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Morning Edition

December 2, 2025

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Lionel Messi has carried Inter Miami to the MLS Cup final—and he’s lifting the entire league with him. The numbers show just how big the ripple effect has become.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]] and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

MLS Riding a Messi-Fueled Wave Into Championship Weekend [[link removed]]

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Major League Soccer, at long last, again has its biggest star on its biggest stage.

Inter Miami, fueled heavily by an epic playoff run by Argentine star Lionel Messi, will face the Vancouver Whitecaps in Saturday’s MLS Cup, with both teams clinching their spots with conference final wins this past weekend. For both teams, the rise to the championship game takes on a rags-to-riches feel, with Inter Miami not having advanced beyond the first round of the postseason in its five prior seasons of existence, and the Whitecaps previously not moving past the second round in their first 14 MLS seasons.

The key story around the upcoming match, however, is the 38-year-old Messi, who is writing another epic chapter [[link removed]] in what has already been a legendary soccer career. This postseason has included 13 goal contributions from Messi, including an assist in the conference final against NYCFC to extend his league record for scoring in a single MLS postseason.

“Leo has accustomed us to the extraordinary,” said Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano of Messi after the NYCFC win.

Fan Metrics

Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League have enjoyed sizable lifts in attendance, viewership, social media consumption, and other key measures of fan affinity over the last two seasons. That’s hardly a coincidence as those leagues finally saw Dodgers two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani and Oilers center Connor McDavid—by many accounts the best players in their respective leagues—into the championship round after years of pursuit.

That also is very much the dynamic of what’s happening to MLS right now. Viewership for that league is much more opaque thanks to its groundbreaking, and recently adjusted [[link removed]], rights deal with Apple. MLS, however, said it averaged 3.7 million gross live match viewers across linear and streaming during the regular season, up 29% from last year. Total ticketing revenue reached a league record, despite a slight dip in overall attendance to 11.2 million. A series of other historic milestones were set this year in digital engagement.

Additional playoff viewership numbers are expected Tuesday, but what’s already clear is that Messi is helping fuel a broader swell in fan interest.

The closest historical parallel for MLS to what’s happening now with Messi was with global superstar David Beckham, who, along with fellow standout Landon Donovan, led the L.A. Galaxy to the 2011 and 2012 titles. The current situation, however, is happening with MLS in a far stronger and more expansive position in its own history.

Messi, a strong candidate to also win the 2025 Most Valuable Player award, will now be facing Vancouver star Thomas Müller, who helped lead Germany to wins over Messi’s Argentina in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

“The nice thing about it is not only playing against the greatest player who played our game and is still playing our game, it’s more that, I think, when you have a pairing like this, more people are watching,” Müller said.

SPONSORED BY AT&T BUSINESS

Connecting Small Business Owners to Greater Possibilities

With the goal of uplifting small businesses and their communities, AT&T launched the AT&T Small Business Contest [[link removed]]—awarding one small business owner and four finalists AT&T services and mentorship resources to grow their business to new heights.

This year, AT&T is proud to welcome the Top 5 Small Business Contest finalists—Bold Crumb House, SOJO Coffee Company, The Blueprint University, Nourish + Bloom Market, and Sensori—to the AT&T Small Business Community. Stay tuned for a special episode of She’s Connected early next year featuring a superstar athlete and the winner of the 2025 AT&T Small Business Contest.

You can learn more about the top 5 finalists and previous winners on the She’s Connected by AT&T website [[link removed]].

Missouri’s Betting Debut Comes As Chiefs, Royals Eye New Homes [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Missouri has become the latest state to offer legal sports betting, and there are plenty of potential implications from this addition to the country’s regulated framework.

The Show Me State became the 39th state, along with the District of Columbia, to allow sports betting, bringing in the sports-mad Kansas City and St. Louis markets into the industry. Previously, consumers from those states needed to travel to neighboring locales such as Kansas and Illinois to place bets. Missouri voters narrowly approved sports betting in a November 2024 ballot measure, boosted in part by a hefty push from the state’s pro teams.

Aside from California and Texas, the country’s two most populous states and longtime problem areas for sports betting advocates, Missouri had been one of the largest remaining states without legalization.

The Missouri sports betting rules will include a general allowance of proposition bets, so long as they don’t involve a college or university located in the state. Prop bets, however, have been at the center of recent betting scandals in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and in college sports.

