Garber is in a unique position to not only make MLS one of the most popular professional men's sports leagues in the country but also make the league a national leader in diversity and inclusion. Alex Silvermanpreviously worked at Morning Consult as a reporter covering the business of sports. France defeated Croatia in the historic 2018 men's World Cup final. Saturday night's Game 4 broadcast on FOXaveraged 10 . The simple answer is web analytics. Philadelphia, the fourth-largest TV market according to Nielsen, was by far the top-ranking local market for FOX's telecast with a 4.78 rating. As a demographic, MLS fans are the youngest professional sports fans and the most likely to stream content. The most I think MLS can realistically do to move the needle is get creative with TV windows. Keep up-to-date with our weekly newsletter, Media Pulse. In business as in life, skipping the audience analysis can also lead you to seriously miss the mark. An insurance provider, for example, may measure the average number of cars per household in a target location and compare it with the rate of car thefts to assess the potential for car insurance sales. Among the more targeted sample of Generation Z adults (those born in 1997 or later), 47% said they are soccer fans, putting the sport ahead of college basketball (44%), MLB (44%), tennis (32%), the NHL (30%) and golf (22%) with this cohort. He pointed out that these leagues in particular might face more backlash based on the demographic makeup of their fans. Soccer has been dubbed the sport of the future in the United States for decades. Men's soccer teams have been competing in the Olympics since 1900. For the average NFL team, 1 in 5 fans is Black and 1 in 5 is Hispanic. The average TV audience for the tournament charted at 226,000 per game (not counting streaming and Spanish-language viewership), a figure lower than the league's average TV audience for the. Fox News Takes Ratings Hit After Tucker Carlson's Exit One of MLSs greatest strengths as a central organisation has been its ability to stay nimble in its pursuit of a younger, more diverse demographic. More investment in players, more investment in infrastructure, more investment in marketing and content, and fan development. (Getty Images / Morning Consult artwork by Anna Davis), Soccer Still Lags Behind Big Four Sports in Popularity Among U.S. The MLS Cup Final, scheduled for December 11, will be broadcast on ABC and UniMas. U.S. Soccer Fans Are Younger, More Diverse Than Fans of Other Sports The leagues current TV deal, signed in 2015, is split between ESPN and Fox Sports, paying a combined $75 million per season with Univision adding $15 million.