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As always, you can contact me at simon@thesoccerbusiness.com.

Cheers

Simon Evans

The Soccer Business.

Hearts of Pine is the 'feel good story' we need

We read about the growth of the game, we discuss the possible impact of the World Cup and we tell ourselves that yes, the game is spreading its roots across the country and the growth is real. But every now and then a story comes along which doesn't just validate that feeling but which hits different.

It is less than three years since Portland Hearts of Pine were formed but the USL 1 club has been such a huge success that they are already planning a new stadium, almost doubling capacity to capture the extraordinary demand for the club in Maine.

This week the club announced they had agreed to purchase a portion of Cassidy Point on Portland’s peninsula with the long-term vision of building a 9,000–11,000 seat soccer-specific stadium to act as permanent home for the club’s men’s and women’s teams.

The FAQ posted by the club answers the question as to why this was needed and why their 5.500 seater Fitzpatrick Stadium is no longer suitable for their plans:

With a season ticket base over 4,000 people for our men’s team (plus a waitlist of an additional 8,000 people hoping to buy season tickets in the future), and 5,000 season ticket deposits placed within an hour for the future women’s team, demand for professional soccer in Maine has already outgrown the capacity of Fitzpatrick Stadium.

Incredible numbers for a third tier club and data which will give hope to scores of investors across the country who hope they too can build a club from scratch which truly connects with their community.

And no feel good story would be complete without a rendering. So here you go:

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.

Let's break it down:

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....

TO READ THIS FULL ARTICLE FOR FREE CLICK HERE.​

Soccerbiz bytes

Real Madrid’s newly published 2025/26 financial results show operating revenue reached a record €1.221 billion, up from €757 million in 2018/19 — a 61% increase over the seven-year span. EBITDA also hit a record €287.4 million, and the club recorded its 26th consecutive profitable financial year, underscoring the sustained commercial trajectory since the Santiago Bernabéu redevelopment began reshaping the club’s revenue base.

The growth has been driven disproportionately by two lines: stadium revenue has more than doubled since 2018/19, reflecting the payoff from the redeveloped Bernabéu’s expanded hospitality, events and non-matchday capacity, while commercial revenue has climbed more than 80% over the same period. Together, the figures point to a club whose financial growth is increasingly powered by owned infrastructure and brand commercialization rather than broadcast or matchday ticketing alone — a model other European giants have been racing to replicate through their own stadium and mixed-use redevelopments.

LARRY BERG NAMED NEXT MLS COMMISSIONER, TAKES OVER JANUARY 1, 2027: Major League Soccer’s Board of Governors has named Larry Berg as the league’s next Commissioner. Berg, currently Co-Managing Owner of LAFC and Co-Chair of MLS’s Sporting and Competition Committee, was selected through a formal succession process advised by Korn Ferry, CAA and The Miles Group, and co-chaired by Jimmy Haslam (Haslam Sports Group) and Bennett Rosenthal (LAFC Lead Managing Owner). He will be formally introduced this week and takes over on January 1, 2027, with outgoing commissioner Don Garber, who has led MLS for 27 years, growing it from 10 to 30 clubs, becoming Chairman. Consistent with league governance rules, Berg will divest his LAFC ownership stake to lead the league impartially.

Berg brings a private equity background spanning more than three decades, including a run as Senior Partner at Apollo Global Management from 1992 to 2022 and subsequently at 26North, along with prior board roles at McGraw Hill, 2U, GNC and Rent-A-Center. He also holds past ownership interests in Serie A’s AS Roma and EFL club Swansea City, giving him cross-border football experience alongside his domestic track record building LAFC into an MLS Cup and two-time Supporters’ Shield winner. He inherits a league facing major near-term decisions: a new 2027-28 competition calendar, continued evolution of the roster/spending rules, a wave of new soccer-specific stadium openings, upcoming media rights negotiations, and a new collective bargaining agreement still to be finalized.

