Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jamie Rudd today on the Messy Effect. We're
digging into the business of MLS and the Messi contradiction
at the heart of it. Let's go. The lead is
Lionel Messi skipping the MLS All Star Game in Charlotte.
He and Rodrigo de Paul were excused under fifth pros
twenty one danfe regg Yoji Kreegi's twenty one day World
Cup rest rule. No punishment this time. That is a
direct contrast to last year, when Messi and Jordie Alba
bailed on the All Star Game at the last minute
and both got suspended for a match. The league clearly
learned its lesson and got ahead of it this time,
but the optics are the same. The biggest star in
the league is missing one of the league's biggest showcases,
and MLS has to explain why, which brings us to
the second story. MLS is reportedly targeting a new TV
deal worth four hundred to five hundred million dollars a
year when the Apple agreement expires after twenty twenty nine.
Right now, Apple pays two hundred and fifty million a year.
The league wants to nearly double that The problem is
the competition. The Premier League's NBC deal is already worth
four hundred and fifty million a year in the US alone,
and NBC averaged one point two million viewers last season.
MLS is pulling around five hundred thousand on Fox. The
World Cup boost is real, but the numbers are not
there yet. And now MLS has another problem coming, a
planned USL top flight league with promotion and relegation launching
in twenty twenty eight. And here's the angle that connects
both stories. MLS is selling future TV partners a product
built around lion Or Messi and post World Cup momentum.
But Messi keeps skipping marquee events and he is not
going to play forever. So what is the actual product
MLS is selling. Once the Messi era ends, the league
has to prove it can create stars and storylines beyond
one generational player. There is at least one sign that
the league can build around new faces. Antoine Griesmann scored
in his MLS debut for Orlando City over the weekend,
a four nil win over the San Jose Earthquakes. It
is the kind of arrival that gives MLS a new headline.
Beyond Miami. Greez Man is a World Cup winner, a
major European name, and suddenly Orlando has a reason to
be must watch. That is the model MLS needs more of.
While MLS figures out its next chapter, the European market
is still moving. Arsenal are reportedly prepared to make v
nisi Uz Junior their highest paid player ever if they
can pull him from Real Madrid Inter are in talks
with Tottenham over Christian Rome Row looking to build a
back line around the Argentine and John Starns has suddenly
drawn interest from a Sea a R club, adding another
layer to Manchester City's defensive sit. So the question hanging
over the league is real. The World Cup is over,
the Apple deal has a few years left. Messi is
resting and eventually he will retire. Can MLS turn this
moment into a sustainable product or was the Messi era
a brilliant but temporary surge. That's the Monday story for
the Messy Effect. I'm Jamie Rudd