For the first time ever, MLS matches will be paired with the NFL in a Sunday afternoon doubleheader. Fox announced that they will show one of two MLS matches on Sept. 18, during Week 2 of the NFL regular season, either before or after their regional NFL game.
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Whichever match a particular market doesn’t get, they can watch either match on Fox Sports Go.
For a league that seems to be hovering at around 500k viewers per nationally televised game, this could give MLS viewership a huge boost. MLS and Fox really have nothing to lose by doing this. Sure, the NFL will reign supreme on Sundays like every fall Sunday, but MLS will likely maintain most of their regular week-by-week viewership. That, plus even just a small percentage of NFL fans sticking around to watch MLS could set viewership records for the league.
At the very least, Fox will most likely promote these matches during its Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, as well as during their NFL broadcasts, so it’s some great marketing for MLS to a big audience.
For Fox, they’re really looking for anything to put in to try and compete with CBS’ NFL schedule during weekends that they have the doubleheader. Why not give MLS a chance and pair them with the NFL? Fox paid a lot of money and will be dedicated to MLS until at least 2022, so this could be the start of a good thing to possibly expanding their MLS audience.
That being said, there are a few hurdles that Fox and MLS are going to be facing by undergoing this partnership. One, while Fox confirmed that the markets of Los Angeles, Kansas City and New York City would be able to watch their local game, that doesn’t necessarily mean their local NFL team wouldn’t be playing at the same time. For example, the Kansas City Chiefs play in Houston on CBS at the same time as Sporting Kansas City on Fox. Kansas City has one of the better MLS fanbases but they may be fighting a losing battle by directly competing with the Chiefs. This will not be a problem for NYC who have the Jets playing that Thursday and the Giants playing at 1 PM ET, nor would it be a problem for LA who have the Rams playing at 4:05 PM ET.
Second, Fox placed these MLS matches to take advantage of using the NFL as a lead-in, either from Fox NFL Sunday or the early Sunday game. The MLS matches are going to be taking place at 2 ET and 5 ET, respectively. That means at most, the matches won’t kick-off until about an hour after the pregame show or the early game.
Nice for MLS. But I'd hate to be person running Fox Sports Twitter account on day fans expecting NFL get soccer. https://t.co/L58dHvcJCa
— Andrew Das (@AndrewDasNYT) August 25, 2016
Now, this is mostly to provide for some sort of pregame MLS show or to compensate for an NFL game possibly running long, but that length of time between the lead-in and the kickoff kind of defeats the purpose of the lead-in. If I’m done watching Fox NFL Sunday and then see that SKC/LA doesn’t kickoff for another hour, I’ll flip over to CBS to watch whatever game is on there and may not flip back. Just think that at least for the early MLS match, it’s better to have it at either 1:15 or 1:30 ET and have it situated closer to Fox NFL Sunday.
Despite these potential issues, this is a great move for Fox and MLS. After not committing any MLS matches on Fox in their first season with MLS rights last year, Fox announced they would show four MLS matches on Fox during the summer. Committing to showing two more matches, it shows Fox is open to the idea of dedicating more broadcast time for MLS and that can only mean great things for the MLS/Fox relationship in the future. If this becomes a success and the schedule allows it, maybe we will see more MLS/NFL doubleheaders in the future as well.
