MLS commissioner Don Garber: Data from Apple TV ‘affecting how we’re structuring our rosters’
· Yahoo Sports
The 2023 broadcast rights deal between Apple and MLS was one of the most fascinating in the history of sports, and while the gamble has largely not paid off for either side (yet), it has clearly changed the business of American soccer in significant ways.
The two sides have continually tinkered with the model, most recently doing away with MLS Season Pass, the subscription service that Apple had previously sold for the league’s games. And after renegotiating the deal last year, MLS could distribute its games elsewhere as soon as 2029.
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In the meantime, the Apple partnership has also affected how teams operate, including which players they target to assemble rosters, according to commissioner Don Garber.
“The data from Apple is so specific that it’s impacting the way we think,” Garber said in an interview with The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand released this week. “We know what games are driving fan interest, through technology. We’re looking at how we can have people looking at our highlights. It’s affecting the players we’re signing. It’s affecting how we’re structuring our rosters, which is probably the most fascinating part of this.”
Garber pointed to three teenage players on New York Red Bulls — Matthew Dos Santos, Adri Mehmeti, and Julian Hall — who have become among the league’s most popular stars among fans.
“We’ve got three young players on the Red Bulls who are 17 years old, who are three of the most exciting young players America’s ever had. And what does that mean?” Garber added. “How do we take that player, turn them into their own media property? How do we have them push highlights for us? How do we have fan clubs around them in ways that are about what they’re doing as opposed to what someone is telling us we should be doing with that property?”
While it may be too reductive to take Garber’s comments to mean that teams are going for famous players at the expense of good players, but we know teams across all leagues do factor popularity into their thinking as well. And with the granular data that streaming companies can pull, MLS and its teams are clearly getting a better sense of what players cut through when it comes to game viewership and online engagement.
Especially for a league like MLS still working to get a foothold while competing with overseas soccer leagues, this is extremely important information. Reading between the lines of Garber’s comments, the league is also not afraid to get into deeper business with these players, just as they have with the no-brainer superstars who have come through in recent years, such as Lionel Messi or Son Heung-Min.
Big picture, Garber is bullish on MLS’ ability to adapt to what fans want. Soccer is growing, and is built around big-name stars already. By helping the league target these stars better, the Apple deal appears to at least be paying off from a data perspective.
“The radio wasn’t telling us, I could listen to a baseball game and the radio is in my living room,” Garber said. “Well now the consumer is saying what [they] care about.”
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