Commissioner Don Garber gave his 25th annual State of the Soccer Union address yesterday with an upbeat outlook for the coming years calling the United States “the epicenter of the Beautiful Game in the coming years.”
It certainly should be. Its no secret that soccer continues to dominate the world sports stage played everywhere there are people in community. The social and economic impact of the game tends to bolster the business ecosystems around the pro franchises and leagues in the region where the next World Cup will be held. Indeed, business development is amplified already in the North American market in preparation for World Cup 2026. Beckham owned Inter Miami signing Messi (over a $425M Saudia Arabian offer!), Alba, Busquets and Suarez is a harbinger of a new level of play in MLS 2024 and beyond. The $2.5B media deal with Apple will bring it to the eyeballs of the world via Apple TV. All this while transfer markets are setting record prices for big spending new leagues in Saudi Arabia and China and the standard bearers of Western Europe continuing to set new records as well.
For this fan I celebrate with Commissioner Garber on the eve of the MLS Cup Final especially because it is in a relatively small market city, Columbus, OH. As Garber points out in his State of the League address, this is a historic year for the MLS. Expansion team San Diego wrote a $500M buy-in check to be team number 30 in the MLS and ticket sales were 10M+ with an average of 22k+ per game and 250k watching at home. Look out hockey and baseball. Big money attention grabbing signings in other sports to slow the beautiful games roll will only give tailwinds to soccer’s growth as MLS NEXT PRO and USL Championship teams fill the gap in small market towns. Let’s hope MLS leadership changes it tone towards the US Open Cup. It would be a miss for soccer’s potential social impact and overall growth to abandon MLS participation because of a complicated scheduling excuse. Overall its a fantastic time for the beautiful game wherever you live.
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