U.S. SOCCER SIGNS POCHETTINO THROUGH 2030 IN DEAL BACKED BY GRIFFIN PHILANTHROPIC GIFT: The U.S. Soccer Federation has agreed a new contract keeping Mauricio Pochettino as USMNT head coach through 2030, with the appointment underpinned by a significant philanthropic leadership gift from Kenneth C. Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel and founder of Griffin Catalyst. Additional backing came from Scott Goodwin, Adam Freede and several unnamed commercial partners, underscoring how the federation is leaning on private philanthropic capital to fund its senior men’s coaching investment outside of traditional sponsorship revenue. The deal extends Pochettino’s remit well beyond the first team: he and his staff will now advise across the full national team pathway, youth soccer, coaching education and professional league collaboration.

The extension follows a record World Cup campaign in which the Argentine guided the USMNT to its first knockout-stage win since 2002 and set a program record for tournament victories. U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson and president Cindy Parlow Cone both framed the deal as a bet on Pochettino’s broader influence on the domestic soccer ecosystem ahead of the 2028 Olympics and 2030 World Cup cycle, with his long-time lieutenants Jesús Pérez, Miguel D’Agostino and Toni Jiménez continuing alongside him.

PORTLAND HEARTS OF PINE’S $50M STADIUM PLAN LEANS ON PRIVATE CAPITAL AND A COAL-YARD LAND DEAL: Portland Hearts of Pine, the USL League One club that debuted in March 2025, have unveiled financing and site details for a new stadium at Cassidy Point on Portland’s West End waterfront, targeting construction starts in late 2027 and a 2029 opening. The roughly $50 million project will be “predominantly” privately funded, according to Hearts senior manager of communications Lisa Frates — a structural choice that keeps the club largely independent of municipal bond financing at the outset, though the full capital stack and equity sources haven’t been detailed. On the land side, the club has an agreement in place to buy the site from energy terminal operator Sprague, which currently uses it for coal storage; Culley declined to disclose the purchase price. The Portland City Council’s ordinance requiring the coal pile’s removal effectively cleared a path for redevelopment, and the deal converts what club officials call “almost an eyesore” into an 8-acre, 9,000-to-11,000-seat asset that will also house the Hearts’ women’s team, which begins play in May 2027.

The financing logic is built directly on demonstrated demand rather than projected growth: the club has sold out every home date at its current venue, Fitzpatrick Stadium, since debuting, with a season-ticket waitlist founder Gabe Hoffman-Johnson put at 7,700 people. Real estate developer and Hearts founding partner Jonathan Culley said the club screened 14 sites across Greater Portland — including South Portland, Scarborough and Westbrook — before settling on Cassidy Point’s 8-acre footprint, prioritizing a walkable, transit-accessible peninsula location that supports revenue-per-seat and sponsorship value over a larger, cheaper suburban alternative. The result would rank among the largest venues in USL League One, where only four of 17 current venues seat more than 9,000, positioning Hearts of Pine to scale commercial capacity without diluting the sellout atmosphere that has underpinned its growth.

USMNT SETS FALL SCHEDULE AS SPONSOR-BACKED FRIENDLIES MARK START OF NEW POCHETTINO CYCLE: U.S. Soccer has confirmed a four-match slate for the September–October international window, the USMNT’s first fixtures since the 2026 World Cup and the opening games of Mauricio Pochettino’s new contract, which runs through the 2030 cycle. The federation is leaning on sponsorship branding to anchor the schedule commercially: the September 26 match against Peru in Orlando is billed as a “Fan Appreciation Match,” the September 29 clash with Chile in St. Louis is presented by New York Life, and the October 6 finale against Canada in St. Paul carries American Airlines’ name as presenting sponsor. The Mexico fixture on October 3 in Glendale, Arizona rounds out the window as a standalone rivalry game.

