2025 marks the 30th year of the professional establishment of the world’s game in the U.S. and Canada, and it is shaping up to be an anniversary filled with pride. Major League Soccer is experiencing unprecedented growth in the U.S., and it’s the perfect time to recognize the growing popularity of soccer — hereafter referred to as football — and MLS’s place on both the domestic and international stages.
MLS began in 1995 with 10 clubs after the U.S. hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The worldwide showcase helped MLS reign in supporters from all across the globe. Since 2015, MLS has added 12 new clubs for a current total of 30 in the competition, including San Diego FC being added this season. Compared with most of Europe’s top-flight football leagues that have been around for over a century, MLS has impressed as a fledgling league, given its mere 30 years of play. There is a strong case to be made that, through looking at domestic choices and international perspectives, MLS can achieve the level of play, attention, and finances that many of Europe’s leagues have.
MLS as a business — in the same way one would look at superstar European clubs AC Milan or FC Bayern Munich as businesses — has modeled itself strategically in recent years to expand its viewership by increasing visibility. The landmark deal that really thrust the league to an international spotlight was their record 10-year partnership deal in 2023 with Apple TV, in which all MLS matches are both broadcasted live and are replayable in over 100 countries through the streaming service’s “MLS Season Pass.” The English Premier League, the United European Football Association’s top league, does not even have its own exclusive streaming service for global viewership. The deal with Apple — in which MLS ended deals with Fox Sports, Univision, and ESPN — has reportedly increased overall broadcasting revenue. With increased revenue and the clear success Apple’s “MLS Season Pass” has had for overall league viewership, marketing strategies have also changed. One of the largest ones, which at face value brings more fans to MLS play, is signing world stars.
In July 2023, Argentinian football legend Lionel Messi made a groundbreaking move to the United States on a $150 million transfer. He joined Miami’s Major League Soccer Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami after rejecting record-breaking offers from multiple Saudi Arabian clubs. The club, owned by English football legend and former LA Galaxy player David Beckham, gambled on Messi with this transfer, especially as Beckham had only formed the club in 2015. The move was not unprecedented, however, as this was not the first instance of a decorated footballer leaving Europe to “retire” in MLS. Some prominent transfers earlier in the league’s history include decorated Arsenal and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry to the New York Red Bulls in 2010; historic Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale to Los Angeles FC in 2022; Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and versatile AC Milan, Arsenal, and Chelsea striker Oliver Giroud to Los Angeles FC in 2024; and veteran Dortmund attacking midfielder Marco Reus to LA Galaxy in 2024.
What is even more of a popular point for Inter Miami, other than Messi, is the fact that the club managed to bring in many of Messi’s former Barcelona counterparts in the past few years. Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets, all Barcelona legends in their own respects, have been reunited with Messi in Miami. The common trend between all of these stars moving to the U.S., however, is that they were or are at the ends of their career. For Reus, Messi, Giroud, and Lloris, who are still active, it is most likely that MLS is their final stop in club football.
In spite of this, it can definitely be said that the growing increase in European legends moving to the U.S. has brought positive international attention and support to MLS. Financially, looking specifically at Inter Miami, the club brought in about $55 million in revenue prior to Messi’s arrival — the subsequent season, their profits increased 245 percent to about $190 million; this is the highest profit record by a single club in the league’s history. The club’s overall value also doubled from $523 million to over $1 billion. For MLS as a whole, just earlier this year, they and codefendant U.S. Soccer Federation unanimously won an antitrust lawsuit brought by the North American Soccer League, alleging NASL’s exclusion from Division I and II professional football.
“The ruling is a significant victory for the broader sports landscape in the U.S., reaffirming the roles MLS and U.S. Soccer play in helping grow soccer as a sport,” Proskauer Rose LLP, MLS’s legal counsel, stated in their announcement.
Both the league’s finances and success in reigning in global stars are boosting attention to the clubs throughout the league.Football, which has always been in the shadow of other beloved American sports — baseball, American football, basketball, to name a few — is making cultural waves and is rising to join and potentially surpass other major sports leagues, such as MLB and the NHL. MLS is able to invest in more homegrown players, and as popularity grows, perhaps more will pick up the sport. American stars are on the rise in Europe, more so now than ever in the sport’s history.
This is all compounded by the fact that this year and next, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will host the world’s largest football tournaments: the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is safe to say that all football fans’ eyes will be turning to North America one way or another. Based on all of these trends, it is a very realistic thing to believe that MLS is on the path to joining the likes of the most competitive, enjoyable, and historic leagues in the world.
