Picking this up ... Joseph, no worries, I think we have all learned who the generally "reasonable" posters are, and heartfelt shouting from rooftops, when it is heartfelt, is always good! We obviously agree that night games in the northern winter are terrible/stupid.
Re the viewership results, we obviously can't say, but I am deeply suspicious. People who take these sorts of approaches generally would share some numbers if they were actually good. The NFL has no problem disclosing streaming numbers.
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.co...ple-viewership
https://www.nbcuniversal.com/article...d-game-success
I am also not sure that any league is a bigger joke than MLS when it comes to reported attendance. This has been discussed here ad nauseam, some will disagree, no need to restart that here. The question won't go on for much longer, there are AI applications that will solve this once and for all.
Best I can tell, the only metric supporting your argument is expansion fees, which is in part about buzz. The Apple deal is generating good buzz, so in that sense, it is absolutely "successful". They are going to get $500M for San Diego, vs $325M for Charlotte. That is genuinely a "success" metric.
I think this is simple. The TFC FO, no matter how bad we think they are, would never voluntarily play all these games at night in March and April in our climate. They had control of that call taken away from them by the league, who sold it to Apple. Apple is using this MLS schedule for reasons that suit Apple, whatever they may be (I have speculated that it is about generating data for bidding for the NBA and NFL). As a true fan, I resent being used in this way, and I question arguments that playing an inferior product is good for developing interest in the league. It objectively isn't good to ever degrade your product, or make access to your product persistently difficult, voluntarily.
Where you are right: streaming is the future. We have to figure it out. It is easy to get driven into obscure corners of the streaming world (Exhibit A: Canada Soccer). I don't really have enough info to have a great idea about what they should have done.
But this ain't it.