The 2023 MLS Season kicks off today, writing a new chapter in arguably the guiltiest pleasure of soccer fans around the world. It’s easy to put down the MLS by comparison to other leagues around the world, especially Europe.
But at the end of the day we all keep coming back. It’s a league that delivers seldom of what it promises, and that in and of itself is more than enough to get me excited for each new season.
Yeah, the soccer fan in me looks forward to the actual play. Having more soccer to watch will never be a bad thing from a fan perspective, and with the 2022 MLS Cup Final being one of the best ever, that excitement is compounded.
However, just as intriguing as the on field product are the stories each season produces. Like many American sports, the MLS is a goldmine of headlines. These are the storylines I’m looking forward to heading into the season, though I’m sure by mid-November MLS Cup Final these will be mere drops in the narrative bucket.
1.) Apple TV+ MLS Season Pass
This has been the storyline to dominate the preseason so far, and the long term ramifications give it good reason to be. Last November Apple and the MLS announced details on a historic partnership deal, with the tech giants serving as the exclusive streaming rights holders for the league over the next 10 years.
This is a first of its kind deal that has the potential to make or break MLS’s popularity in the American sports hierarchy. There has been a considerable investment, past the $2 billion dollar price tag, in acquiring coverage talent and producing custom content in the lead up to the season that bodes well so far. The MLS Season Pass also hosted a few preseason games as test runs, and reviews were fairly positive from a usually cynical fan base.
There are features of the deal that serve as positive indicators heading into the season. The inclusion of a pass with season tickets is a big plus, as it shows a positive intention to actively engage with the most passionate of the MLS fan base. The reported “Red-Zone” like show comes with promise but is hard to pull off, just ask CBS.
All reports and indications so far suggest this deal will be for the better, and can truly aid in accelerating MLS’s growth. This has the potential to launch an entirely fresh digital presence for the MLS that could ultimately grow more coherent than another other league, and who knows what it could attract. On the other hand, there’s always the chance of being overpromised and underdelivered, and the abundance of hype heading into the season might make the grace period shorter than Apple anticipates.
Also, the lack of local broadcasts is a huge risk to take with such a big overhaul. Though some national broadcast games will still be available on the FOX network, local fans will be hard pressed to splash $80-$100 on a Season Pass if they don’t qualify for a free one already, and it’s hard to guess how that discrepancy of who is and isn’t willing/able to describe will offset. The only other option would be the old fashioned radio broadcast. This is a very fragile dangling thread that could be the undoing of this entire operation if not proven otherwise.
It’s a super intriguing headline that really only begins this season. We’ll have 10 years of this, so let’s see what happens.
2.) The New and Improved(?) Leagues Cup
This list isn’t necessarily in order but I felt compelled to put this one pretty high up, mostly due to it’s head-scratching nature. The announcement of a new expanded League’s Cup format last year raised a few eyebrows but subsided for the most part, until groups were selected a few weeks ago. In short, both leagues will take about a month break for all MLS and Liga MX teams to participate in a fully fleshed out tournament.
Everything that I like about this is conceptual. Engaging these two groups of fans helps maintain that Mexico vs USA rivalry in between international breaks. Yeah, there’s the CONCACAF Champions League, but that doesn’t quite carry the energy that it should. The exposure to more teams across the two leagues could help elevate the quality in both. European teams are constantly exposed to vastly different tactics and styles of play between countries, which is something that is lacking within MLS and could be holding the league back.
Circling back to the CCL, the tournament will provide additional qualifying spots to the top three teams. The winners are sent straight to the Round of 16. This is fine enough of an incentive I guess, but feels a little bit like the intentions of this tournament are spilling over. The CCL includes all of CONCACAF, not just the US and Mexico, and making it too disproportionate runs the risk of making the two tournaments too redundant.
The last thing I got to maybe say nice about this is that it’s another cup run. Another opportunity for the teams within our North American communities to etch their stories in the stone records of the beautiful game and inspire organic, homegrown passion in future generations. The introduction of a new trophy presents the possibility of it becoming prestigious some day, and having an early successful history could prove valuable.
That’s really it though, and the last one’s a stretch. Logistically this seems like a nightmare. The month-long pause is a crucial part of the MLS season, starting literally two days after the All-Star game. This in tandem with the fact that introducing a new competition will automatically lead teams to evaluating which is a priority will affect the quality of the product in both.
More soccer for the sake of more soccer isn’t always good, and by the time a team decides whether to go full throttle in the competition or ride casually to save for a strong domestic home stretch there could be a whole flock of new injuries to worry about. Lastly, the uneven amount of teams makes it seem a little weird. Is this supposed to be an international continental tournament or an Open Cup with some of the Liga MX teams? Either way it seems like a cash grab that will probably get restructured again next year, but could be fun for now.
