It's Messi's MLS Galaxy

We're just living in it

Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash

Another MLS season is in the books, with the LA Galaxy returning to the top after a decade of wandering in the desert. For some reading this, it might be important to recap the game, which took place Saturday, as it represented the second year of the Apple TV deal and, as such, the second year that MLS mostly operated mostly under the radar of football fans in Canada.

The Galaxy came out flying, probably should have been up by more than two, before allowing a goal against the run on a set piece. They adjusted tactics at that point to give the Red Bulls more of the ball (which is how to beat Red Bulls) and saw the game out. New York had some chances, but the better team won. Same old MetroStars.

This isn’t a place where you come to read game reports, however. More of a big picture, let things breathe for a bit, sort of space, is the 24th Minute. So, I want to focus on where the league is and how this whole Messi experiment is going.

Before I do that, I should probably give the Galaxy a little due here. After all, to fail to give the champions some credit would be to fall into the same Messi-centric blindfold that I’m about to criticize.

As a long-time observer of MLS it pains me to give respect to the Galaxy. After all, they are very much the Manchester United of the league. That comparison worked perfectly up to recently because they fell from grace at the same time Trafford’s own tumbled down the table and into a spiral of coaching changes. Hell, both even had noisy neighbours that were collecting trophies.

The comparison really works quite well. Or, worked, anyway. Let’s hope United doesn’t get any ideas.

That giant caveat out of the way, the Galaxy are a really good story of a club that was truly heading in the wrong direction making some tough and sweeping changes, showing patience in a rebuild, and then seeing it all come together.

With Greg Vanney coaching and Mark(y) Delgado starting in midfield, he types on week of the seventh anniversary of TFC’s MLS Cup win. So, let’s tip our hat to the champions and sincerely hope that Keith Pelley was watching the game.

Ok, back to Apple TV and Messi. There was something delicious about Atlanta — a 9th place team — knocking out Miami in the first round of the playoffs. For the league and Apple to not get their dream final appearance of Messi despite really trying to make things favourable for them is funny on its own. For them to be a victim of the bloated nature of the playoffs, which itself is a product of Apple’s need for CONTENT! CONTENT! CONTENT!, is, well, it’s perfect. 10 out of 10. No notes.

I say this without malice to the player. Really. I love football and as a lover of the game I appreciate just how good Messi is, even now, in his final years. He was the league MVP and it is deserved. He’s too good for MLS, really.

On his own, Messi is not a problem. He obviously drives interest. The league broke all kinds of attendance records this year, largely based on Messi selling out stadiums around the league.

We understand what the play is here by MLS. It’s not that complicated. They are banking on many of the people who wear pink (while sitting in the seats your buddy sold for $1,5000 on StubHub this year) coming back to the stadium later as rabid fans of the home team. Or, at the very least, watching Messi weekly on their Apple TV MLS subscription.

Since we don’t know subscription figures to Apple TV, we can’t say for sure whether the latter is happening. As for the former, it has never really happened before when glory DPs have come to the league (ask Montreal whether they still have a lot of Drogba fans at the Not Impact games). So, I’m unsure why we should expect it to be any different now.

This brings me back to the earlier point about few people in Canada watching the final. The United States, too. This year’s final saw a 47% decrease in viewership from the 2023 final. Only 468,000 watched the game, despite the two markets being L.A. and New York. MLS has always been a league that struggles to attract out-of-market interest (fans are fans of their team, but not so much the league as a whole). It seems that it has gotten far worse since the Messification of things.

A least anecdotally, fans appear to be tuning out of their own team, too. Without local television, the teams are invisible in their markets. Combine that with changes that are not great for the in-stadium crowd — unfriendly kick-off times for fans with kids, for kids, a 6 week break in the dead of summer to play an idiotic tournament, the freezing-your-ass-off early season games that are required to accommodate that tournament — and you have a league that can point to a lot of metrics (so many 50,000+ games!) that seem good but are really just outlier numbers that hide the fact that it’s sold itself out to chase the Messi train.

Pulling back for a second, I feel a bit like a guy trying to preach an anti-puppies message here. I get it. Messi is a sexy (and expensive) get. It’s fun to watch him. MLS shouldn’t — couldn’t— turn down the opportunity to bring him over. That’s all fine.

I like puppies. I’m not a monster.

I just don’t think you should replace your children with the new puppy.

By letting Apple TV drive the bus, the league has moved away from a lot of things it was doing well prior to Messi coming. It’s once again falling into retirement league stereotypes and seems more interested in the sizzle than the steak.

Here’s the thing. Lionel Messi turns 38 in June. He’s not going to play forever. Further to that there are diminishing returns on the Messi-bump every time he comes through town. It will never be nothing — there are a lot of athletes we call a GOAT, he’s one of the few who very well might be — but the novelty will wear off. And, he will retire one day.

Then what? What plan does MLS have to retain the tourists, once Messi is gone? And, how many old school fans will have been driven away in the meantime?

Anyway, congratulations to Greg, Mark(y) and the rest of the Galaxy. They are the deserved champions.