{"id":2575,"date":"2025-11-19T04:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T04:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2025-11-19T06:39:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:39:43","slug":"the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-mls-apple-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-mls-apple-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginning of the End for the MLS-Apple Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MLS and Apple recently announced their decision to fold the MLS Season Pass into the main Apple TV+ service beginning in 2026. While it’s being framed as an attempt to align the MLS with the other sports on Apple, it is a tacit admission that the decision to put MLS games in a premium subscription package within one of the smaller streamers in America was surely a misguided one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a rights deal marketed as transformational, the poor ratings figures, and how closely they had been guarded until recently, illustrate just how much the deal has slowed the momentum the MLS had after Messi’s arrival, and how this marked reversal is an attempt to limit the damage and reclaim some of the exposure it lost. It is the beginning of the end of the Apple-MLS partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Paywall within a Paywall Never Made Sense<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

According to recent reporting, Commissioner Don Garber acknowledged that MLS Season Pass viewership \u201cgrew by about half this season\u201d to an average of only 120,000 viewers per match. He also admitted the need for \u201cfar better levels of transparency\u201d and recognized that the audiences for Apple-exclusive matches have not been part of any standard, audited measurement process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The underlying issue is the same one Handal Dunaway<\/a><\/strong> predicted and highlighted in a recent report about the problems with the MLS-Apple deal<\/a><\/mark>. Professional soccer in the United States is still an emerging sport. Emerging sports need reach, not restrictions, to grow in popularity. The Apple partnership delivered some guaranteed money, but it placed the entire league behind a paywall within a paywall, with a platform that is far from the scale of traditional broadcasters or the reach of dominant global streamers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Median Compensation by US Sports Leagues<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2025\/2026 Season<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Source: Handal Dunaway Research, HoopsHype<\/a>, Baseball Prospectus, Over the Cap, MLSPA 2025 Salary Guide, NHLPA, Capology, Spotrac.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Growing League Should Not Hide Itself<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

MLS continues to make decisions that directly conflict with their long-term objectives. The league claims it wants to grow its fan-base and compete for global talent, yet, even without the Season Pass, it chooses to hide its product behind a paid subscription with modest reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers speak for themselves. The $2.5 billion headline deal figure sounded great, but it doesn’t take a lot of math to figure out it amounts to just $250 million per year for the entire league, or about $8.3 million per team. <\/strong>That figure makes it exceedingly difficult to compensate players fairly, much less compete for international talent that can make multiples more in even modest European leagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although more guaranteed money would have obviously been ideal, with the deal Apple offered, they would have likely been better off taking a different path. As the MLS lacks the deep relationships with broadcasters and global streamers that other US leagues have, it could hardly expect a highly competitive process for the rights. Given that scenario, it fell upon the MLS to prove their value to streamers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, an ad-supported model in which they self-produced the games and distributed them across as many streaming platforms as possible would have maximized exposure, grown its fanbase, increased sponsorship value and would have built relationships with larger streamers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering the MLS for a fixed fee to Netflix or Warner was a hard sell. But offering it for “free” in exchange of sharing the ad money to these major streamers would have put the MLS a click away from hundreds of millions of eyes every weekend, and had the potential to generate more money in ads over the season than what Apple was offering yearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MLS is not ending the Apple deal tomorrow, but the retreat from MLS Season Pass is the clearest sign yet that the partnership is not delivering the outcomes the league expected. As time goes by, we expect this to become even clearer. This is just the beginning of an unraveling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It Hurts the Players Most of All<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This issue matters affects players more than any other stakeholder. Player compensation is directly linked to league-wide revenue growth. With median guaranteed pay in 2024 at just $339,000, MLS remains far, far behind every other major US league.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MLS Compensation vs Global Soccer Leagues<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2025\/2026 Season<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: Handal Dunaway Research, MLS Player Association\u2019s 2025 Salary Guide, Capology, Spotrac, Press.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A distribution model that limits visibility also limits the commercial scale needed to raise salaries through sponsorships, merchandise, and future collective bargaining, as well as the commercial appeal of the players to brands. Not only is pay much lower than in comparable leagues home and abroad, but the small reach makes it even harder for player to get brand deals even close to the level of other athletes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A League That Must Bet on Itself and Think Bigger<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

With the World Cup coming to America in 2026, the MLS will have a golden window of opportunity and attention that it must maximize. If ending the Season Pass does not radically alter the ratings trajectory, the league should seriously consider whether finishing out the deal is truly in the best interest of the league. With the CBA expiring in 2 years, it is a point that the MLSPA should also discuss in their negotiations with the league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reignite growth, the league must think bigger, with wider distribution and more eyeballs as its north star. The product is great. The potential is there. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and with time and better strategy, it could reign in America too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: 1. Public contract data and estimates as of September 30, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: 2. 2025-2026 season salary data for European leagues, 2025 MLSPA Salary Guide for MLS.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MLS and Apple recently announced their decision to fold the MLS Season Pass into the main Apple TV+ service beginning in 2026. While it’s being framed as an attempt to align the MLS with the other sports on Apple, it is a tacit admission that the decision to put MLS games in a premium […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[696,413,691,699,117,693,141,432,695,697,419,701,702,698,144,378,700,703,704,424,74,417,692,425,423,416,427,705,694],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-reports","tag-ad-supported-model","tag-apple-tv","tag-apple-tv-plus","tag-audience-growth","tag-handal-dunaway","tag-league-revenue","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-media-rights","tag-media-strategy","tag-messi-effect","tag-mls","tag-mls-players","tag-mls-schedule","tag-mls-season-pass","tag-player-compensation","tag-research-and-insights","tag-soccer-economics","tag-soccer-in-america","tag-sports-analysis","tag-sports-broadcasting","tag-sports-business","tag-sports-media","tag-sports-salaries","tag-sports-strategy","tag-sports-streaming","tag-streaming-rights","tag-us-soccer","tag-us-sports-leagues","tag-viewership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2592,"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions\/2592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handaldunaway.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}