This sentiment could describe almost anything that has happened in MLS this season. With most league matches airing on Apple TV behind the MLS Season Pass paywall, fewer viewers were tuning in during the final full season before the 2026 World Cup.

Naturally, we can’t verify the actual audience numbers because every trillion-dollar streaming company guards its viewership metrics as if they were classified documents. And whenever someone with “knowledge of the numbers” speaks, we have little reason to accept their claims at face value — after all, they have no incentive to tell the truth. Take MLS commissioner Don Garber, for example, who said earlier this year that viewership is up “almost 50% compared to last year.” Meanwhile, league-wide attendance has dropped. Only one of those statements can actually be confirmed.

All of this comes despite MLS getting exactly what it hoped for: Lionel Messi delivering the best season in league history.

Messi finished with more non-penalty goals and a higher expected-assists tally than anyone before him. He also carried Inter Miami to the MLS Cup final after a dominant run of three straight wins with a combined score of 13–1. On Saturday, he’ll go head-to-head with Thomas Müller and the Vancouver Whitecaps — a team that eliminated the powerhouse expansion side San Diego FC in the Western Conference finals after defeating Son Heung-Min and LAFC in the semis.

Expansion is thriving. Superstar matchups are happening deep into the playoffs. And Messi is still standing, one match away from the title.

Yet somehow, through remarkable levels of corporate mismanagement, Messi’s first MLS Cup appearance has been reduced to background noise — a faint whisper overshadowed by the 2026 World Cup draw and a packed American and European sports weekend.

This vacuum leaves plenty of space for casual observers — or non-viewers — to shape the narrative. They see aging icons like Messi and Müller leading teams or hear critics like Gareth Bale claim that MLS matches “don’t matter” because there’s no promotion or relegation. The implication? “It’s just a paid vacation for retirees!”

And that’s unfortunate, because behind inaccessible paywalls and poor executive decisions lies a league where the actual soccer — the ball movement, the tactical responsiveness, the overall quality — is improving every single year.