MLS commissioner Don Garber: Data from Apple TV ‘affecting how we’re structuring our rosters’

Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images; Reuters Connect

The 2023 broadcast rights deal between Apple and MLS was one of the most fascinating in the history of sports, and while the gamble has largely not paid off for either side (yet), it has clearly changed the business of American soccer in significant ways.

The two sides have continually tinkered with the model, most recently doing away with MLS Season Pass, the subscription service that Apple had previously sold for the league’s games. And after renegotiating the deal last year, MLS could distribute its games elsewhere as soon as 2029.

In the meantime, the Apple partnership has also affected how teams operate, including which players they target to assemble rosters, according to commissioner Don Garber.

“The data from Apple is so specific that it’s impacting the way we think,” Garber said in an interview with The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand released this week. “We know what games are driving fan interest, through technology. We’re looking at how we can have people looking at our highlights. It’s affecting the players we’re signing. It’s affecting how we’re structuring our rosters, which is probably the most fascinating part of this.”

Garber pointed to three teenage players on New York Red Bulls — Matthew Dos Santos, Adri Mehmeti, and Julian Hall — who have become among the league’s most popular stars among fans.

“We’ve got three young players on the Red Bulls who are 17 years old, who are three of the most exciting young players America’s ever had. And what does that mean?” Garber added. “How do we take that player, turn them into their own media property? How do we have them push highlights for us? How do we have fan clubs around them in ways that are about what they’re doing as opposed to what someone is telling us we should be doing with that property?”