The venue selection is a deliberate market-expansion play — all four host cities (Orlando, St. Louis, Glendale and St. Paul) sat outside the 2026 World Cup’s host rotation, giving U.S. Soccer a chance to build commercial and fan engagement in markets that didn’t get a taste of this summer’s tournament directly. With Pochettino’s deal locking in coaching continuity into the next World Cup cycle, the federation is positioning the window as the start of a longer commercial and competitive arc rather than a standalone friendly slate.

NWSL SETS EARLIEST-EVER 2027 START, TARGETS SUPER BOWL WEEKEND FOR MAXIMUM VISIBILITY: The NWSL will open its 2027 season on February 11 — the earliest start in league history — with a schedule built to accommodate a seven-week pause for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil (June 24–July 25) while also positioning the league’s kickoff on Super Bowl weekend. Commissioner Jessica Berman said the timing is a deliberate commercial play, building on the visibility boost the league saw this year from leaning into the “halo” of the men’s World Cup. Because the Super Bowl will air on ESPN — the NWSL’s own broadcast partner — for the first time next year, the league expects to be woven into the weekend’s storylines, with Angel City FC hosting the season-opener at BMO Stadium roughly seven miles from SoFi Stadium, site of Super Bowl LXI.

The 2027 campaign, preceded by the Challenge Cup on February 6, will be the last season fielding 16 teams before expansion franchises in Atlanta and Columbus lift the league to 18 clubs in 2028. The calendar shift keeps the NWSL’s spring-to-fall structure intact — a framework the board voted in April to preserve through 2030 — while still carving out room for a 30-game regular season, an October 31 Decision Day, and playoffs running through a November 20 championship.

RACING LOUISVILLE OWNER SEEKS NEW INVESTMENT, SAYS RELOCATION “NOT OFF THE TABLE”: Racing Louisville owner John Neace is actively seeking outside investment to keep the club competitive as NWSL valuations and expansion fees surge, telling The Athletic he wants an investor or investor-operator who can stabilize the franchise’s finances. The search puts a spotlight on one of the league’s smaller markets: Sportico values Racing at $127 million against a league average of $184 million, a gap that has widened as new expansion fees hit record levels — Columbus paid $205 million in April, topping the $165 million Atlanta paid months earlier, with both clubs set to join in 2028. NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman confirmed the league is actively involved in Racing’s investment search and said relocation, while not preferred, “is not a never” if circumstances warrant it.

Neace, whose Soccer Holdings LLC bought the club for $1 million in 2019, said Racing is operating near the salary cap despite not being among the league’s top spenders, but acknowledged the bar for competitiveness has risen sharply as deep-pocketed new owners pour capital into facilities, front offices and commercial operations league-wide. He pointed to Louisville’s smaller sponsor and fan base as a structural challenge, while stressing the club has no current plans to move and remains “bullish” on both Racing and the league.

UEFA MAINTAINS WORLD CUP BOYCOTT THREAT DESPITE FIFA’S RETREAT ON $20B PRIVATE INVESTMENT PLAN: UEFA said Thursday it will maintain its threatened boycott of FIFA’s men’s and women’s World Cups even after FIFA withdrew its plan to sell private stakes in a new commercial subsidiary, the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which had been valued at $20 billion and projected to raise up to $4.2 billion. UEFA’s own boycott threat is widely credited with forcing FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s climbdown, but the confederation said Thursday that only one of its two conditions — withdrawal of the sale plan — had been met. The second, a guarantee that FIFA would never again attempt a similar deal, had not, they said, prompting UEFA to keep its participation in FIFA competitions in question.

UEFA has stated that it has “lost confidence” in his presidency, dismissing a show of support from senior FIFA directors at an emergency meeting in Morocco as carrying no weight since it came from staff “whose careers depend on his favor.” Had it proceeded, the FFE plan would have delivered FIFA’s 211 member associations a one-off $20 million payment in early 2027 and lifted per-association funding for the 2027–2030 cycle from $8 million to $20 million — the commercial upside that made the proposal attractive to some federations before the governance backlash forced its withdrawal.

