Still less than a year into the Lionel Messi era, MLS is wasting no time capitalizing on the presence of the Argentine legend as the league returns to the pitch Wednesday night with Real Salt Lake visiting Inter Miami to kick off the 2024 season.

The Messi effect was all-encompassing last year. Inter Miami of course benefited greatly, generating a league-record revenue figure of at least $120 million. Opposing clubs capitalized on Miami coming to town with huge ticket sales and creative scheduling efforts, even sometimes with Messi on the bench. And his arrival midseason led to a major spike in MLS Season Pass subscriptions for Apple TV.

Inter Miami was the worst team in MLS when Messi signed and, despite winning the first edition of the revamped Leagues Cup tournament, couldn’t rally to make the playoffs. This season, it’s by far and away the betting favorite to win the MLS Cup—FanDuel puts the team’s odds at +250, with LAFC as the nearest competitor at +700. That’s a lot of pressure on Miami and Messi, who has already struggled with injury problems early this year during the club’s preseason tour. Of course it wants to win a title, but the league, other teams, and Apple are clearly counting on the superstar, who turns 37 in June, to be the face of MLS each time Miami takes the field.

After a record year of regular-season attendance in 2023 (22,111 fans per match and almost 11 million total), MLS is touting a variety of positive metrics pointing toward the Messi momentum continuing. Miami sold out of season tickets in November, and league-wide, overall revenue from season ticket sales for its clubs is up 25% compared to this same point heading into last season. MLS says sponsors are spending more dollars (revenue is up 17% on the league level and 15% for clubs), and the official MLS online store is seeing a sales spike of 44%.

The question now is whether all those flashy numbers keep trending up throughout the season. Beyond any injury concerns, Messi will already miss some MLS matches as Argentina’s Copa América slate in June (and possibly July) conflicts with Inter Miami’s schedule.

Apple of My Eye

Apple is entering the second season of its 10-year, $2.5 billion deal for exclusive global rights to all MLS matches. That arrangement was negotiated before Messi entered the league, and very likely could be much more expensive if his move had taken place earlier.

While the company and league don’t release specific subscriber numbers for MLS Season Pass, the count was said to have surpassed 2 million in 2023, according to Sports Business Journal. But last year, T-Mobile offered its 100-million-plus customers free Season Pass subscriptions; and that won’t be the case this year, per CNET. MLS does appear to still be offering complimentary Season Pass subscriptions to eligible full-season-ticket account owners, though. It’s unclear how many nonpaying Season Pass subscribers there were in 2023, but it’s reasonable to assume they represented a decent chunk and that some who utilized the T-Mobile offering won’t buy the service this year.

While Apple certainly wants to see subscriber growth, the $250 million annual rights fee is chump change for a company with a $2.8 trillion market cap. Plus, MLS covers all production costs. No matter the subscriber count or viewership numbers for MLS Season Pass, the deal is a great way for Apple (which just launched a new sports app) to continue building out its live content portfolio. The tech giant is paying a reported $85 million annually for Friday night MLB games, is still expected to bid on NBA rights this year, and was believed to be at the finish line of a deal to acquire NFL Sunday Ticket before talks broke down and the package went to YouTube.

There is still not a definitive agreement in place for the landmark sports-oriented streaming joint venture among ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. (Otherwise known as “Spulu,” as some have started calling it.) But formal opposition is already mounting against the deal, heightening the drama for the venture between now and its projected market debut in the fall.

Streaming rival FuboTV has filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to block the venture on antitrust grounds. Even before the still-unnamed service becomes a full-fledged reality, FuboTV alleges the companies—along with other named defendants Walt Disney Co. and Hulu—have engaged in an extended pattern of “extreme suppression of competition in the U.S. sports-focused streaming market,” to the detriment of consumers through higher prices.

Furthermore, FuboTV said it has sought for years to offer a sports-only streaming service, but claims it has been thwarted by the media titans’ insistence on broader channel bundling requirements embedded within sports licensing agreements. 

“Faced with the threat of disruptive competition from Fubo and other upstarts, defendants have responded by locking arms (and locking others out) to steal Fubo’s core business idea—a sports-centric package of channels—while blocking Fubo from offering that same package,” the lawsuit reads in part. None of the defendants have responded yet to the action.

By referring extensively to prior business activities, FuboTV seeks to clear what will almost certainly stand as one of its biggest hurdles in the legal action: proving actual harm from a joint venture that doesn’t yet fully exist. The ESPN-WBD-Fox alliance currently stands in an “understanding on principal terms” and has not reached a definitive agreement.

Attorney: Sour Grapes

“Antitrust law protects competition. It does not protect competitors,” Chris Deubert, a veteran sports attorney with Constangy, Brooks, Smith and Prophete, tells Front Office Sports. “Fubo’s complaints here are sour grapes, potentially, because they stand to lose out, theoretically, on market share. That doesn’t mean there’s an antitrust violation. If this was 10, 15, or 20 years ago, when the market for sports rights was much more consolidated, they’d have a stronger claim.”

Pressure remains high on FuboTV, as the company’s stock has fallen 24% since the Feb. 6 unveiling of the new streaming venture. But scrutiny, too, is quickly surrounding the ESPN-WBD-Fox alliance, as the U.S. Justice Department reportedly is planning its own inquiry while several league commissioners including the NFL’s Roger Goodell and NBA’s Adam Silver, along with linear distributors, were either caught entirely off guard by the announcement, are irked by it, or both.