3 teams shows USL 1 leading the pack:

USL League One (11-1)

MLS NP (7-4)

NISA (6-3)

An observation that has been made is the younger MLS NP teams are missing veteran guile and quality but they can run and run and run for 90 or 120 minutes that other teams often can't match.

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This is wild and crazy exciting to think of a pipeline that is only just beginning to bear fruit. Of course we're not them, and there are numerous things with our federation and nat. youth teams that need to be seriously rectified...but it definitely does not hurt us that we're in such close proximity.

 

Edited by PegCityCam
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2 more Next Pro Teams were eliminated in the US Open Cup yesterday.

Colorado 2 lost to a USL1 team.

Ventura (the LA Galaxy Next Pro team) lost to a NISA team.

Chicago's team did advance

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4 hours ago, narduch said:

2 more Next Pro Teams were eliminated in the US Open Cup yesterday.

Colorado 2 lost to a USL1 team.

Ventura (the LA Galaxy Next Pro team) lost to a NISA team.

Chicago's team did advance

I meant to post a bit of a summary (still might) but The Athletic recently did an anonymous survey of MLS execs. Wide variety of questions on it, but one of them was there thoughts on the US Open. 20 of them still wanted to participate in it. So, I have to think that there's some clubs absolutely fuming over these results, and I'm sure the Next Pro clubs dropping like flies probably has Garber at least squirming a bit.

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Miami United (amateur) defeated Club de Lyon (NISA) 2-0 in the US Open Cup on Wednesday. Then reports surfaced that at least one Miami player attempted to place a six figure bet on the game that was rejected. Not long after, several smaller bets were allowed to pass. At present, those bets have not been paid out.

USSF hasn't said anything. Club de Lyon is looking to file a complaint but with the US Open Committee disbanded, there is no protocol left. 

 

And for the first time, a USL match will be shown on US network tv. CBS will have Louisville hosting Indy 11 on Saturday at 1600 EDT as a lead-in to NCAA men's Final 4. It’s part of CBS’s new deal that puts over 100 USL games across CBS platforms. You'll recognize the bombastic tones of the announcers as they have done Concacaf matches.

Previous seasons aired on ESPN+ in their entirety. On several occasions, games would be put on ESPN or ESPN2. 

 

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22 hours ago, narduch said:

Man imagine if a Canadian broadcaster was as forward thinking as CSB.

They are all in on ssovcer. No pun intended 

CBS followed the opposite path of Bell/Rogers networks. Up until 4 years ago, CBS never showed soccer. They rarely showed any sporting event happening outside of the US. They were the most conservative of the major American networks in terms of sports programming and how they broadcast sports.

But with the advent of streaming, it all changed when they launched Paramount+. When TSN/SN didn't out bid DAZN for Champions League, CBS picked them off before TNT's contract expired. When TSN was letting it's portion of Concacaf rights expire, CBS picked up the newly created Concacaf Nations League. 

They have given Serie A top tier treatment while it has never been shown on English language tv in Canada. They upgraded coverage of NWSL while TSN stopped showing it for a few years when ESPN lost the rights.

They continued their forward thinking in the streaming world by launching the first US-based all-soccer FAST channel. Their Champions League studio show is now being hailed as the closest to matching the best ever US sports studio show (TNT's Inside the NBA).

 

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On 4/5/2024 at 12:46 PM, red card said:

 

And for the first time, a USL match will be shown on US network tv. CBS will have Louisville hosting Indy 11 on Saturday at 1600 EDT as a lead-in to NCAA men's Final 4. It’s part of CBS’s new deal that puts over 100 USL games across CBS platforms. You'll recognize the bombastic tones of the announcers as they have done Concacaf matches.

Previous seasons aired on ESPN+ in their entirety. On several occasions, games would be put on ESPN or ESPN2. 

 

USL match on Saturday got 362k tv audience in the USA. MLS match between the LA teams on Fox got 211k. Guadalajara/Puebla led Saturday in soccer with 750k.

US/Japan SBC match delivered 682k combined on English & Spanish languages (surprisingly 42% in Spanish). Canada match wasn't on English tv and it appears Spanish tv numbers were below 100k.

3 other LigaMx matches produced 581k/584k/158k. There was 464k/422k/327k for 3 Prem matches on USA network. 

The biggest weekend soccer audience was on Sunday morning for Man United/Liverpool with 1.5m on NBC/Telemundo (ex Peacock). Later on NBC/Telemundo (ex Peacock), Chelsea/Sheffield got 1.2m.

 

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