it lives. Happy MLS season pass. A truly historic day in sports.

I promise I’m not just saying that because the good folks at Apple are now tracking my heart rate down to the millisecond, or because I’m excited by how easy it is to type The Daily Kickoff on this new iPhone 14 Pro Max they sent me. I say that because we’ve never seen anything like it, which means it’s equally as exciting and terrifying.

It’s really the first day of school feeling as there may be some bumps in the road at first. It took a while for everyone to get used to something that had never been done before in sports. It’s for both the people involved in creating content and consuming it. But once it starts clicking, it will be awesome.

I know there are some concerns. The common thing I’ve seen is that people won’t be able to turn on their televisions and flip through the channels and stumble on MLS again and become fans for life. Now, y’all, I’ll level with you, there’s probably five people in the last year who actually did that and that feels like a generous estimate. Seriously, very few people even own cable anymore, and I think we couldn’t agree more that the people who do are generally not the target age for your average MLS fan.

What makes soccer different from other professional sports in North America is the atmosphere inside the stadiums. By investing in the people filling the stadium through a free subscription to season ticket holders and carving out Saturday 7:30 p.m. ET as a set day and time for MLS, you’re investing in the kind of grassroots community building that really grabs attention and creates lifelong fan.

It also helps the league to be able to tell stories more thoroughly. Everyone loves narrative. Done right, getting to know key characters and storylines on a more personal level does wonders in helping to make the league’s overall product as engaging as possible. You’ve seen examples of the power of storytelling in sports like Formula 1 and soccer teams like Wrexham over the last few years. Now, MLS can take it to another level.

Will everything be perfect from the start? As with most things, probably not. But, objectively, the ceiling is very high with this partnership. Several years from now, we may see today as another watershed moment for the league. For now, let’s get excited (and anxious) to get through the first day.