ESPN has no relationship with Major League Soccer anymore. Michael Wilbon made sure everyone understood that on Friday\u2019s PTI.<\/p>\n
To finish off the show, Tony Kornheiser asked his partner about the MLS playoffs. Inter Miami was set to host Nashville SC in the first round, with Lionel Messi and Miami looking to build on their Supporters\u2019 Shield-winning regular season.<\/p>\n
The biggest star in soccer history was playing in a playoff game on U.S. soil. MLS had positioned this as one of the league\u2019s marquee moments of the year. And Kornheiser wanted to know if Wilbon would be watching.<\/p>\n
The answer was no. Emphatically no.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got three TV screens as you know,\u201d Wilbon told Kornheiser. \u201cNone of them will have that. I\u2019ll have the World Series large. I\u2019ll have two NBA games flanking. I may click over to your boy wearing pink. I may do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legacy media in this country has so far to go before they realize how much money they\u2019re leaving on the table by actively demeaning one of the most popular sports in the world.<\/p>\n
Becoming harder and harder to justify the US being a host nation when the LARGEST sports outlets does\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/6fmYOP2PRE<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jos\u00e9 Roberto Nu\u00f1ez (@JoserNunez91) October 25, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n The \u201cboy wearing pink\u201d reference was presumably about Messi, who Inter Miami recently signed to a contract extension<\/a> that keeps him in South Florida through 2026. But even the biggest star in soccer history apparently isn\u2019t enough to get Wilbon to tune in.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not surprising. ESPN no longer broadcasts MLS games, so there\u2019s no corporate incentive for Wilbon to promote the league on air. Still, the MLS playoffs kicked off Friday night, and one of ESPN\u2019s most prominent voices spent the final moments of PTI making it clear he had zero interest in watching.<\/p>\n MLS and ESPN parted ways after the 2022 season<\/a> when the league signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple TV<\/a>. The partnership gave Apple exclusive global streaming rights to every MLS match through MLS Season Pass, ending the league\u2019s long relationship with ESPN that dated back to the league\u2019s inception in 1996.<\/p>\n Since then, MLS has become largely invisible on ESPN\u2019s platforms. The network doesn\u2019t show games, doesn\u2019t promote the league, and, judging by Wilbon\u2019s comments, doesn\u2019t watch it either.<\/p>\n The Apple TV deal has been a mixed bag for MLS. On the one hand, every game is now available in one place without blackouts. On the other hand, the league lost the promotional power of ESPN\u2019s airwaves. MLS Season Pass averaged 120,000 viewers per match through the first half of 2025<\/a>, according to commissioner Don Garber. That\u2019s up 50% from the previous year, but it\u2019s still well below the 343,000 viewers per match that ESPN networks registered in 2022, the final year before the Apple deal began.<\/p>\n Messi\u2019s arrival in 2023 helped spike subscriptions<\/a>. MLS Season Pass surpassed one million subscribers<\/a> in July 2023, including free subscriptions for T-Mobile customers and team season ticket holders. But even Messi can\u2019t get Michael Wilbon to put the MLS playoffs on one of his three screens.<\/p>\n To be fair, Wilbon\u2019s comments weren\u2019t mean-spirited. He didn\u2019t trash the league or mock soccer fans. He just stated what\u2019s become obvious: ESPN personalities don\u2019t have a reason to care about MLS anymore. The network doesn\u2019t broadcast the games, so there\u2019s no upside in promoting them. Wilbon would rather watch the World Series and the NBA, two leagues ESPN actually has relationships with.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a reminder of what MLS gave up when it left ESPN for Apple TV. The league got more money and full control over its product. But it also lost the daily visibility that comes with being part of ESPN\u2019s ecosystem. PTI airs every weekday at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. Millions of people watch it. And on Friday, one of the hosts made it clear that MLS no longer registers on his radar.<\/p>\n Inter Miami beat Nashville 3-1 in the playoff opener. Messi scored twice. It was probably a great game. Michael Wilbon wouldn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n \t