Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the details of the partnership with Box to Box Films.
Major League Soccer has partnered with British production house Box to Box Films to produce content and possibly a documentary about the league, MLS deputy commissioner Gary Stevenson told The Athletic.
While the collaboration is still in its early stages, content will likely be broadcast on Apple TV — MLS’ new broadcast partner — and potentially on the league’s website, social channels and YouTube. MLS signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion media rights deal with Apple earlier this year.
Box to Box is the production company behind a host of other popular sports documentaries. Most notably, they have produced every season of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, the popular series chronicling Formula 1 motor racing. The company recently produced “Full Swing,” which follows golf’s PGA Tour, and “Break Point,” a similar series on the ATP and WTA tours of professional tennis.
An MLS documentary similar to Drive to Survive is possible and has been discussed, but specifics have not been finalized.
The MLS Season Pass offer includes every regular and postseason game in the league. The league has also promised a wealth of additional content — weekly team reports, player profiles, analysis and the like — but there’s been little in the way of longer, more in-depth storytelling.
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In a conversation with Athletics this week, MLS commissioner Don Garber emphasized the importance of the Season Pass in relation to programming, especially for the league’s most ambitious teams. And while Box to Box is working in long form, the teams are responsible for regular, weekly content.
“Each team has the opportunity to make their own Drive to Survive and have the greatest technology and the most innovative consumer-facing company in the world provide the platform for that,” Garber said. “You think about what was so original and attractive and what put F1 on the map in this country… This will be a test for our teams. They’re required to provide a certain amount of content because that’s what MLS is all about — to centrally ensure that our teams are doing what they need to do to support a collective effort. But I can assure you that the teams that are really, really good will create very innovative, exciting globally interesting content and that will drive subscribers.”
Individual MLS clubs have sometimes taken a stab at producing serialized content. In 2019, LAFC produced the aptly named We Are LAFC, which documented their inaugural season. The Philadelphia Union is currently filming and releasing “The Union Way,” which will follow the club through 2023. The first episode of that series was released on the Season Pass and the club’s YouTube channel last week.
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“Before you even think about driving subscribers, it’s about creating relevance and connections with fans,” Garber said. “What will matter to them? When we lived in a world that had local coverage and local broadcast relationships, they would just put a game on whenever they had an opportunity to do it based on the schedule they gave us. And the content we offered had to live on our websites. And now we have Apple providing that platform.”
Globally, serialized sports documentaries have become common, especially when it comes to football. Amazon’s “All or Nothing” series has spent seasons with English Premier League teams Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, along with a host of other teams in a variety of professional sports. Other clubs, such as Sunderland and Leeds United, have worked with other partners to present their seasons in a documentary format.
Welsh side Wrexham AFC has also found a new audience with FX’s Welcome to Wrexham, which follows club owners and Hollywood players Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds as they seek to lead the fifth-tier club to glory.
The multiple documentaries have come with varying degrees of editorial independence, and there are no details yet on the deal between MLS and Box to Box. It’s also unclear how many of the league’s clubs will feature in a potential showdown.
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(Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
