Competitive Edge - Sports & Entertainment Marketing News

Why Apple is using its marketing muscle to hype new Major League Soccer season

It’s fitting that the 2024 Major League Soccer (MLS) season will kick off on February 21 with a game featuring Lionel Messi and Inter Miami. The (arguably) greatest player of all time and his pink-clad teammates face Real Salt Lake to start the second full season of MLS’ 10-year, $2.5 billion global streaming deal with Apple.

Click here to read the story at fastcompany.com.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are broadcast rights?
  2. According to this story, how much did Apple spend on its broadcast (streaming) rights deal with MLS?
  3. Why would they be interested in the rights to broadcast MLS games?
  4. How do you think they benefited from the arrival of Lionel Messi last year?
  5. What is a tagline?
  6. Why do marketers sometimes use taglines as part of a marketing or advertising campaign?
  7. This year, they are aggressively promoting the MLS Season Pass package with an advertising campaign. What is the tagline?
  8. What message do you think they hope to communicate to fans with that tagline? Why do you think they want to communicate that message?
  9. What is sponsorship?
  10. Why do you think Apple-owned Beats would want to sponsor MLS?
  11. How might the introduction custom team-branded editions of Beats represent an example of sponsorship?
  12. Apple has also created a soccer-themed docuseries for its Apple+ streaming service. What is it called?
Chris Lindauer
After working for nearly a decade in professional sports, Chris Lindauer, formed Sports Career Consulting to provide unique sports business education opportunities in and out of the classroom. In the eighteen years (and counting) that followed, Chris has inspired thousands of students to pursue their passions and explore the career of their dreams. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, two teenage daughters and their dog.

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