UPDATE: Yesterday, New York City FC President and CEO told NYCFC radio announcer Glenn Crooks that "There's going to be changes in the Leagues Cup," and "it's going to be great for us and for our fans." You can listen to the full quote here.
An interesting bit of news appeared last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Ernst Tanner, the sporting director of Philadelphia Union, said in his End of Season Press Conference that the team would have a lighter schedule next year as they didn't qualify for Concacaf Champions Cup, and they're "out of Leagues Cup."
Tanner continued: “I think it's even a positive for us in this moment as I know that our fans don't all love our Leagues Cup,” he said.
Come again? Tanner was answering a question posed by journalist José Roberto Nuñez, who asked about the size of next year's roster. But in the sporting director's wide-ranging response, he let slip that the 2025 edition of Leagues Cup might be substantially different from the revamped tournament launched in 2023 — or that it might not take place at all.
Yesterday, Chris Albright, general manager of FC Cincinnati, all but confirmed as much in his End of Season Press Conference. When asked about Leagues Cup, Albright told the assembled media that because "Ernst spilled the beans,” there was no need to address the question. “I’m going to remain quiet on that,” Albright said. “I won’t take the bait.”
You can watch Tanner's statement in the clip below – he addresses Leagues Cup just after the 30-second mark – which was originally posted to X by Nuñez. (The full quote and complete press conference are included at the end of this article.)
Philadelphia Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner | "Out of Leagues Cup"
Courtesy José Roberto Nuñez on X
But Tanner's bean-spilling is just the latest – and most explicit – piece of evidence that something was amiss with the revamped Leagues Cup launched in 2023.
Exhibit A: Earlier this week, Liga MX voted to accept an investment deal from Apollo Global Management and the National Football League. According to sports business publication Sportico, "An agreement would give Liga MX more capital, stronger corporate governance and a reorganization of the soccer pyramid in the country." That includes "a possible 'Leagues Cup 2.0' starting in 2027."
Exhibit B: A potential change to Leagues Cup was covered a few weeks ago in these pages by Andrew Leigh, who reported on the rumors that Major League Soccer might revamp the calendar next year and could start playing league games on a fall-to-summer timetable like in much of Europe. "Speaking of Leagues Cup, the fate of that controversial new tournament seems unclear as it relates to this proposed schedule overhaul," Leigh wrote. "Henry Bushnell of Yahoo Sports mentions the possibility of playing the tournament in January when, in this new reality, both MLS and Mexico's Liga MX would have openings in the calendar between the halves of their domestic seasons."
Andrew Leigh
Exhibit C: Finally, there is the specter of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, which will be staged in the United States from June 15 to July 13. That would place it just ahead of when Leagues Cup was held in 2024 (July 27 to August 25) and 2023 (July 21 to August 19). Four weeks of the FIFA Club World Cup, featuring Chelsea, Manchester City, Inter Milan, Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Flamengo, followed by four weeks of Leagues Cup, featuring América, Atlas, and Atlanta United? It's hard to imagine that this part of the world has an appetite for that much consecutive tournament soccer.
The fact is, Leagues Cup was always an awkward fit. The tournament has its high points, and Columbus Crew (2024) and Inter Miami (2023) are deserving winners. It's the most lucrative tournament in North America, with an estimated $2 million going to the winner — it's not the EUFA Champions League, which hands out about $95 million to the winner, but it's better than MLS Cup, which has an awww-cute prize of just $300,000.
Plus, there's the Leagues Cup trophy, which is one of the best-looking pieces of silverware making the rounds these days.
But fan interest in Leagues Cup was always lukewarm. This year, the average attendance for the 77-match tournament was just 17,131. That's significantly below the record-breaking average attendance of 23,234 for the 493 matches MLS played this year.
When New York City FC hosted Querétaro FC in a Leagues Cup group stage match at Yankee Stadium on July 28, only 16,834 spectators were in attendance – it was the club's lowest-attended game this year. A few weeks later, there were 24,428 in the stands at Citi Field when NYCFC played Chicago Fire.
Leagues Cup became even more controversial earlier this year when MLS announced that the league would withdraw from US Open Cup, the oldest tournament in North America, because of schedule congestion. It was a strange reason to give considering that MLS revived Leagues Cup the year before, effectively creating the problem by introducing more games. After a public outcry in support of US Open Cup, a mix of MLS and MLS NEXT Pro teams agreed to participate in the original tournament, but the damage was done. A number of supporters' groups demonstrated in favor of US Open Cup and protested against Leagues Cup, with some going so far as to boycott games.
The need to reset the schedule would allow MLS to push pause on the tournament for now, and work out the "Leagues Cup 2.0" possibly planned for 2027 that was discussed in Sportico.
While Tanner might have "spilled the beans," there has been no official word from the league about the future of the tournament. That might change on Friday, when Commissioner Don Garber gives his MLS State of the League address on Friday, December 6 at 4:30 pm ET.
No doubt he will be asked about Leagues Cup then. How much information he will share with the media and the public remains to be seen.
Michael Battista
Michael Battista
Philadelphia Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner | 2024 End of Season Press Conference
Philadelphia Union | End of Season Press Conference with Sporting Director Ernst Tanner
November 27 2024
José Roberto Nuñez: Ernst, Considering the Champions Cup, Concacaf is not on the slate for the Union next year, and who knows what happens with the Open Cup in terms of participation by MLS teams. What is the ideal number that you and the front office are looking in terms of the roster size for the upcoming campaign?
Ernst Tanner: The simple answer is there is never, there is nowhere an ideal number. With a salary cap you always need to fit in what you can fit in, and of course then there is a number coming out. But somewhere, in the recent seasons where we had less tournaments, and, by the way this will be the part, or this will be the case in this season as well, because we all know we don't play the Champions Cup, but we are also out of Leagues Cup.
And, I think it's even a positive for us in this moment as I know that our fans don't all love our Leagues Cup, but we are definitely not getting so many midweek games and have more time to really focus on training and development, and that's the positive note. But it will be somewhere between 25 and 27 players, and yeah, that's a good size. And yeah, I'm more emphasized on the quality anyway than having even more players.
