MLS: ’24 ‘Record-Breaking Season’ In Attendance, Merch, Marketing, Sponsorship
Tuesday, October 22, 2024 at 05:24PM By Barry Janoff
October 22, 2024: Having just concluded its 2024 season, and with the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs beginning tonight, MLS said it experienced a “record-breaking year with more fans consuming MLS than ever before and with the league continuing to experience significant year-over-year growth.”
According to MLS, during the 2024 regular season, more people in the U.S. and Canada attended MLS matches than ever in the league's 30-year history, continued to engage with the league and its clubs on social media at record highs, and purchased MLS merchandise in record numbers — helping the league establish new milestones for retail sales.
In addition, new corporate sponsors and revenue “continue to grow at record levels.”
Throughout the properties of MLS and Soccer United Marketing — the league's commercial arm — 18 new partners signed on as sponsors.
MLS said that translated to a 13% increase in MLS and SUM sponsorship revenue year-to-date compared to 2023 and a 13% rise in club sponsorship revenue year-to-date from 2023.
In June, Anheuser-Busch InBev brand Michelob Ultra signed a multi-year deal with MLS (replacing Heineken). New deals for the season also included Beats by Dre and Discount Tire.
Lionel Messi’s first MLS game was on July 21, 2023.
Since then, the club has signed deals including a multi-year, multi-level pact with JPMorgan Chase to include naming rights to the team’s 21,500-seat venue, located in Fort Lauderdale, now known as Chase Stadium; Discount Tire, Royal Caribbean International, Visa, Lowe’s, Duracell, Trapiche Wintery, Ketel One Vodka and National Beverage Corp. LaCroix sparkling water.
MLS and SUM said its partners have a presence in more than 107,000 national retail locations featuring co-branded point of sale displays including Walmart and other retailers.
Throughout Europe, in partnership with Fanatics, MLS said it now has products in more than 800 retail stores across Spain, France, Germany and several other countries as part of deals with Primark and Bershka.
When the final 2024 figures are in, they are expected to top the record MLS team sponsorship revenue of $587 million in 2023, which was aa 15% year-over-year increase vs. 2022.
Leading the growth were the finance, healthcare and insurance brands, which spent $92 million, $79 million and $47 million, respectively, according to the 2023 MLS Marketing Partnerships Report from global sports and entertainment intelligence platform SponsorUnited.
Messi’s Inter Miami jersey ranks No. 1 on the list of top-selling MLS jerseys in the league and continues to rank No. 1 globally for adidas in jersey sales of individual players.
July 16, 2024 was the single largest sales day in the history of MLSstore.com, driven by the launch of the adidas x MLS Archive Collection — which included third jerseys worn by five clubs during the 2024 season.
Inter Miami's retro-inspired third kit (part of the adidas x MLS Archive Collection) became the fastest-selling kit in MLSstore.com's history, recording the most sales in the first day, week and month of any newly launched jersey in MLSstore.com history.
“Continuing the extraordinary momentum over the past two years, there continues to be surging demand for MLS as MLS expects to have 12 million fans by the conclusion of MLS Cup presented by Audi,” according to the league.
MLS said its total attendance for 2024 regular season and playoffs is projected to be “among the top three across all soccer leagues in the world with England's Premier League and Germany's Bundesliga.”
According to MLS, 11,454,205 people attended MLS matches during the regular season, the most in league history. This is an increase of 5% over 2023 and up 14% in comparison to the 2022 season.
In 2023, 10,900,804 attended regular season games, up from the previous record of 10,011,578 set in 2022.
“Continuing the extraordinary momentum over the past two years, there continues to be surging demand for MLS."
MLS regular season average attendance was 23,234 per match, the highest ever for an MLS regular season. Ten clubs set or tied a record for average attendance and 21 of 29 clubs were even or up in attendance.
In addition to the records set in attendance and consumer products, MLS said it is also setting marks across its social and digital platforms.
Key metrics on the league's social and digital platforms include:
• TikTok followers have grown +26% since the start of the year.
• YouTube followers have grown +21% since the start of the year.
• Instagram followers have grown +10% since start of the year.
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