MLB’s recently imposed limits on pitch-level prop bets [[link removed]] will also apply to Missouri, but broadly, the permitting of the activity there contrasts sharply against recently conveyed regrets from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine about sports betting overall. Amid the recent federal indictment of two Guardians pitchers, DeWine recently told the Associated Press [[link removed]] about sports betting, “Ohio shouldn’t have done it.”

Missouri, however, will see the simultaneous arrival of market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, along with BetMGM, Caesars, Fanatics, Bet365, Circa Sports, and theScore—creating one of the more immediately competitive markets among recent state rollouts. The arrival of theScore in Missouri is also one of the first major moves for Penn Entertainment in partnership with that brand since its recent separation from ESPN [[link removed]].

Stadium Funds?

Meanwhile, the arrival of Missouri sports betting potential intersects with the stadium deliberations of both the MLB Royals and NFL Chiefs. The Royals definitely want to leave Kauffman Stadium for a new facility, while the Chiefs have a broader deliberation [[link removed]] that includes possibly renovating the existing Arrowhead Stadium or leaving for a new, domed facility in either Missouri or Kansas.

Currently, the Missouri sports betting funds are primarily earmarked for education. Neighboring Kansas, however, has used more than $26 million [[link removed]] of its sports betting tax revenue to pursue pro teams to the state [[link removed]], and it will bear close watching whether Missouri will make a budgetary pivot as the Chiefs and Royals draw closer to making their venue decisions.

ACC Matchup in Rio Will Mark First FBS Game in South America [[link removed]]

Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

South America will host its first FBS college football game next season.

NC State and Virginia will face off Aug. 29 at Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Week 0 matchup will count toward the ACC standings as the conference plays nine league games [[link removed]] next year. Virginia will be the designated home team.

An ESPN network will broadcast the game, dubbed “College Football Brasil,” organized by college sports revenue-generation company Athlete Advantage, live events company Brasil Sports Business, and local government entities.

The NFL is also playing its debut game in Rio [[link removed]] in 2026, but that will be across town at the 78,000-seat Maracanã Stadium, which is home to Brazilian soccer clubs Flamengo and Fluminense, and has hosted top events of the 2014 FIFA men’s World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. A date and matchup for that game have not been set yet.

Nilton Santos Stadium has a capacity of roughly 49,000 and is home to the Botafogo FR soccer team. It also hosted some Olympic events in 2016.

New Borders

The Brazil game comes as college football continues to play more games internationally.

NC State–Virginia will be played on the same day as the North Carolina–TCU matchup in Dublin, marking the fifth consecutive edition of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic since its relaunch in 2022. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark in July said [[link removed]] he is “all in” on international expansion as his league looks to become a “global conference.”

This summer, Michigan explored moving its 2026 season opener against Western Michigan from Ann Arbor to Frankfurt, Germany, but ultimately decided to keep it at the Big House in Ann Arbor.

The Holiday Bowl, traditionally an ACC–Pac-12 matchup annually played in San Diego, considered moving this upcoming postseason’s game to Saudi Arabia [[link removed]], but it did not follow through with the proposal.

Conversation Starters Espresso-rubbed filet mignon, chicken parm, Fat Rooster chicken sandwich—you name it, we tried it, and rated everything 1–10 at a New York Giants game at MetLife Stadium. Check out [[link removed]] our latest episode of Stadium Eats. Logan Lutui and his 3-year-old son, Ziggy, came out of the tunnel together as the BYU defensive end was honored during the Cougars’ senior game. Watch the special moment here [[link removed]]. Flyers players [[link removed]] wore custom SkateSkins and goalie masks designed alongside childhood cancer patients to honor Hockey Fights Cancer month. Editors’ Picks Laurie Canter Re-Joining LIV Golf Instead of Accepting PGA Tour Membership [[link removed]]by David Rumsey [[link removed]]Canter, a former LIV player, earned a PGA Tour card last month. ESPN-TNT Pact Expands With Charles Barkley–Dick Vitale Collab [[link removed]]by Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]]ESPN and TNT Sports have worked together on a number of initiatives. Udonis Haslem Settles Out of FTX Litigation [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]He follows his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal in settling. Question of the Day

Who do you think will win the MLS Cup final on Saturday?

Inter Miami [[link removed]] Vancouver Whitecaps [[link removed]]

Monday’s result: 31% of respondents think Ole Miss should have let Lane Kiffin coach during the College Football Playoff.

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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