Apple secured the exclusive global broadcast rights for the MLS in 2022, partly for buzzy moments like the official introduction on Sunday of soccer great Lionel Messi as a player for the league’s Miami team. The historic moment was destined to generate a huge audience for Apple across the globe. But when the big event came, the tech giant’s broadcast fell short. Technical difficulties like shaky audio dampened what should have been the tech company’s big moment, leaving fans perplexed.
The technical glitches made for an inauspicious start to Apple’s revolutionary deals with both the league and Messi. The unprecedented agreement between Messi and Apple comes amid renewed scrutiny over the finances of global sports, after Saudi Arabia’s forays into golf, boxing, and more recently soccer.
Apple was reportedly instrumental in bringing the Argentinian superstar, who is reportedly set to earn $50 to $60 million a year, to the U.S. As part of the profit-sharing agreement, Messi will get a cut of the revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass, according to ESPN. Apple also announced a four-part documentary chronicling Messi’s career, adding another layer to the relationship between the company and the player.
The media rights deal Apple secured with the MLS is unusual on its own. The deal, worth $2.5 billion over 10 years, gives Apple global broadcast rights for the league. Sports broadcasting rights are usually negotiated on a regional rather than global basis. However, now with Messi’s signing the MLS should, in theory, attract additional fans from other countries to the streamer.
Apple isn’t the only company to put together an unusual and highly lucrative deal to facilitate the superstar’s signing. Adidas, which sponsors both the league and Messi, reportedly also has a deal with Messi that would give him a cut of extra revenues gained as a result of his playing for the MLS. Details about this deal are unclear, although they reflect a pattern by the MLS to lean on its existing commercial relationships. Adidas signed a lifetime contract with Messi in 2017 and a new jersey sponsorship with the MLS in February worth $830 million through 2030. One Wall Street bank even upgraded Adidas’s stock from a hold to buy rating after Messi was first announced as joining the MLS, forecasting a 30% increase in the stock’s price.
Ticket sellers are hoping to cash in on the excitement over Messi by charging exorbitant prices for Inter Miami’s games. Tickets for a friendly match (soccer’s terminology for an exhibition game) against Mexican team Cruz Azul are selling for up to $110,000, according to the tickets website Vivid Seats.
Messi’s big payday comes as the business of sports, including soccer, has been contending with the emergence of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), as a major investor in the industry. Its arrival in the soccer world is particularly relevant to the MLS, as one of the minor global soccer leagues that aging stars often seek out as a home to wind down their careers with the promise of a big contract, in a relatively uncompetitive environment compared to Europe’s elite leagues. Messi’s longtime rival on the soccer field, Cristiano Ronaldo, left England’s Manchester United in December to play for Saudi team Al Nassr. At Sunday’s unveiling event, MLS commissioner Don Garber said he was unworried about the financial power of Saudi Arabia’s league. The PIF is considering acquiring another European soccer team after buying Newcastle United in 2021, according to reports from Bloomberg.
Apple, Adidas, and the MLS did not respond to a request for comment.