Major League Soccer (MLS) has incurred revenue losses of up to $1bn over the year 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The MLS had only entered the second week of its historic 25th season when the season was halted in March, and did not resume until July, with the “MLS is Back” competition in Florida, before a revamped regular schedule kicked off on 12 August.
“The overall [financial] impact is going to be deeper than we expected,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber.
As a precaution to the spread of coronavirus, the league’s Canadian teams have had to play their matches in the United States. And with Sunday’s MLS Cup final between Columbus Crew and Seattle Sounders only able to admit about 1,500 spectators, the financial implications of the virus on this season will have a long-term impact.
“Revenue for the league and its clubs is down almost $1bn compared to last year,” Garber continued.
“But we also incurred expenses we were not intending to incur, including charter planes for the teams and creating the whole bubble around MLS is Back.”
It has led to a difficult first season for the two expansion teams,
David Beckham‘s Inter Miami and Nashville, who qualified for the Eastern Conference semi-finals have had to endure difficult debut seasons, which creates an air of uncertainty for Austin FC, who are scheduled to compete in the 2021 MLS season.
With plans for a March launch for the upcoming season, there is still some level of uncertainty.
“We are concerned about the situation leading into 2021 and we are trying to figure out how to manage through it,” said Garber.
“No business could sustain the kind of impact we sustained for two years in a row.
“The challenge for next season is nobody has the magic date for when fans can enter stadiums and it will vary state by state.
“We need to make a schedule. We can’t wait for a vaccine and we don’t know what the reaction will be of fans returning to stadiums.
“It is not just about fans. FIFA has laid out their international dates and Concacaf has laid out Champions League dates. We will need flexibility.”
