What Liga MX, MLS must do to make the Leagues Cup a success (2024)

For years, MLS has tried to substantially grow its fanbase. The league has expanded rapidly, constructed fabulous new stadiums, made strides in youth development, thrown resources into marketing efforts and shuffled between different broadcasters. The work has paid dividends in attendance in many markets, massively raised the valuations of every club and attracted a growing number of deep-pocketed, motivated owners, but it hasn’t made MLS all that popular nationally.

Still, MLS is on an upward trajectory. It’s not moving as fast as many of us would like, but if the league simply stays the course, there’s plenty of reason to believe it will continue its long, slow march toward becoming a bigger part of the broader sports landscape.

Problem is, there’s no time to take it slow. We’re now less than five years from the 2026 World Cup that will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The tournament is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for MLS to grow in popularity. The league was born out of the 1994 World Cup that was hosted in the U.S. If it wants to accelerate its timeline to becoming a real part of our collective sporting culture and move closer to achieving its goal of turning into one of the best leagues in the world, it must take advantage of the 2026 World Cup in similar fashion.

Last week, the league put itself in a better position to do just that. After five years of building their relationship, MLS and Liga MX announced last Tuesday that they will expand their Leagues Cup tournament beginning in 2023. The revamped competition will include all 47 teams from the two leagues, up from the eight that participated in each of the first two editions. Both leagues will pause their regular seasons for a full month for the competition, which will likely be held entirely in the U.S. and Canada in late summer and could include as many as 80 games. The winner will be awarded a substantial cash prize, while the top-three finishers will earn berths in the CONCACAF Champions League.

For MLS, the changes feel like an overwhelming positive. There are some similarities to the failed European Super League proposal, but also some key, sizable differences. Unlike the breakaway European teams that tried to form the Super League, MLS isn’t already at the top of the mountain. Economic growth is actually needed for the league to improve on the field. And while the new Leagues Cup will widen the gap between MLS/Liga MX and other leagues in CONCACAF if executed properly, it received the blessing of the confederation. This isn’t the same as Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United conspiring to close the door to European competition on their smaller rivals. On the whole, the changed Leagues Cup is a great example of MLS understanding that it isn’t bound by tradition in the same way as much older, much more established European leagues and acting boldly and innovatively to improve itself.

Given the progress that needs to be made before 2026, it was imperative that MLS do something like this. The revamped competition has the potential to help attract fans in a way that internal changes simply don’t.

MLS is betting that the new Leagues Cup will help turn some of the millions of Liga MX fans who reside in the U.S. into bigger MLS supporters. The competition will give the league increased access to those fans, many of whom live in MLS markets, in a setting that has real stakes. It could also help capture more casual sports fans and help turn MLS fans who now only watch their local team into supporters who consume the entire league. If MLS clubs put on a good show in the stands and on the field in the updated competition, some of those folks will inevitably become more interested.

That is a fairly big “if,” though. The updates to Leagues Cup are welcome, but MLS won’t get everything it can out of the competition if it doesn’t allow teams to increase how much they spend on their rosters and allow for more freedom in how they can be built.

Now is the time for MLS to move forward with purpose. The introduction of this competition only further highlights that the league’s medium- and long-term growth will be driven more by its sporting merits than its short-term profits or losses. For MLS to increase its standing as a competition, for it to maximize the potential of the new Leagues Cup and put itself in a better position to capitalize on 2026, it needs to turn soccer fans into MLS fans, and casual MLS fans into avid ones. And to do that, teams need to meaningfully challenge throughout the tournament. It’ll be their only chance to make a first impression.

But as things currently stand, MLS barely competes with Liga MX teams on the field. No MLS team has ever won the CONCACAF Champions League. An MLS team has only made the final of that tournament on four occasions. A Liga MX side has won every modern edition of the CCL. MLS teams have only won 9 of their 51 all-time home-and-home matchups against Liga MX clubs. They’ve done better since targeted allocation money was introduced and spending began to increase in 2015, but they’re still only 7-for-27 in the new era. Liga MX teams have won both editions of the Leagues Cup, as well. MLS teams are 3-8 in the competition, the first two editions of which were played as a single-elimination tournament and held entirely on U.S. soil.

