Soccer’s viewership has grown, unlike the traditionally larger sports in the United States.
Columbus Crew has taken its third championship in the North American professional soccer league MLS. In the final match, the Ohio club hosted last year’s champion Los Angeles FC, which it defeated with a score of 2–1.
Columbus took a decisive lead even before halftime. He scored the opening goal Cucho Hernández from a penalty kick in the 33rd minute of the match. He was responsible for the club’s second hit Yaw Yeboah four minutes after Hernandez’s success.
Los Angeles Denis Bouangan managed to narrow it down in the 74th minute of the game. Bouanga finished the season as the top scorer in the league.
French of Wilfried Nancy piloted by Columbus secured their championship on Saturday in front of a loud home crowd. Almost 21,000 people watched the match on the spot.
MLS has been boosted this season by the Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi’s with. Messi, 36, made his Inter Miami debut in July after leaving French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
However, an injury at the end of the season meant that Messi was unable to help Miami reach the MLS playoffs.
Messi’s joining the ranks of MLS has been perceived as so significant that the American magazine Time named the Argentinian as its athlete of the year earlier this week.
According to Time, Messi has already had a revolutionary impact in the United States. The country has been slow to embrace soccer as part of the sports landscape, but according to the magazine, Messi has succeeded in turning the United States into a soccer country this year.
According to the magazine, Messi’s arrival in the United States has increased not only the number of visitors and spectators, but also ticket prices and the sale of ancillary products.
American the financial magazine Fortune wrote at the end of September that compared to the games of other US sports leagues, MLS matches had the third highest average number of spectators in 2022, i.e. even before the Messi phenomenon. The number of visitors to the traditionally popular leagues in the United States, on the other hand, has been historically low in recent years.
According to the newspaper, an average of 343,000 viewers watched MLS regular season matches on television last year, which is almost the same as NHL hockey matches. On the other hand, last year’s MLS final had more viewers than the 2020 Stanley Cup finals on average.
Despite the lack of popularity in recent years, the value of NHL broadcast rights is twice that of MLS rights. Apple bought the MLS international broadcasting rights for 2.5 billion dollars for ten years. Fortune estimates that Apple got the biggest profit when the services competed for the streaming rights of sports leagues.
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