By Simon Evans

Is Leagues Cup MLS's Most Under-Rated Asset?

I've been a fan of Leagues Cup, the joint MLS-Liga MX competition, since it launched — but a conversation for this week’s podcast with its executive director, Tom Mayo, got me questioning my own assumptions about it. I'd always viewed the tournament as a fun addition to the schedule, something different, to keep things fresh in the absence of a truly mainstream domestic cup competition like the FA Cup or Copa del Rey. The US Open Cup, despite its long history just hasn’t been able to capture a broad audience. Talking to Tom made me wonder if that's underselling it badly. Is Leagues Cup actually one of the more important growth levers MLS has? And, perhaps more provocatively: is it the practical alternative to a full MLS-Liga MX merger – an idea that has been floated, with varying levels of seriousness, for years.

The audience: Liga MX is, by a distance, the most-watched club soccer league in the U.S., regardless of language. TelevisaUnivision alone has been commanding close to half of all U.S. soccer viewership share among Adults 18-49. Liga MX does better than MLS in terms of eyeballs and the instinct in some corners of the league has been to treat that as competition. Leagues Cup flips it — it turns Liga MX's built-in audience into MLS's audience, for several weeks a year. No other league is in a position to ‘loan’ eyeballs that way, from another audience, for a solid window. It’s a unique opportunity.

The demographics matter: Roughly 68 million Hispanics live in the U.S. — one in five Americans — and Mexican-heritage Latinos make up about 60% of that population. Mexican fans in particular are more likely than any other group to watch full games live, at home, with family. MLS's own fanbase already reflects this interest level: roughly 20% of MLS fans identify as Hispanic, a quarter higher than the general population. Through Leagues Cup MLS is connecting with Mexican fans, regardless of whether they support a team ‘back home’ or support an MLS team in their actual home.

American money is going into Liga MX. More than a quarter of Liga MX clubs now carry some level of American ownership stakes — Necaxa, Querétaro, Atlético San Luis, and General Atlantic has a 49% stake in giants Club América itself, now valued near $770 million. Apollo Global Management pitched Liga MX a $1.25 billion investment for a share of its international media rights back in 2022 — a deal that never closed, but that told you exactly how the smartest money in sports was reading this market. None of that capital is choosing Liga MX by accident. MLS is already involved in Mexican football commercially through Soccer United Marketing, who handle the commercial rights for the Concacaf Champions Cup (which is increasingly a Liga MX v MLS battle) and SUM has also partnered with the Mexican Federation on tours and friendlies in the US. Increasingly Mexican football is becoming part of the broader North American soccer business.

Structurally, the leagues are converging — controversially. Liga MX just eliminated promotion and relegation with the second-tier Liga Expansión from 2026-27 onward, a decision plenty of traditionalists in Mexican soccer are understandably furious about. But whatever you think of the football politics, it quietly removes one of the biggest structural differences between the two leagues. MLS has never had relegation. Now, for the first time, neither does Liga MX. That's one fewer obstacle standing between “closely aligned partners” and something more formal.

Which brings me to the merger question. The idea of a North American Super League has been floated every now and then for years. It's never gone anywhere — different labor structures, different ownership models, a salary capped league v a non-capped league were genuinely hard problems to overcome, even if there ever was a truly genuine desire to unify.

Leagues Cup, however, just quietly delivers some of the commercial upside of a merger — shared audience, shared sponsors, cross-border relevance — without requiring anyone to solve the legal and structural nightmare of actually combining two leagues.

Tom talked on the pod about the tournament in terms of “10 or 20 year” timeframes. They've already locked the August window through 2029, even as MLS shifts its calendar in 2027 – a move which actually helps Leagues Cup. That's not a novelty act's timeline. That's the timeline of something both leagues expect to be doing the heavy lifting for a long time.

Leagues Cup won't single-handedly transform MLS's next media rights deal. But as a relatively low-cost, high-leverage way to convert the biggest, fastest-growing soccer audience already in the country — without the mess of a merger — it's doing more work than it gets credit for and undoubtedly will add value to the media rights negotiations.

For the podcast discussion with Tom Mayo, Leagues Cup Executive Director click here.