With or Without Messi, Major League Soccer Is Barreling Into the Future

The 2024 Major League Soccer season concludes Saturday with a New York vs. Los Angeles matchup in the MLS Cup final. 

For most leagues, that would be a dream pairing—drawing from fan bases in the top two U.S. media markets, like this fall’s Yankees-Dodgers World Series. The only problem for MLS: Its biggest star, newly announced 2024 league MVP Lionel Messi, doesn’t play for the Red Bulls or Galaxy. He’s the captain of Inter Miami, which was bounced in the first round after losing a three-game series to the Atlanta United 2–1.

A championship match involving Messi likely would have drawn more viewers than any other combination of teams. Messi’s MLS postseason debut in October was Apple TV’s most widely viewed sporting event ever. (The streamer, which is finishing the second season of a 10-year, $2.5 billion media-rights deal, doesn’t typically release specific ratings numbers.) Fans have gone all in on Miami: The club has grown its Instagram followers from one million before Messi joined in 2023 to now more than 17 million—topping all U.S. pro teams except the Warriors and Lakers.

Like many other playoff games this year, the MLS Cup final will be simulcast on linear channels Fox in the U.S. and TSN in Canada, in addition to the Apple TV stream at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday. Ratings will likely reflect Messi’s absence, but the league is still in good shape with other key money-driving areas. 

MLS saw sponsorship revenue on the league and club levels each increase by 13% in 2024. Team sponsorship revenue in 2024 was estimated to land at $665 million, according to SponsorUnited’s latest MLS marketing and partnerships report.

“The wins and losses—from a league standpoint, a national standpoint, a global impact of the league and how we think about corporate partners—it doesn’t really move the needle,” MLS EVP and CRO Carter Ladd tells Front Office Sports.

Attendance has also been a huge factor. MLS reports it has drawn a record 12.1 million fans to matches in 2024, making it the second-most-attended league in the world, behind only the Premier League, which drew more than 14 million during its most recent full season (2023–2024). “I think that maybe catches a lot of people off guard,” Ladd says.

Unsurprisingly, Inter Miami played a key role in drawing some of the largest MLS crowds, drawing more than 72,000 fans in Kansas City during the regular season and topping 68,000 in Atlanta in the playoffs. The league is poised to break that overall attendance record in 2025, especially as Messi returns for another season at Inter Miami. 

Another factor will be an additional round of expansion, which Ladd calls a “great accelerator” of the league’s growth over the past decade. San Diego FC is becoming the league’s 30th franchise, paying the other 29 MLS ownership groups a record $500 million expansion fee. The club will play its home matches at the 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium, which is already home to the NWSL’s Wave and the San Diego State football team. A strong debut season in San Diego could help propel MLS toward a total attendance of 13 million fans next year.

But many eyes are looking even further into the future, including Ladd. In 2026, the FIFA World Cup will hit the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The league and other soccer stakeholders are anticipating another spike of interest in the sport after the tournament—and could take advantage by making a change that brings the league more in line with the world’s top soccer competitions.

MLS, which annually runs from the spring to fall, is thinking about flipping its schedule to global soccer’s traditional fall-to-spring model. Nothing is imminent, though commissioner Don Garber said Friday the league is considering the change “more than ever before.”

The rapidly approaching 2026 World Cup would present an ideal time for MLS to shift its calendar. The league has already approved a summer break for that season, which it hasn’t traditionally done in other World Cup years. But if a major change were to take place, MLS would likely play its 2025 season as normal, and then restart under a new scheduling model in fall 2026. (MLS declined to comment on this.)

No matter the schedule, continued innovation will be key for MLS following the World Cup as Messi, 37, gets closer to retirement, and league expansion slows down. For now, there’s another champion to be crowned.