PHILADELPHIA UNION ADD PARKWOOD SOCCER TO YOUTH CLUB AFFILIATE PROGRAM: The Philadelphia Union have brought Northeast Philadelphia’s volunteer-run Parkwood Youth Organization into their Club Affiliate Program, creating a direct talent-identification pipeline into Union youth teams. The deal gives Parkwood players access to specialized positional training, Union select team opportunities and elite-program invitations, while Parkwood’s volunteer coaches gain access to Union technical staff, education and curriculum — the latest example of an MLS club formalizing its grassroots pathway infrastructure in a home market.

TEAMSNAP AND MLS DEEPEN PARTNERSHIP WITH EXCLUSIVE YOUTH TRAINING CONTENT: TeamSnap and Major League Soccer have expanded their partnership with an exclusive training curriculum built from MLS NEXT material, giving coaches of players from U13 through U19 access to custom drill videos and practice plans inside the TeamSnap app, its MOJO platform, and TeamSnap ONE. The content was filmed at the San Diego Soccer Academy, home of MLS’s newest club San Diego FC, and builds on MLS GO recreational videos for ages 4–14 released earlier this year — giving TeamSnap an MLS-branded content ladder spanning a player’s full development path. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The deal extends a partnership that began in 2023, when TeamSnap acquired MOJO Sports, and plays to TeamSnap’s scale: the company says it reaches more than 19,000 organizations and over 30 million parents, players and coaches, with brands having committed over $20 million in youth sports sponsorships through its platforms. For MLS, EVP of Sporting Development Ali Curtis framed the release as an access play, putting league-branded coaching methodology in front of the volunteer coaches who make up the vast majority of youth soccer instruction nationally — though usage figures for the earlier MLS GO and MLS NEXT releases haven’t been published, leaving actual adoption on rec-level fields still unverified.

IU CREDIT UNION NAMED PRESENTING AND TITLE SPONSOR OF IU MEN’S SOCCER: IU Credit Union has expanded its multi-year partnership with Indiana University Athletics to become the official Presenting Sponsor and Title Sponsor of IU Men’s Soccer, with its logo now featured on the Jerry Yeagley Field playing surface at Bill Armstrong Stadium and exclusive sponsorship of the Hoosier Army student section — a notable college soccer commitment for a program that has won eight national championships and made 29 College Cup appearances since 1976.

SPORTING JAX NAMES UNISPORT GROUP OFFICIAL FOOTWEAR AND APPAREL PARTNER: Sporting Club Jacksonville has signed a long-term strategic partnership with Unisport Group, naming it the USL club’s Official Soccer Specialty Partner of Footwear, Equipment and Club Branded Apparel. Unisport branding will appear on the front of the Sporting JAX men’s team jersey for the remainder of the 2026 season before shifting to the lower back, with the deal also covering retail distribution, matchday activations and fan engagement across the club’s professional and academy programs.

RADY CHILDREN’S HEALTH BECOMES OFFICIAL PEDIATRIC HEALTHCARE PARTNER OF SAN DIEGO FC: San Diego FC has signed a multi-year, partnership with Rady Children’s Health, naming it the club’s Official Pediatric Healthcare Partner across both the first team and its Right to Dream Academy. As centerpiece, Rady Children’s will serve as Presenting Partner of the forthcoming SDFC Kids Club youth membership program, with a portion of membership proceeds donated back to fund pediatric healthcare services, alongside a joint youth mental health education initiative and a dedicated season-ticket row for hospital patients and families.

