Major League Soccer’s “Media and Marketing Tour” is one of the hallmarks of every MLS preseason, a chance for the league to walk its players and coaches and make them available to the media ahead of the season. pre-season. For hours, dozens of players in full jerseys march around a convention center and are endlessly interviewed, videotaped and photographed. It feels a bit like an assembly line.
This year’s event in San Jose, California was a little different. At times, the suits trumped the kits, as most of Tuesday’s action was in MLS’ historic media rights partnership with Apple, the tech giant based in nearby Cupertino.
For months, questions have surrounded the agreement. Some observers have expressed concern over whether the league, which is solely responsible for producing all content, is well-equipped to handle that burden. And, until recently, little was known about the broadcasting talent the league planned to use to execute its vision.
MLS did its best to put those concerns to rest on Tuesday by releasing them first a talent list they’ve contracted to help broadcast their upcoming matches and later march a dozen or so of them on stage. MLS Commissioner Don Garber was also in attendance, and was joined by Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, who, among his other responsibilities, oversees the company’s video offerings.
Of the dignitaries revealed on Tuesday, Taylor Twellman was definitely the biggest giveaway. Over the years, the former player and ESPN commentator has become a familiar face to MLS fans, and his departure seems like a minor coup for the league, which was in dire need of a high-profile signing. to help introduce their coverage. For Twellman, the partnership with Apple means a potential sea change in terms of broadcast quality and perception.
“(With this deal) it’s about not fighting for some things that a league has to fight for that it doesn’t have to fight for at this point … MLS has always had to apologize for who they are, what they’re doing . they have always had to scramble to get airtime. Apple literally walked in the door and said, ‘How can we improve the customer experience?’
Twellman pointed to the standardization of the MLS schedule as an immediate impact. The league has long had trouble understanding this side of things. They seem to have fixed it for now as they move matches to a fairly tight set of Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday windows as part of their deal with Apple.
The quality of MLS broadcasts has also varied greatly over the years; some of the league’s local broadcasts, which were previously done primarily by regional sports networks, felt stripped down. Twellman and others suggested that won’t be the case in the near future.
“There have been open notebooks,” Twellman said, “open ears. (Apple) is listening. Clearly, timing is of the essence. I don’t think what you see on opening day is going to be what you see in six months , or a year or two later. But it’s impressive that I’ve been doing this for over 13 years – the right questions are being asked, and that’s why my enthusiasm for what this league and what this sport can do it’s through the roof now… In 27 years (production quality) I haven’t been there. It’s where Apple got my attention because the MLS fan deserves to be treated with respect – the way this league has grown in the last five years , streaming and others should be there as well.”
Twellman’s decision to leave ESPN was a little complicated, he said after the event. The network has placed him in a variety of roles over the years, though he has primarily covered American football. Going forward, that likely wouldn’t be the case – ESPN no longer owns any US national teams or US-based club rights. Staying, then, would mean focusing almost entirely on other sports or other football leagues.
“When it came down to it, I couldn’t see myself not being in a stadium for the MLS Cup,” Twellman said, “Or not calling it the MLS Cup, the League Final, all of that. I couldn’t see myself leaving from the sport, even though I was seduced by what it meant. I just don’t know if I could have been happy.”
Garber and Cue both raved about each other’s product throughout the presentation, which is what you’d expect at one of these events. There was no mention of production difficulties; frankly, industry sources have continued for months to express concerns about how MLS will bring their product to fruition on such a tight timeline and how that final product will stack up against previous offerings. Garber disputed those claims.
“We’re on target,” Garber said Athletics after the presentation. “We’re feeling really good about all aspects of the production. It’s an unprecedented effort and I couldn’t be more excited about where we are. The lineup of talent, it’s heartwarming to see how passionate and excited they are and what they will represent for our league and for Apple going forward. We have a lot of work to do going forward, but we will be ready at the start.”
The pool of talent on display Tuesday was diverse — both in gender and race — and remarkably young, with a large number of recently retired players on the scene. The league appears to have opted to be young with its broadcast talent, a shift that has left many of the league’s traditional voices — broadcasters like JP Dellacamera, Joe Tutino and Shep Messing — on the sidelines.
“Our league (is) the league for a new America,” Garber said. “It’s young, it’s diverse, it’s global, it represents all aspects of the community. You think about the Apple customer, I’m going to hit up Eddy, (points to the broadcast talent on stage) and say, ‘That’s your customer up there – the people who are standing up there who are going to make our games are the people who are buying products.’ I was somewhat involved as you would imagine, as was Eddie, in putting the talent pool together. This is a small representation of the 80 that will be there, and it is the future. I am proud of what it stands for. This is not yesterday’s news, it’s tomorrow’s news, in terms of what sports broadcasting will look like.”
This isn’t Apple’s first partnership with a major sports league. They broadcast Major League Baseball games for the first time in 2022 and were notably involved in the recent negotiations for the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” franchise, which they eventually lost to Google. Prior to this development, many suggested that the tech company’s MLS broadcasts could serve as a kind of test bed, a place to try out new technologies and broadcasting approaches with an eye towards acquiring a bigger sports property down the road. With that possibility gone, for now, Apple seems to be counting on Major League Soccer to continue its growth and push itself even further into the mainstream.
“We think MLS is going to be a big league on the road,” Cue said. “We enjoyed working with everyone. The league itself, the teams, the players and as you saw today the talent, they have one key word that I like that we have at Apple and that is passion. They love what they are doing. We think together we’re going to make this an incredible league, and we’re excited.”
