Playoffs? Playoffs? American Championships Are Different.
It's playoff season in American soccer! MLS is in the midst of its first-round three-game series, the USL is preparing for the Conference Semifinals, the NWSL is heading into the Quarterfinals (go Red Stars), and numerous other academic and lower leagues are either in the midst of or have just finished their culminating playoff tournaments. While playoffs in soccer have existed for a long time—most often used in other countries' football leagues to determine promotion or relegation spots, qualifying for regional competitions, or cup competitions—the American version is its own thing. But is it a good thing?
For much of its modern history, soccer in the U.S. has worked hard to resemble established American sports like baseball, football, and basketball. The assumption was that fans would be more accepting of a sport that had a similar look, game-day experience, and seasonal structure as the dominant sports in the U.S., rather than if it closely mirrored its established format in the rest of the world. That, combined with the sheer size of the country necessitating regional divisions and conferences, has led to national all-star games, MVP awards, and, of course, playoffs.
The
Soccer
Bowl!
The now-defunct North American Soccer League's (NASL) "Soccer Bowl" was the championship of the NASL and was undoubtedly meant to evoke the commercial and social juggernaut of the NFL's Super Bowl. Titled "The Soccer Bowl" from 1975 to 1984, it was short-lived but did draw some attention. The 1978 version attracted 74,000 fans to Giants Stadium. That audience was, in part, because Americans are drawn to events that seem like a big deal, sometimes without deeply caring about the event itself. To paraphrase the words of Vince McMahon, the disgraced former head of WWE wrestling, all that matters is that it creates heat. The Soccer Bowl created heat, and that's what all American sports aim for with their playoffs—they just want to generate excitement, draw attention, and make some money. Playoffs are an entertainment event unto themselves. A large number of Americans only follow different sporting leagues during the playoffs.
1978 Soccer Bowl Logo
MLS CUP
DC United won the very wet first MLS Cup
Some of this same mentality drove the creation of MLS in 1996 and was behind its inaugural playoffs. Its final, the MLS Cup, was also a single culminating match at a neutral location—Foxboro Stadium, home of the NFL's New England Patriots. And like the NASL, there wouldn't be boring penalty kick shootouts but hockey-style American soccer shootouts where players would run towards goal and had five seconds to score on a goalkeeper. It didn't matter how the game was played elsewhere; they just had to create some heat.
Unfortunately, heat was in short supply on the 40-degree, rain-soaked day that was the first MLS Cup. What was on display, however, was a very good soccer match. D.C. United came back from a 0-2 deficit to beat the LA Galaxy 3-2. And as much as early MLS play is joked about, when you watch the highlights from this match, there's no denying that there was quality in this league. And that's the contradiction that has existed in MLS and the MLS playoffs since the start: player talent and team ambition running up against the marketing machine of MLS looking to create heat.
A sweaty Hector Herrera, who up until last week played for the Houston Dynamo. The Dynamo play through Houston’s long humid summers.
We Will Play
When We
Want To Play
Just look at the playoff calendar. Major League Soccer is one of the few leagues in the world that plays from early spring through fall; most leagues play over the winter and are off in the summer. This makes things difficult with transfers as the needs of MLS teams rarely line up with the trading periods of major European leagues. It also means MLS is up against the international game calendar. At different points throughout the year FIFA mandates that leagues stop so that players are free to play for their national teams, these breaks are called international breaks. One week before the final game of the 2024 MLS season, "Decision Day," there was an international break, and right after the first round of playoffs, there will be another. That means not only was the run-up to the postseason staggered, but some teams and fans in the tournament will have a 22-day pause in action between playoff rounds. It's hard to maintain game readiness, enthusiasm, or even attention with almost a month off.
The MLS calendar also means the playoffs are competing against regular season action in European leagues, Champions League games, NFL, NBA, and even a little MLB (the beginning of the playoffs overlap with baseball’s world series). Further, since MLS is a closed league with no Pro-Rel, lower leagues have their own playoffs that are not coordinated or connected to MLS's playoffs in any way, further splitting the U.S. audience.
Apple TV
Complicating this is the fact that MLS is almost exclusively streamed on Apple TV. When Apple announced the partnership, which began in 2023, there was a lot of hope that this would be the financial and marketing partnership that would push MLS into the top sports leagues. It's no coincidence that it also coincided with the arrival of Lionel Messi in MLS and featured the made-for-Messi midseason tournament, the Leagues Cup. While Apple does not share its viewership or MLS Season Pass membership numbers, we do know that some of Messi's games have drawn large audiences, and they claim to have had 2 million Season Pass subscribers last season. However, without game-by-game numbers, it's hard to say how many people are tuning in for games not involving the GOAT.
Apple TV has bet big on the draw of Lionel Messi.
Is it Hard Finding an Audience, or Harder For an Audience to Find You?
There are two other issues with the Apple streaming format. First is that there's not a broad cultural awareness of these games. These playoff games aren't filling prime-time TV slots where new fans can easily find them; they're all buried behind the paywall on Apple TV. Hoping to build awareness, Apple has grouped most of the games throughout the season on Saturdays. This regularity, however, changed in the first round of the playoffs. Hoping to grab as many viewers as possible, there were matches on almost every day of the week. Great for an MLS fan but confusing for someone who had grown accustomed to Saturday being game day. Also, who can watch an 11 p.m. Eastern Wednesday night kickoff?
I have no doubt that there are good players and teams in MLS. I have no doubt that the league wants to build heat, but all of their efforts to do so seem to disguise the first point. It's relatively easy to watch Premier League games in the U.S. They are on consistently Saturday and Sunday mornings on multiple NBC broadcast stations. The structure of their league and championship is clear and consistent. The same can be said about other foreign leagues as well. MLS, like its previous U.S. soccer predecessors, is too focused on the entertainment product and not enough on the game, and it's hurting itself.
There is talk of MLS moving to a fall-through-spring calendar. Perhaps this is the first move in acknowledging that soccer in this country is not like other sports; it is part of a larger ecosystem no matter how much heat it creates.