DUDE WIPES ADDS SAN JOSE TO ITS MLS JERSEY PORTFOLIO, FOLLOWING HOUSTON DEAL: The San Jose Earthquakes have signed a multi-year back-of-jersey partnership with DUDE Wipes, with the personal care brand’s logo debuting on first-team kits from the Earthquakes’ August 1 match against FC Cincinnati. DUDE Wipes also becomes San Jose’s Official Wipe/Flushable Wipe partner, with the deal extending into community programming, matchday activations and a new “Clean Sheets” giveaway tied to shutouts, plus presenting sponsorship of PRIME TIME, San Jose’s September 19 rivalry match against LAFC at Levi’s Stadium.

The deal marks DUDE Wipes’ second MLS back-of-jersey placement this season, following a similar multi-year agreement announced in July with Houston Dynamo FC, where the brand became the club’s first-ever Official Back of Jersey Partner and Exclusive Disposable Wipes Partner under the tagline “Space City has Uranus covered.” That deal made Houston one of just four MLS clubs carrying a back-of-jersey sponsor in 2026; San Jose’s addition builds out DUDE Wipes’ presence across the league’s jersey-sponsorship inventory, pairing its irreverent brand positioning with on-field performance tie-ins in both markets.

PLAYER FINES CONTINUE UNDER NWSL’S FOOTWEAR SPONSORSHIP POLICY AS UNION FILES GRIEVANCE: The NWSL’s footwear sponsorship policy, implemented June 26, continues to result in player fines despite the league’s stated goal of creating a “minimum standard” for brands to pay players who wear their cleats. Under the policy, equipment manufacturers other than Nike — the league’s exclusive apparel partner since 2013 — must pay the league $100,000 plus a minimum $5,000 directly to each sponsored player to have their cleats visible in matches; players wearing unauthorized brands without a deal must cover the logos or face penalties. Adidas and Puma have negotiated deals under the framework, but according to The Athletic, at least two players were warned for wearing uncovered Adidas cleats without a contract, and three players have been fined outright — Kansas City’s Michelle Cooper ($500, New Balance), Chicago’s Jordyn Huitema (up to $1,000, New Balance) and Seattle’s Sofia Huerta (up to $500, Lotto) — with four more receiving warnings.

The NWSL Players Association has filed a grievance on players’ behalf, and under the collective bargaining agreement the league cannot collect the fines until it’s resolved. Commissioner Jessica Berman defended the policy to The Athletic as designed to “drive the behavior we want to see,” framing it as a commercial model already standard across the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB and MLS, where brands pay for in-game visibility. The league said it remains in negotiations with New Balance, Lotto, Caddix, IDA and Skechers to bring them into the sponsorship program. Source: The Athletic​

PREMIER LEAGUE CLUBS TRADE GAMBLING SPONSORS FOR FINTECH AND SOVEREIGN INVESTMENT: As Premier League clubs enforce their collective ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship — agreed in 2023 and taking effect from the start of the 2026-27 season — a new report from Nielsen Sports, cited by Reuters, finds a more diverse commercial ecosystem stepping into the gap, led by sovereign investors, fintech firms and large software conglomerates. Nielsen cited Crystal Palace’s deal with AI and enterprise technology firm Temporal, Aston Villa’s partnership with Visit Rwanda, and Everton’s tie-up with financial services firm CMC Markets as early examples of the shift. Nielsen’s UK and Ireland sports market lead, Andy Milnes, said challenger organizations — particularly in fintech and AI — are using shirt sponsorship to build global credibility at scale, and that while the exit of gambling logos creates a short-term financial gap for some clubs, it opens the door to a broader set of commercial partners.

The front-of-shirt ban doesn’t extend to sleeve sponsorships or training kits, and Britain is weighing further regulation to prevent unlicensed gambling operators from sponsoring sports teams in any capacity. Nielsen predicts the shift will continue evolving rather than settling, forecasting a secondary “Tech Gold Rush” in which software infrastructure firms become the dominant front-of-shirt sponsorship category by 2028 — positioning the current fintech and sovereign-wealth wave as a transitional phase rather than gambling’s permanent replacement. Source: Reuters​