It’s no secret why the matchups have been so comically one-sided: The best Liga MX teams spend magnitudes more on their rosters than even the highest-budget MLS squads.

Because of all that, it’s not hard to imagine the last eight of an expanded Leagues Cup featuring Club América, Tigres, Chivas, Monterrey, Leon, Cruz Azul, Santos Laguna and one MLS team. A final four with no MLS clubs wouldn’t be far-fetched. Either of those scenarios would be embarrassing for MLS, and would hurt the standing of the Leagues Cup in the eyes of the U.S. and Canadian public. MLS can’t afford those outcomes.

Given its generally conservative economic approach, it’s highly unlikely that MLS will close that gap with the top Liga MX teams in the next two years. The league can lessen the divide, however, especially considering the new Leagues Cup should soon add millions of dollars in broadcast revenue.

The league’s current broadcast deal, which expires at the end of the 2022 season, earns just $90 million a year from American broadcasters ESPN, FOX and Univision. That’s a paltry sum in the world of sports. Like any other league, MLS could always generate more revenue from ticket sales and sponsorships, but it has the most room to grow in media rights.

Unfortunately for the league, its ratings are poor. Audiences for nationally-televised matches are small and not growing all that substantially. MLS hasn’t allowed teams to sign local broadcast agreements beyond the 2022 season, a move that ensures the league can package every single one of its matches together in its next deal. That’s smart, but the tonnage tactic is indicative of the fact that the league can’t lean on strong previous ratings when pitching itself to potential broadcasters.

By attaching itself to Liga MX in such an unprecedented fashion in the new Leagues Cup, MLS slightly changed that dynamic. Unlike MLS, Liga MX has strong ratings. In fact, it’s the most-watched soccer league in the U.S. And thanks to the revamped Leagues Cup, MLS now owns the rights to a significant amount of MLS vs. Liga MX or Liga MX vs. Liga MX games.

Even in the event broadcasters project ratings for the new Leagues Cup to be level with MLS regular season contests, the tournament still gives the league almost 80 additional games to sell. That’s a lot of inventory. And it comes during the quietest time on the sports calendar.

Add it up, and the new Leagues Cup is a pretty attractive package for broadcasters. Perhaps even more attractive than the much longer MLS regular season. The league stands to gain millions per year in media rights revenue from the tournament.

MLS needs to account for that incoming new cash and immediately let its teams invest more in their rosters. It needs to simplify its roster rules in ways that would make the current spend more efficient, too. The league is governed by a complex salary budget that restricts how much clubs can spend on their first-teams. The rationale for the budget is two-fold: It helps the league control costs and maintains competitive balance between teams. Those are admirable goals, but ensuring a relatively equal playing field between low- and high-spending MLS teams doesn’t do the league any favors when its high-spenders consistently lose to even mid-tier Liga MX clubs.

MLS took one big step by revamping the tournament, now it’s time to take another and allow for increased investment and greater simplification across rosters. – Sam Stejskal

It’s clear why MLS needs Liga MX. But why does Liga MX, or Mexican soccer for that matter, need MLS? From an economic standpoint, Liga MX has traditionally prospered on its own via a robust and lucrative internal transfer market, and because it’s the most popular sports league in the country.

But Liga MX is close to its financial ceiling at home. It’s nowhere near it in the U.S., however. By playing more games in the U.S., Liga MX can grow its brand commercially and increase its capital through the close 40 million people in the U.S. who are of Mexican descent.

Of course, there’s a healthy precedent for this. The Mexican national team’s annual tour of the U.S. is a lucrative venture. Dubbed the MexTour, El Tri play international friendlies before sell-out in stadiums across the country. Those games have been referred to as “partidos moleros” in Mexico. The term is reserved for matches of little importance and against inferior opponents — games whose sole objective is to make money from Mexico’s U.S.-based supporters and further tap into U.S.-based corporate sponsors.

The actual word “molero” is derived from what is arguably the United States’ most iconic capitalist venture, the shopping mall. The etymology of the term “molero” includes the idea that El Tri’s players shop at American malls any time they play in the U.S.

