Okay, genuinely puzzled by this.
I just read that TFC Academy charges between $450-650 per year.
Our professional academy is charging prospects money?!?
What the fuck?
That's the same pay-to-play system that has robbed north American soccer of so many young-but-poor athletes for decades.
Why would they be doing that?
THey're insanely, ridiculously wealthy already on a corporate basis. The money they make off that can't, surely, be making up for all the potential prospects they're losing, prospects who could be worth millions eventually.
Anyone know more about this and can fill me in on what I'm missing?
According to this article, the academy is free but there is a fee for an open community based soccer school for kids up to 13.
https://interestingfootball.com/how-...rice-location/
strongly doubt the academy charges
soccer schools or other programs that the club is running is something else and no surprise if they charge there
EDIT: Bah, never mind, extra subscription fee. So we have to put up with American commentators? How does this gel with CRTC rules on access in Canada/MLSE plans?
EDIT EDIT Hmm… read it again and it seems this an “option” … it says they can all be access on Apple TV through a sub, but that doesn’t mean they wont’ also be on terrestrial TV/apps.
I don’t follow many other sports, so I’d probably prefer this to TSN. Plus, season ticket holders get it free.
Last edited by jloome; 06-14-2022 at 12:49 PM.
I wonder what happens to the dazn? They have lost the epl, serie a and mls.
Also, there’s a few interesting notes in the Apple TV press release. It mentions free access for SSH and enhanced league coverage within Apple news.
There’s more in Garber’s letter to fans. There will be SOME local TV in the early years of the deal but the obvious long-term intent is for everything to be on Apple.
That includes the Leagues Cup, MLS next.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/letter-to-mls-fans-from-commissioner-garber
I think that about kills my interest in DAZN.
(I have Apple TV for Ted Lasso - yes sad I know)
*****
Streaming rights locally might indicate TSN is out
This is VERY big news
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/pkedit/status/1536751488420065280
The end of afternoon & Sunday games
Does this mean we'll have most games happening at the same time? Give me an ability to whip around games or even a redzone style thing with a league wide roundup show afterwards and I'd be loving this. It's so hard to follow the rest of the league currently even though I get all of the games
Saying that, long term, I think being off cable TV, if it comes to that, is a disaster for growing the league in the short term
Last edited by JoesphNdo; 06-14-2022 at 02:48 PM.
I like it. I can get rid of TSN Direct or whatever they call it.
Wednesday and Saturday games will be great.
Switching exclusively to a streaming service matters less in the long term as fewer and fewer people have linear tv packages.
I love this deal in the sense that it'll bring more money into the league, but if TSN stops showing games - I feel that it wont help non-TFC fans getting into the club
Agreed but the problem is people with cable can still stumble across the league, and it can be put on in pubs etc. When you gate it behind a league specific subscription then access is completely cut off to all but the people who are already fans, that's problematic when it comes to attracting new fans. It's pretty difficult for someone to say "Hey, maybe I'd like MLS, let me buy a subscription to their streaming service for $100..." vs "Hey, maybe I'd like MLS, let me flick on a game / catch one in a pub"
Even a cable company app wouldn't have a subscription limited to MLS, so you'd still get the people stumbling across the content
Last edited by JoesphNdo; 06-14-2022 at 04:27 PM.
Most pubs in this town have DAZN for NFL.
Apple TV for sports is not all that far fetched as an option.
They'd probably try to do what the EPL does - have 3-4 start times that teams can play at (these are all EST, so not sure how the in between time zones will play a factor):
Early game: 1:00pm (EST only)
MId game: 4:00pm (1pm PT)
Evening game: 7:00 (4pm PT)
Late game: 10:00 (7pm PT)
The problem is, unless I'm misunderstanding, is it isn't just Apple sports, you need an MLS package. So pubs have Dazn because there's a billion sports on there that are hugely popular, so if Dazn has a niche interest on there the pub can show it - but only because it already has the package. I don't know many pubs that'd bother buying an MLS specific package, or any person who would who isn't already a big fan.
Or worse, you need Apple TV then MLS as an add on to that. I like this concept better though. I'm over cable and I can't bring myself to get TSN streaming as the quality is poor. and the price is bad for what you get. I'm more apt to do this, but price and whether you need an Apple TV subscription plus this will probably determine it for me. DAZN has been great, to me that's the model of what I'd want. I hope this will be cheaper given the lower quality football.
Yes that makes sense -- but it worries me. I love that this year we have a very reasonable schedule for Toronto weather, which also common in many other MLS cities. I.e. weekend afternoon games early and late in the season, when it's often cold, so it's better to avoid evening games. Then in the summer all weekend games are in the evening, to avoid the worst of the heat and humidity.
I imagine that goes out the window with this deal. There are many NA cities where you can't play a decent game of footy at 1pm in the summer, and even 4pm is iffy. That's only going to get worse over the next 10 years during the life of this deal.