(Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
If it weren’t a metaphor from a different sport, you could say Apple is applying a full-court press in promoting and streaming the MLS Cup playoffs that begin this weekend, starting with Friday night’s soccer match between superstar Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami CF and unlikely upstart Atlanta United FC.
Lionel Messi across multiple Apple devices
That first match starring Messi, eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or as the world’s best soccer player, will be available free to anyone watching in more than 100 countries, whether through Apple’s Season Pass subscription package, Apple.com, streaming service Apple TV+, Apple-made gear such as iPhones and Mac computers, or on the web from “billions” of smart TVs, game consoles and other devices, said Emeka Ofodile, who heads global sports marketing for Apple. The company will even show the game in its flagship stores in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and six other countries.
“We want to make this the most widely distributed match in MLS history,” Ofodile said during a Wednesday morning online briefing with MLS executives. “We want to bring this to as many fans as possible.”
The big push also includes a deal with TikTok to carry a dedicated live stream of a camera following Messi’s every move on the pitch during the Atlanta game. That will be carried live on the TikTok accounts of both MLS and Inter Miami, Ofodile said. Some full matches are also carried each weekend on Fox’s FS1 sports network, including seven games this weekend.
It’s the latest fruit from Apple’s unique 360-degree video-rights deal signed in 2022 with MLS that includes basically all games, everywhere, always. That 10-year, $2.5 billion deal became wildly more valuable when Messi joined David Beckham’s then five-year-old Miami franchise partway through the 2023 season.
And though Apple hasn’t disclosed subscription figures (executives on Wednesday’s briefing took no media questions), it’s clear something’s driving the league’s growing popularity.
“MLS rides into the playoffs on another record-breaking year,” said Nelson Rodriguez, the MLS vice president of competition. “Eleven million people came to stadiums, a record. Attendance was 23,000 per-game on average, a record too.”
Twenty clubs averaged more than 20,000 fans per game, with 213 sellouts, Rodriguez said. That’s a small fraction of the 100,000 fans jammed into a typical SEC or Big 10 football game, but then again, MLS teams play 34 regular-season games, not 12 or 13.
The league is also making a name for itself as an offense-first circuit, compared to the defensive slogs common in some top leagues around the world.
“I’m making a prediction…goals, goals and more goals,” Rodriguez said. The teams of most of the league’s most prolific scorers made this year’s playoffs, including 14 players who had double-digit numbers of goals and assists. And yes, the average scoring total per game this year, 3.15, was another league record.
The tournament will feature 16 teams after two play-in matches this week, including tonight’s match between Vancouver and Portland. First-round matches will be best-of-three, going directly to shootouts after regulation time if there’s a tie. Subsequent rounds will be decided by a single match, culminating in the MLS Cup championship game on Dec. 7.
There are plenty of story lines for fans.
In the Western Conference, LAFC ended up on the last day of the regular season with the top seed just ahead of its rival down the 110 Freeway, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Miami, which won the Supporters’ Shield trophy for the most points in the season, faces off against Atlanta United, the team its manager, Gerardo “Tata” Martino, had previously coached to a 2018 MLS Cup as an expansion team.
On-air announcers Taylor Twellman, Jake Zivin and Kaylyn Kyle also took part in the briefing, picking their candidates for most likely Cup winners.
“Every first-round matachup is intriguing,” Twellman said. “Colorado with their style of play and (Denver’s) altitude, maybe surprising (first-round opponent the Galaxy). The Galaxy, with their style of play, give up a lot of goals.”
More generally, Twellman said he expected the Western Conference, “to be less, for lack of a better word, chalk,” i.e., less likely to be dominated by the favorites in each matchup.
Zivin agreed: “The West is wide open.”
Zivin and Kyle both chose Inter Miami as likely Cup winner. Twellman chose the Columbus Crew, which finished second in the Eastern Conference and faces Red Bull New York in round 1. The Crew, one of the original 10 MLS teams, have won three MLS Cups, including last year.
