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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jamie Rudd today on the Messy Effect. We're

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digging into the business of MLS and the Messi contradiction

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at the heart of it. Let's go. The lead is

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Lionel Messi skipping the MLS All Star Game in Charlotte.

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He and Rodrigo de Paul were excused under fifth pros

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twenty one danfe regg Yoji Kreegi's twenty one day World

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Cup rest rule. No punishment this time. That is a

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direct contrast to last year, when Messi and Jordie Alba

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bailed on the All Star Game at the last minute

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and both got suspended for a match. The league clearly

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learned its lesson and got ahead of it this time,

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but the optics are the same. The biggest star in

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the league is missing one of the league's biggest showcases,

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and MLS has to explain why, which brings us to

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the second story. MLS is reportedly targeting a new TV

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deal worth four hundred to five hundred million dollars a

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year when the Apple agreement expires after twenty twenty nine.

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Right now, Apple pays two hundred and fifty million a year.

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The league wants to nearly double that The problem is

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the competition. The Premier League's NBC deal is already worth

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four hundred and fifty million a year in the US alone,

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and NBC averaged one point two million viewers last season.

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MLS is pulling around five hundred thousand on Fox. The

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World Cup boost is real, but the numbers are not

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there yet. And now MLS has another problem coming, a

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planned USL top flight league with promotion and relegation launching

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in twenty twenty eight. And here's the angle that connects

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both stories. MLS is selling future TV partners a product

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built around lion Or Messi and post World Cup momentum.

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But Messi keeps skipping marquee events and he is not

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going to play forever. So what is the actual product

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MLS is selling. Once the Messi era ends, the league

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has to prove it can create stars and storylines beyond

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one generational player. There is at least one sign that

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the league can build around new faces. Antoine Griesmann scored

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in his MLS debut for Orlando City over the weekend,

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a four nil win over the San Jose Earthquakes. It

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is the kind of arrival that gives MLS a new headline.

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Beyond Miami. Greez Man is a World Cup winner, a

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major European name, and suddenly Orlando has a reason to

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be must watch. That is the model MLS needs more of.

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While MLS figures out its next chapter, the European market

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is still moving. Arsenal are reportedly prepared to make v

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nisi Uz Junior their highest paid player ever if they

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can pull him from Real Madrid Inter are in talks

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with Tottenham over Christian Rome Row looking to build a

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back line around the Argentine and John Starns has suddenly

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drawn interest from a Sea a R club, adding another

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layer to Manchester City's defensive sit. So the question hanging

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over the league is real. The World Cup is over,

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the Apple deal has a few years left. Messi is

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resting and eventually he will retire. Can MLS turn this

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moment into a sustainable product or was the Messi era

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a brilliant but temporary surge. That's the Monday story for

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the Messy Effect. I'm Jamie Rudd