The remaining three rounds of the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup will be streamed for free on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, U.S. Soccer announced on Thursday. The tournament concluded its Round of 16 midweek, with the quarterfinal round to take place on July 9 and 10.
The tournament’s final seven matches will be streamed on Apple TV nested under MLS Season Pass. Viewers will not need a subscription to either Apple TV or MLS Season Pass to watch the games, which a press release states will bring the tournament to “its largest global audience to date.” MLS Season Pass is accessible in over 100 countries and regions.
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U.S. Soccer added that there will be “expansive Open Cup coverage” across MLS Season Pass studio shows and podcasts.
Where were matches shown in previous rounds?
From the tournament’s first round through its fifth (the recently played Round of 16), games were streamed on the websites of U.S. Soccer, the United Soccer League, and MLS. These and other stakeholders did their best to guide fans toward the broadcasts via social media, but it was a bit of a trick to get games to show on one’s television.
Smart TV web browsers struggled to navigate the streaming carousel whenever more than two matches were being played concurrently. Additionally, the matches were unlisted on each entity’s YouTube channel, requiring a fan to go to one of those three websites, enter their email address and agree to promotional messages (sometimes on multiple occasions in the same night), and then launch the game in a web browser before casting it to TV. The games became listed on U.S. Soccer’s YouTube page upon their conclusion.
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YouTube viewership for the Round of 16 saw games range from 2,300 to a high of just over 7,900, when the Seattle Sounders came back to beat Phoenix Rising on Wednesday night.
The tournament has seen plenty of changes to its broadcast plan historically, often with multiple shifts across a single tournament. Recent U.S. Open Cup finals have been shown on the CBS Sports Network and Paramount Plus, as well as Telemundo and Universo (2023), ESPN+ streaming (2019 and 2022), and ESPN2 and Univision Deportes (2018).
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports has the tournament’s rights as part of its deal with U.S. Soccer which runs from 2023 until 2030. Last year, they tried streaming select matches for free on the Bleacher Report app or the B/R Football YouTube channel. However, a lack of accessibility saw the federation strike a new partnership with CBS Sports Golazo Network and Paramount+ for the second half of that tournament.
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About MLS Season Pass
The move from unlisted streams to nesting into Apple’s platform should provide the tournament with a massive boost in accessibility and reach alike. MLS Season Pass debuted in the league’s 2023 season, the first of a 10-year broadcasting deal worth $2.5 billion in total. The platform shows every live regular season and playoff game as well as events like the Leagues Cup, the MLS All-Star Game, the Campeones Cup, and select matches from MLS Next Pro and MLS Next academies.
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MLS Season Pass has multiple studio shows, including MLS Countdown before matches and the MLS Wrap-Up highlight show. Studio shows are filmed at Metropolis Studios in Manhattan, with adjacent facilities for their English and Spanish coverage.
Who is left in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup?
Tuesday and Wednesday saw 16 teams from MLS, the USL Championship and MLS Next Pro vie for a place in the quarterfinal round. Two of the eight matches required extra time, while one of those saw Atlanta United overcome the hosting Charleston Battery at the tail-end of a penalty shootout.
MLS’s five teams arrive at this point after a firestorm at the start of the year over negotiations by the league to alter its participation in the 110-year-old tournament. In December, the first-division league proposed that it would send its developmental Next Pro teams in place of the senior teams citing a multitude of reasons including fixture congestion, providing developmental opportunities and concerns about the quality of the U.S. Open Cup. Ultimately, MLS entered eight teams entered the tournament while nine franchises’ Next Pro teams took part.
No MLS Next Pro teams remain, and defending champion Houston Dynamo fell to Detroit City FC in the Round of 32.
Of the five MLS clubs left, only one (Los Angeles FC) has not previously won the tournament at least once. Sporting Kansas City and the Seattle Sounders have each won four titles; should either team win the 2024 installment, they would be tied for the all-time record of 5 titles — shared by historic sides Bethlehem Steel (1907-1930) and Maccabee Los Angeles (1971-1982).
This year’s tournament is the first to feature three lower-league quarterfinalists since 2012. Sacramento Republic made history in 2022 when it became the first non-MLS finalist in the tournament since the Battery in 2008, with this year’s side storming back in extra-time on Tuesday to overcome the San Jose Earthquakes in a 4-3 goal fest.
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New Mexico United was a quarterfinalist in its debut 2019 season, a team that was led by current D.C. United head coach Troy Lesesne. This year’s side won 3-0 on Tuesday against New York City FC II.
This is the furthest run in nine tournaments for Indy Eleven. Indy capitalized on an early own goal to storm past Detroit City on Wednesday by a 3-0 margin. Indy is currently fourth in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference, while Sacramento and New Mexico are first and second in the West.
(Photo: Alika Jenner/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)