When the new Leagues Cup kicks off in 2023, MLS brass should be prepared to hear similar criticism from Mexico. A tournament that will be held solely in the U.S. and Canada has “molero” vibes. A traditional international competition would see MLS teams traveling to Mexico and trying to earn results in more challenging environments. But while that’s where MLS would like to be, it simply isn’t the priority at the moment for Liga MX. Tapping into the purchasing power of the millions of Mexicans who live in the U.S. is. In fact, it’s not just a priority; it’s considered a catalyst to the long-term health of Liga MX. Mexican-American fans are desperate to watch their beloved Liga MX clubs live and in person. They’ll help with cash flow (which has been severely impacted by COVID-19) by buying tickets and tuning in to Leagues Cup games. But the real prize for Liga MX is a whole new base of corporate sponsors who will likely sign on in hopes of turning some of those fans into their own customers.

“If you look at it very conceptually, we could think about a permanent and growing competition between MLS and Liga MX,” said Liga MX president Mikel Arriola during an April interview with The Athletic. “And of course we would take advantage of the various commercial sponsors, both on television and within the game-day experience, especially considering the amount of Mexican fans that we have in the U.S.”

The financial benefits are clear, but one must ask whether this strategy alienates fans in Mexico. The expectation is that Liga MX fans in Mexico will watch the tournament on TV and gradually increase MLS viewership in Mexico. A slight increase in MLS interest from the other side of the border would be a bonus for Leagues Cup organizers. For that to happen, the standard of play and the stars of the new Leagues Cup must capture the loyalty of Liga MX fans, which won’t easily be duped by the reinvention of another “partido molero.”

There will be a sporting price to pay as well. Until recently, top Liga MX players have had little incentive to leave Mexico and play abroad, especially to come to MLS. The players are legitimate stars, and by staying in Mexico, domestic players remain firmly in contention for national team call ups. Additionally, as noted before, Liga MX teams have long dominated their MLS foes. Moving to play in the U.S. was and still is seen as a downgrade for promising Mexican players.

That trend, however, has begun to change. With both leagues now openly working together to improve interleague play, Mexican players and their clubs could begin to view MLS as a lateral move that also isn’t a international career killer. A Liga MX player in their prime wouldn’t have considered MLS 10 years ago. Today, the two top earners in MLS are Mexican stars Carlos Vela, 32, of LAFC and Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández, 33, of the Los Angeles Galaxy. While neither Vela nor Hernández are in their peak years as professionals, both players are massive influencers from an MLS marketing standpoint. Neither player has retired from international football, either.

Importantly, their performances have been mostly very good. Vela was named the 2019 MLS MVP and holds the league record for most goals (34) in a season. After a poor season in 2020, Hernández stormed out of the gate in 2021 before an injury slowed down his momentum. He has 11 goals so far.

The trend goes beyond players who are also marketing juggernauts. Before Vela and Chicharito chose MLS, Jonathan Dos Santos moved from Villarreal in Spain to the Galaxy in 2017 at age 27, and now earns $2 million a year. Rodolfo Pizarro arrived in MLS from CF Monterrey in February of 2020 aged 26 for a reported transfer fee of $12 million. Pizarro now earns $3.5 million annually with Inter Miami. In 2019, Chivas transferred forward Alan Pulido, then 28, to Sporting Kansas City for a reported $9.5 million transfer fee, an SKC club record.

They aren’t full-fledged starters, but Dos Santos, Pizarro and Pulido are still regular call ups for Mexico national team coach Tata Martino, whose respect for MLS certainly helps. If MLS clubs can begin to win meaningful games against their Liga MX opposition, a move to America would be even more valued in Mexico, further opening up another market for Liga MX clubs to sell players.

In addition to giving their best players another viable path out of their league, Liga MX also runs the risk of providing the players they hang on to with an increased workload of games that aren’t guaranteed to be much more competitive than CCL. Liga MX used to send teams to South America’s Copa Libertadores – among the world’s most prestigious (and most difficult) club tournaments. Cruz Azul, Chivas and Pumas finished as runners-up in 2001, 2010, and 2015, respectively. Mexico has not participated in that tournament since 2016. A return to the Copa Libertadores would give Mexican teams better international competition, and potentially, better exposure for their players. Yet, Leagues Cup, and the burgeoning relationship between Liga MX and MLS, is more about fans and their money than the players. – Felipe Cárdenas

(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)