RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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After the commercial success of the World Cup, MLS is seeing dollar signs.
Ticket sales have boomed since the final on 19 July, when Lionel Messi’s Argentina were vanquished by Spain. For FIFA, Messi and Argentina getting to the final in New Jersey was the optimal outcome – it sustained casual fans’ interest for the duration of the tournament and kept the get-in price sky-high.
In Europe and South America, there has been a monumental backlash to the overt commercialisation of the World Cup.
Indeed, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino having crossed the Rubicon and now looking to sell a stake in FIFA itself, the 2026 World Cup might be remembered as the start of a great schism in the sport.
But for Major League Soccer , whose outgoing president of 27 years Don Garber thinks the league can topple the English Premier League as soccer’s most commercially valuable , the summer of 2026 cannot be seen as anything but an unbridled success.
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Sure, Messi’s progress to the final means he won’t play in the All-Star Game for a second season running, but bringing soccer’s ultimate showpiece to the United States was always a long term play, a bid to capture an American audience who are less resistant to high prices than their European and South American counterparts.
And the MLS’s ambitions with their TV and streaming deals illustrate that Garber – and presumably whoever is named as his successor – are adamant that they have done exactly that.
MLS want $500m TV deal
In 2023, shortly after Messi, the greatest player of all time, signed for Inter Miami, MLS signed a rights deal with Apple TV.
Under the terms of that deal, which runs until 2029 after being pared back from an original 10-year run by Apple, MLS teams share $250-275m between them in media income.
By the time the next rights cycle comes around, 39-year-old Messi – by far the league’s biggest and most marketable star – will surely have retired. It is virtually unheard of for an outfielder to continue until the age of 42, especially one who is part of an exclusive club of players with 1,000 career appearances in their aching legs.
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And yet, MLS are still apparently bullish about getting an uplift the next time the rights go to market.
A report from ESPN outlines the league’s ambition to strike a deal in the $400-500m range next time around.
That would roughly match the value of Premier League rights in the U.S.
Compared to other domestic deals, it would also exceed the value of the admittedly ailing rights in Ligue 1, the top tier of French soccer where Messi’s old employer, Paris Saint-Germain, play.
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