The Messi Boost and the Reality Check: MLS’ Pivotal 30th Anniversary Season | OneFootball

MLS’ 30th season is now in the books, capped by Lionel Messi and Inter Miami lifting their first MLS Cup. It was the kind of year the league needed, yet it still hasn’t broken through nationally, and the league is hoping the World Cup, a calendar overhaul, and new leadership will finally push the league into the mainstream.

Lionel Messi raising the MLS Cup gave Major League Soccer the jolt it needed to close out a muted 30th anniversary season. His triumph brought the league back into the broader conversation, with major media outlets suddenly paying attention again after long stretches of indifference.

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International press descended on Miami, including Argentine outlets from DSports, TyC Sports, ESPN, and Fox, to witness Messi win his 47th trophy and deliver Inter Miami’s third major title since his arrival. His achievement capped a 30th season that featured plenty of movement across the league, though not always in ways MLS hoped.

Commemorations of the league’s 30th birthday were subdued. Beyond a handful of retro kits, social media posts, and scattered team-level initiatives, MLS missed a chance to truly highlight how far it has come since 1996.

The year’s biggest storyline actually unfolded off the field: the league’s planned switch to the European-style calendar beginning in July 2027. Traditionalists welcomed the move, but it remains a major gamble for a league built around summer family crowds and warm-weather stadium culture.

The hope is that MLS Cup Playoffs and MLS Cup will shift into May, a quieter stretch in the United States sports calendar, giving the league’s biggest games more breathing room. It also aligns with the international transfer market, which would also allow clubs to sign marquee players at the start of the season instead of mid-year.

But how did MLS do in its 30th year? Let’s recap the highs and lows of the landmark season.

What MLS Got Right in Year 30

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Attendance held steady. Despite a roughly 5% dip, MLS averaged 21,988 fans per game, topping 11 million total spectators for the second consecutive year.

San Diego FC was an immediate hit, drawing more than 28,000 fans per match in its debut season and finishing atop the Western Conference standings. Atlanta United again led the league with 41,435 per game, though some have questioned how accurate that figure truly was, as the crowd size often looked smaller at the cavernous Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

FC Dallas posted the league’s lowest attendance at 11,013, but only because of renovations at Toyota Stadium, which is on track to become a top-tier venue by 2028.

Sports Business Journal attributed part of the league-wide drop to a summer overloaded with international soccer, which pulled fans away. June MLS crowds averaged 20,124 per match, its weakest June showing in more than a decade.

The shift to a July start in 2027 could change that dynamic. MLB will be deep in its long regular season grind, and the NBA, NHL, and NFL would still be in their off seasons. On paper, MLS may find an easier entry point.

MLS also strengthened its edge over Liga MX in Leagues Cup, with the Seattle Sounders lifting the trophy. But with both leagues soon aligned on the calendar, the long-term future of the competition is uncertain.

Star power improved, too. Summer arrivals Thomas Müller and Son Heung-Min made immediate impact on and off the pitch. Müller’s charisma and Son’s media-friendly personality gave MLS something it often lacks: superstar voices who embrace the American market. Inter Miami’s core, by contrast, remains more aligned with Messi’s global audience than MLS’s domestic one.

American players still left their mark. Diego Luna, Matt Freese, Alex Freeman, Maximilian Arfsten, Sebastian Berhalter, Tim Ream, and Patrick Agyemang all played their ways into the conversation for a 2026 World Cup roster spot, and they all contributed meaningfully to the United States men’s national team when called in by Mauricio Pochettino.

Even as a niche property, MLS remains remarkably stable. Eighteen of 30 teams averaged more than 20,000 fans; another five were just below that line, and six more sat in the mid-teens. In markets like Seattle, Portland, Columbus, Miami, and Atlanta, clubs function as genuine community institutions.

What MLS Got Wrong, or Should Be Worried About

MLS’ biggest problem remains visibility. Nationally, it barely registers. On legacy sports media and national coverage, the league is often invisible.

The Apple TV deal has helped in some ways, but only with caveats. The removal of the paywall for the playoffs boosted numbers: the average postseason match drew about 711,000 viewers worldwide. But again, worldwide, not just domestically.

MLS commissioner Don Garber noted that regular season games in August, still under the old paywall model but with extra free broadcasts and expanded access via Xfinity and DIRECTV, averaged around 120,000 unique viewers per match in 2025, roughly 50% higher than in 2024.

But even with that bump, MLS’ audience remains tiny. If all 15 weekly matches each drew 120,000 viewers worldwide, that equals 1.8 million total viewers across the league. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball averaged 1.8 million per game.

Starting in 2026, MLS becomes part of Apple TV’s base tier, removing the additional paywall entirely. That should help, but 120,000 per match is still far below the 343,000 MLS averaged on ESPN in 2022.

Because Apple provides almost no granular data, no one really knows how many of those viewers are U.S.-based. For a league trying to build a national presence, that uncertainty is damaging.

On the field, the league faces a different crisis: the absence of American stars. In 2026, no American finished among the top scorers or assist leaders. Only goalkeeper Roman Celentano cracked a major category, finishing fourth in shutouts behind three foreign keepers.

MLS has increasingly become a league of foreign impact players. Gone are the days of Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey leading the conversation. Even young American talents like Luna and Arfsten lag behind the league’s biggest names.

The league pushed Berhalter heavily this year, and while his progress is real, he produced only four goals and did not rank among the league’s top chance creators.

The pipeline exists, but few clubs give Americans key attacking roles. Brian White was the only American to win Player of the Month all season. MLS markets itself as a home for domestic talent, yet the league urgently needs a homegrown star. Cavan Sullivan’s impending arrival feels like a lifeline.

Messi himself remains a paradox: transcendent on the field but selective with media. He largely avoided interviews throughout the season, only giving full comments after the MLS Cup win. For a league constantly chasing attention, that silence repeatedly left promotional opportunities on the table.

Finally, MLS’ 30th anniversary mostly came and went without fanfare. The retro jerseys, oddly including expansion era clubs Seattle and Nashville, felt half-hearted. The year lacked a unifying celebration of how far MLS has come.

The league missed a chance to honor the fans who kept it alive in its shaky early years. Many fans now in their mid-30s to mid-40s watched MLS evolve from a tenuous experiment into a stable, ambitious league. The anniversary should have felt big; instead, it felt like any other season.

What’s Ahead

Messi and Inter Miami finally lifting MLS Cup lifts pressure off everyone involved: club, league, and Messi himself. The 2026 season will be the final one under the traditional calendar. Inter Miami is already targeting the CONCACAF Champions Cup title and preparing to spend heavily again. Freedom Park will also open, completing the vision that began even before Messi signed.

The USMNT’s performance at the 2026 World Cup will shape the trajectory of soccer in America, no matter how often MLS and USL executives insist otherwise.

How MLS’ numbers evolve under a fully paywall-free Apple TV experience will be a defining storyline.

And for the first time, MLS is openly preparing for life after Garber, whose contract ends in 2027. While his tenure drove expansion, stadium development, and stability, television exposure remains his weakest legacy.

The next commissioner’s task will be to turn MLS into something people choose to watch consistently, in large numbers, and across platforms. It’s the league’s final major hurdle.

Whether MLS hires from within or brings in an outsider, the next leader may not be a decades-long figurehead but a short-term problem solver focused solely on media reach.

Season 30 proved MLS can juggle growth while navigating its identity crisis. But with the league now “grown up,” many inside and outside the league feel it’s time for MLS to stop being the reliable 20-something living in its parents’ house — and finally stand fully on its own.