3.) Can the Union Do It?
The first of two homer picks, but this is my website so I’m sticking to it. The Union have become one of MLS’s best stories in the past few years. They represent the almost perfectly well rounded club models out there with an academy that produces quality talent, a low payroll for a deep squad that consistently competes for trophies, a passionate fan base within a sports-obsessed city, and tenured manager that is well connected throughout the community.
The last three years have gone: Supporter’s Shield, Eastern Conference Finals, and MLS Cup Final. So, this is the year, right? Of course, they’ll always have the glitzy LAFC to worry about across the conference aisle after last seasons classic finale. But the question now may start to turn from can they make it all the way to do they need to make it all the way.
This is a pivotal season, and expectations are as high as they’ve ever been for the Union. Jim Curtain has consistently proven his ability to get what seems to be even more than the most out of the squad he has, to the point where it’s been suggested he’s in the cards to be involved with the USMNT in the next World Cup cycle. Likewise, the squad hasn’t really changed too much, with most starters staying on and really only losing fringe pieces that they recovered on pretty quickly.
Another season finishing among the top of the league could turn a three year bump into a four year era, and can prove that the Union can do it both when they’re underdogs and when they’re considered favorites. Further, a trophy carries even more implications. Riding such an incline of success usually ends one of two ways, a sharp peak or a sustained presence. The difference between these two this season could be a trophy, and at this point, it’s as good as Philly’s to lose.
4.) Wayne Rooney's First Full Season
Second homer pick, weird I know. Long story. This one I’ve touched on slightly already, but is intriguing nonetheless. DC United hit a new low last season, finishing bottom of the largest table in the MLS so far. With the league expanding yet again, repeating this feat will be the first thing to avoid for DC.
Hernan Losada never really looked like the answer when the season began, and DC never really recovered once Wayne Rooney was announced manager. He came in and did ok, but ultimately nothing much changed. They floated along the bottom of the league before landing there at the end, and though his home debut featured an enthralling 2-1 home win, their form at Audi Field was far too poor to build any momentum in the last couple months of the season.
DC has made some moves, including another DP in Mateusz Klich and a versatile veteran in Pedro Santos, while showing the willingness to move on from potential deadwood with Miguel Berry traded to Atlanta and Ravel Morrison reportedly on his way out.
This became more of a story to follow along when Rooney’s name was getting thrown around for the Everton job. The chances were oddly high for him which doesn’t make much sense to me. Having a full offseason and a full season of management is something he has struggled to string together so far, and the results haven’t been kind. This will be his best chance to prove that he even has the potential to be in the running for those kinds of jobs, better yet successful in Europe as a manager. Expectations aren’t sky high, but this season will answer some important questions for the future of DC United and Rooney alike.
5.) What’s Cooking in Columbus?
This is my sleeper pick, for a handful of reasons. Just a few years ago the Crew were in serious danger of leaving Columbus, and a monumental effort from fans prevented that from happening. Two years later they won the MLS Cup. They’ve teetered between high success in the eastern conference and missing the playoffs. But this year feels different.
The biggest splash that caught my attention was the hiring of Wilfried Nancy as head coach. Nancy was runner-up for Coach of the Year last year in a season where he brought a Montreal Impact team far past any expectation.
Along with under-the-radar moves for former Minnesota United and LAFC star Cristian Ramirez and stand-out defender Jimmy Medranda bolstering an already solid roster, Columbus are presenting themselves as hungry, able, and quick to comeback after narrowly missing the playoffs last year. Keep an eye out for a familiar contender in the Eastern Conference.
6.) New MLS Playoff Format
There was only going to be five on this list, and it was going to come out a few days ago. Then we got hit with the news of a revamped format for the MLS Cup playoffs, starting this season. You can read the details here, but the main gist is a few more teams get in and the second round is a best of three series.
The main reasons for this can only be to accommodate the continuous expansion of the league and money grabbing. The MLS playoffs briefly experimented with home/away playoff rounds leading up to the final, and the mirrored structure it had with famous tournaments around the world made it actually pretty entertaining. This soon changed, mostly due to the fact that the league just kept on expanding. Bringing it back makes little to no sense, especially with the option of there being three games in one round and all the rest being single elimination.
The perspectives on the playoffs in general range all across the spectrum, from those championing it as a uniquely fun aspect that differentiates it from the rest of the world, to those wishing the top of each conference just played in one final because the playoffs diminish the meaning of the progress within the regular season. On this announcement, both sides seem unhappy, as this new format disrupts an end-of-season rhythm that sports leagues across the world rely on as an essential aspect of their identity. The constant prioritization on expanding the league prohibits actually establishing a suitable format and this may be the worst example yet.
