Don Garber, commissioner of Major League Soccer (MLS) in North America, believes the country's marketing expertise and global streaming broadcast partnership with OTT platform Apple TV has “raised the commercial value of soccer around the world.” ing.
As soccer grows in the United States in the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Garber hopes the country can become a premier destination for the global soccer industry.
At a media roundtable in Leipzig during a visit to Germany, Gerber told reporters that Apple's “innovative” and “seamless” broadcast experience will not only cover world soccer, but all sports worldwide. “It was a transformation,” he said.
MLS' 10-year broadcast partnership with Apple TV is just over a year old, with the OTT platform broadcasting every MLS game around the world without blackouts or cable requirements, and Apple TV has since announced its exclusive MLS Season Pass streaming service. Service has started. For a soccer tournament.
Mr. Gerber said of the partnership: “We believe this is the next generation of productive and efficient viewer experiences, even if Apple forms overseas partnerships with other companies around the world. [soccer] I think for the rest of the world, it's going to be great for them, it's going to be great for whatever partners they sign with them, and it's going to be great for Major League Soccer. ”
The maturation of the U.S. sports marketing environment is also benefiting world soccer, according to The New Yorker, who has been commissioner of MLS since 1999 and is also CEO of Soccer United Marketing, MLS' wholly owned commercial marketing arm. he added. The United States became a destination for soccer clubs.
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“The U.S. market is the most valuable commercial market in the world,” he emphasized. “The world sees North America's sports marketing model as best-in-class. The benefits we can provide to other clubs within the MLS family will benefit both Major League Soccer and their respective clubs.”
Among the hottest stars in MLS is, of course, Lionel Messi, the legendary former Barcelona player and current player for Inter Miami.
Messi's decision to move to MLS aids the league's goal of being seen as the league of choice for high-profile players and, by extension, viewers and sponsors.
“We have a great team, we compete at a high level, and we can attract some of the best players in the history of the game,” Garber said. [Messi] Fight against many competitions to come to our league. And that brand of league choice that we have is what we're trying to instill in the hearts and minds of our fans, our partners and our media partners like Apple. ”
As a popular commercial destination, MLS includes multi-club ownership groups (which Gerber referred to above as part of the MLS family), including the Red Bull-owned New York Red Bulls, which also owns Germany's RB Leipzig, and Austria's Red Bulls. There are several clubs that belong to Bull Salzburg and Brazil's Red Bull Bragantino,
Gerber spoke at RB Leipzig's training ground after the club announced a pre-season tour to the United States and further technical cooperation with the New York Red Bulls franchise and MLS itself.
Sportec, a soccer data and fan experience solutions company that MLS partnered with in 2023, caught Gerber and the league's attention after being introduced by the Bundesliga, Germany's top league.
Regarding the United States as a market for world-class soccer teams, Garber continued: “Our market is becoming more sophisticated. And by hosting tournaments like this, [such as the Club World Cup] The sport that MLS has been involved in will be an evolution of the sport.
“We're a very large market, and both with media like our deal with Apple, our commercial dynamics, what we're doing with marketing and social media, and all the technology that we have, We've increased the commercial value of soccer around the world, and that's where we're leaders. So there's an advantage that MLS will have with these clubs coming in and what we can offer them. There are also benefits.”