The Business of Major League Soccer 2025

The Business of Major League Soccer 2025

Summary

The Business of MLS 2025 report is part of the GlobalData's 'Business of' series of sport competition profiles. The report takes a deep dive into the premier competition for domestic soccer in United States and Canada. The report explores the biggest rights across the league, specifically looking at the main media and sponsorship rights attached to the MLS, as well the main sponsorship rights and annual values of the 30 competing teams. The report also looks at market viewership, profiles individual teams and offers social media following comparisons against teams, other American sports leagues and other soccer leagues.

MLS Cup Final viewership continues to falls, with a average viewership (not on Apple) at 468,000 in 2024. The league boasts 31 active sponsorship deals this season. Inter Miami continue to dominate the leagues commercial appeal.

Overview of the media rights landscape. Global media and sponsor partners explored. Breakdown of the sponsorship deals including annual values. Individual team profiles. Team market comparison by sponsorship. Connected social media followers.

Scope

• The main aims of this report is to highlight commercial landscape across Major League Soccer. The report aims to break down the key commercial revenue streams for the league and its affiliated teams.
• It goes into detail on the key partnerships including its centralized rights with adidas, the prominence of Apple, front-of-shirt rights, sleeve partnerships and stadium naming rights.

• Soccer is a growing sport in the United States and Canada as the countries build towards jointly hosting (with Mexico) the 2026 FIFA World Cup . MLS has been massively boosted by the arrival of Lionel Messi at Inter Miami and target further growth on the back of his involvement.