Class assignment MLS SWOT Analysis.

1. Sports Business Models
Major League Soccer
Adrián Pérez Zaid
Nov 1, 2020.

2. SWOT Analysis
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league founded in 1996 in the United States
and Canada. Major League Soccer is celebrating their 25th
season with the MLS 2020 season, it’s
been crazy how the league has grown in just 25 years, MLS started in 1996 with just 10
professional soccer teams competing, and next season in MLS 2021, MLS will have 30
professional soccer teams competing for the championship. Major league Soccer counts with
more than 20 sponsorships and has media right partnerships with ESPN, Fox Sports and
Univision to live stream national soccer games
Strengths Weaknesses
• Good infrastructure
• Rich Owners
• Media Rights
• Player lifestyle
• Quality of the game
• Market interest
•
Opportunities Threats
• Promote the sport
• Inspire the youth
• Collab with regional leagues
• Invest in young talent
• Competition
• Perception of the league
•

3. Strengths
Good infrastructure
Major League Soccer has a very good infrastructure, the teams have the opportunity to play in
new and nice stadiums with a good amount of capacity, most of the stadiums MLS’s teams play
in are specifically built for soccer. MLS teams also have excellent facilities to train and this gives
the players the opportunity to feel comfortable so they can perform as better as they can.
Rich owners
MLS team owners are very influential and powerful people, this is good for the league because
the teams have more budget than latin American soccer and they have more opportunity to bring
the best players they can. Also, the team owners have a financial stake in the league, so that
makes it clear that every owner is running to the same direction.
Media rights
MLS games are broadcasted by ESPN, Fox Sports and Univision for United States and Canada,
but MLS also has media rights all over the world so the league can grow, some of those are Sky
Sports in the UK, Globosat in Brazil, Fox Sports Latin America and Fox Sports Africa.
Player lifestyle
Major League Soccer, the country of USA, and the country of Canada offer some extra things
that any other league has, and that is lifestyle, the players here can win very good money and
they will be able to be in one of the best countries to work and to live with his family. This extra

4. thing can convince almost every player in the world, because the majority of MLS players are
from Central America, South America and Africa, and MLS offers more money and better
lifestyle than any of the leagues in their country.
Weaknesses
Quality of the game
Even do Major League Soccer is growing each and every year, the quality of the games isn’t elite
as other Americans sports are used to, there are easily 15 soccer leagues around the world that
are better than MLS. Talking about regionally, MLS teams compete in Concacaf with North and
Central American teams, MLS teams haven’t won any Concacaf championship.
Interest in the market
Even do soccer is growing interest in USA every year, it is known that soccer is not of the
interest of the average American citizen. American football (NFL), basketball (NBA), baseball
(MLB) are way more popular and entertaining than soccer (MLS), there really is no competition
there.
Opportunities
Promote the sport
Major League Soccer is the best and most popular professional soccer league in USA, and they
have the opportunity to promote the sport to millions of Americans that don’t watch or play

5. soccer, promote the games showing how good the experience is, promote soccer as a global sport
that will make fans learn a lot from other cultures, promote soccer as the best sport in the world.
Inspire the youth
Major League Soccer has the opportunity to make soccer fans in USA dream of being a
professional soccer player, something that decades ago was impossible, today MLS can make an
American kid that loves soccer dream of playing in MLS, that he doesn’t need to go to other
country to play, that he can represent his country in the most watched and important sport event
which is the World Cup.
Collaborate with regional leagues
Major League Soccer teams have famous players from Mexico, and Mexico has a very good
soccer league named Liga MX, Mexican people absolutely love soccer and will be interested in
helping MLS grow because that will elevate the quality of both leagues and will only make them
better. The 2020 MLS All-Star game was supposed to be against the Liga MX stars, with all
these Mexicans players signed in MLS and the game between the leagues, the Mexican media
will pay more attention to the MLS and the MLS media will pay more attention to Liga MX. All
this is very good for the region of North and Central America because if both of the leagues are
growing, we will see more talented players and interesting games in the region and this will
elevate the level of both nation’s soccer and hopefully start competing with the best of the
continent.
Invest in Young talent

6. Major League Soccer teams have this tendency of signing veteran players to play for them,
which is necessary, but the league also need young players, and young players can be helpful not
only to play soccer, but as a business, because in the future if the player is good, the team can
sell him to Europe for a good amount of money that will help the economy of the team.
Threats
Competition
The fact that MLS not only has competition on soccer, but faces competition from other sports
too, is very alarming because MLS needs to know what every sport is doing in order to be
relevant.
Perception of the league
The perception of the league is the biggest threat MLS faces, Major League Soccer is viewed
around the world as a retirement league, and more than a perception, this is very close to reality,
the teams have tendencies on signing very famous and popular players around the world that are
old and have nothing left to prove in their career, they’ve won it all, like Zlatan Ibrahimović,
David Beckham, Gonzalo Higuain, Wayne Rooney. If the league continues to have this
perception, the league will never reach a good quality of competition and will never reach it’s
potential.

7. References
MLS Communications (2019, April 16). About Major League Soccer. Retrieved November 01,
2020, from https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/01/01/about-major-league-soccer