General MLS Discussion

[mgarbowski]

Something I've been thinking about lately and this whole Vancouver thing adds fuel to the fire, is MLS not doing do well financially? So far this season they:

• Cut back on game day production
• Cut writers on the MLS website
• Cut their fantasy web site
• Quality of the stats tracking on the website has gone way down, people are regularly finding major errors in game stats and player stats
• Minimal advertising trying to build MLS hype via the world cup
• Chasing a quasi transfer fee with this Vancouver move

Team values are way up but they are not really acting like a financial org that is thriving with all these nickel and dime level cuts. Did they over extend themselves with Messi, are they only okay when they get massive expansion fees every other season, am I just over thinking this and everything is fine?

I think Vancouver is its own thing. They've had an unfavorable lease for a long time and it's just now coming to a decision point. plus, I presume most of the purchase price would not be distributed as a quasi transfer fee because the Vancouver ownership will get the bulk of it.

The other points you make are real. But from outside it's hard to tell if cost cutting is due to a cash squeeze or because they decided the return on investment isn't worthwhile. All the things they are cutting enhance the fan experience but do they drive additional spend? I don't know. The general enshittification effect has been largely driven by businesses watching customers return after Covid even though products and services were still bare bones. A lot of the things that make everything better are sadly, not necessary and don't enhance the bottom line. So they get cut.

I'm not saying MLS is or is not having financial issues. I don't think what we do know is enough to tell.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I don't think the league is having financial issues, but I do think they were relying a little too heavily on expansion fees and now that they're at 30, the golden goose is coming to an end. I think the cutbacks are about maximizing profits, which is an epidemic throughout business right now.

 

[413Blue]

I think the league is doing well, albeit probably a bit unevenly between different franchises. Vancouver has numerous challenges and tend to be at or near the bottom of basically all business metrics.

I also believe that the league, most likely, is not doing as well as owners were projecting several years ago, but not catastrophically below expectations.

There are still smart investors willing to invest tons of money into new clubs, so clearly the underlying metrics must warrant that interest.

Also I don't believe expansion fees have much to do with any changes. All of the big four sports league have had 30-32 teams for a very long time. I'm assuming that they, and MLS, have run in-depth analysis that determined that 30-32 was the ideal range of teams that could attract enough interest nationwide to secure national tv and sponsorship deals, but not too much to dilute those potential revenues too thin. MLS knew they wanted to get to that range, and tried to get their as quickly, but orderly, as they could.