MLS withdrawing from US Open Cup is about controlling Messi Mania

OOn Friday, Major League Soccer announced that it will not allow its teams to participate in the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. It's a move that means the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) sanctioned Division I soccer league will not play next season participating in the country's domestic cup competition – think of every team in La Liga refusing to participate in the Spanish Copa del Rey, or all the English Premiers League teams dropping out of the FA Cup.

While it is often assumed that football in the United States lacks the history, longevity and prestige of its European counterparts, the US Open Cup goes against this perception and has a similar history to its equivalents elsewhere. The tournament's first matches were played in November 1913, more than 82 years before the first season of MLS. Unlike franchise-based, closed sports leagues in the US, the Open Cup, as the name suggests, is open to all teams across the US. so-called American football pyramid.

Before the Open Cup was forced to halt during the Covid pandemic, it was the second longest continuous cup competition in the world after the Irish Cup. Since Canadian teams also compete in the MLS, the Open Cup is the only national professional men's soccer championship in the United States.

In a press release, MLS said it “plans to be represented by MLS Next Pro clubs in the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.” This means that MLS will send clubs from a Division III league – its version of reserve teams – to the 2024 edition. DC United, which does not have an MLS Next Pro team, will not be represented at all, as confirmed by reporting by Jeff Reuter of De Athletics.

The withdrawal of the teams by MLS and the charade of entering MLS Next Pro teams in a lukewarm attempt to still be represented shows a cavalier attitude towards the tournament and the entire ecosystem of soccer in the United States States. A national cup competition needs the participation of the top teams as much as it needs the depth and romance offered by the involvement of lower levels. It takes two to make a cup set. Every giant murder requires the presence of a giant.

MLS head coaches were among the many stakeholders who were not consulted in this decision. A decision that denied them the opportunity to make history with their respective clubs and compete for one of American soccer's biggest prizes. Imagine the 2023 season for Houston Dynamo and its coach Ben Olsen without their Open Cup victory. It loses a big part of what defined it and made it so joyful for the club staff and fans. Decisions on whether to rotate or introduce youth players into cup competitions should be up to the coach, but this tournament has now been taken completely away from them.

Supporters of MLS teams were also not consulted. The Independent Supporters Council (ISC) of North America said a statement: “The MLS's withdrawal of the first teams from the Cup is a disservice not only to the fans, but to the sport itself. It undermines the inclusive nature of American soccer, where dreams and ambitions are nurtured based on the principle of open competition. The decision risks eroding the foundations of the sport's heritage and its connection to communities.”

It is becoming increasingly clear that the association only treats supporters as customers. Much of the rest of the world's top-flight soccer world is trying to do the same, with varying levels of success, but MLS is more blatant in the way it operates. MLS guidelines for fans are even called “supporter privileges,” as if to present the idea that fans should consider themselves lucky that the league lets them be involved. The truth is, the league is fortunate to have fan bases that are so committed and give character and life to these franchises of the league with one entity.

Why did the MLS withdraw? One of the reasons given was that not participating in the Open Cup “benefits the MLS regular season by reducing schedule congestion, freeing up to six midweek match dates.” In July, the MLS joined forces with Liga MX to play an all-new World Cup-style tournament in the middle of the MLS regular season. It's absurd that MLS is using “schedule holdups” as an excuse to abandon the Open Cup, when the club has come up with a whole new tournament out of nowhere this year.

Perhaps MLS is concerned about the growth of soccer underneath, and the gap between itself and the Division II-sanctioned league, the USL Championship, narrowing. For MLS teams to be eliminated from the Open Cup by USL teams, as happens regularly, does not fit with the marketing of MLS as the top league – the only league – in America. It views the rest of football as competition and aims to suppress that competition. By withdrawing from the Cup, MLS is simultaneously hurting markets in other leagues and undermining a tournament that has more history than itself and predates the Leagues Cup by 110 years.

A major reason why MLS turns its back on the Open Cup will be one of control. Control over the marketing, the broadcast and the story – control that it does not have in the Open Cup. The Leagues Cup aired on Apple TV+ via MLS's subscription service, Season Pass. The Open Cup, now organized and marketed by the USSF, was open to other broadcasters, with CBS ultimately doing an admirable job of giving it the respect it deserves. Last year, it gained more exposure under USSF's marketing than ever under MLS's marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing, which oversaw it until the end of 2022. Now that it's out of control, MLS suddenly wants out.

That 2023 coverage included Inter Miami's progress to the 2023 Open Cup final. This in turn accounted for much of the early hype when Lionel Messi came to Miami in July, focusing on his involvement in this tournament. Messi produced a magical performance in the semi-finals and guided his team to a comeback win against FC Cincinnati in August. That was the telling none of this was mentioned in the documentary Messi Meets America on Apple TV+. It was as if his involvement in the Open Cup had not happened.

By removing itself from the Open Cup, MLS is attempting to control Messi's narrative in American soccer by limiting Messi Mania to its own internal marketing. In doing so, it denies those outside the MLS – from broadcasters to lower division teams and fans – the opportunity to ride Messi's football wave. This is further evidence that the focus of the MLS is now on growth itself rather than the sport in the country as a whole.

This is a move that MLS has been working on for some time, disparaging the Open Cup, claiming it is not of sufficient quality and questioning its ratings. “From our perspective, it's a very poor reflection of what we're trying to do with soccer at the highest level,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said in May.

Things like the creation of the Leagues Cup and planting the idea that the Open Cup is somehow not worthy of the presence of MLS teams, despite them being partly responsible, for marketing the tournament for so long have created the excuses used by MLS for withdrawing its teams. This maneuvering is akin to a government that favors privatization and gradually cuts funding for public services before declaring that they don't work and that only private companies can save them. The MLS has privatized and monopolized popular football, or is trying to do so.

What now? The USSF Pro League Standards state that U.S.-based teams in the Division I Men's Outdoor League, i.e., MLS, “must participate in all representative U.S. Soccer (USSF) and CONCACAF competitions for which they are eligible.” By sending the Division III MLS Next Pro teams to the USSF-run Open Cup, it appears that MLS is breaking this rule.

Meanwhile, since releasing its statement, the ISC has been supported by numerous supporters groups in MLS and beyond. There is talk of a boycott of the Leagues Cup, while petitions have been set up to urge MLS to reverse its decision. It is now up to the USSF to address this disregard for the domestic national tournament, and for the fan groups who have invested so much in their clubs and the sport to hold MLS accountable.