Major League Soccer enters the 2025 season as one of North America’s most dynamic sponsorship platforms, with team-level sponsorship revenue reaching an estimated $716 million, up 8% year over year. This growth is being fueled by a wave of new premium assets, expanding category participation, and the league’s rising cultural relevance as the U.S., Canada, and Mexico move toward hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.​

For CMOs and senior sponsorship leaders, MLS now offers both scale and sharp targeting. Finance remains the leading spender across club portfolios, reflecting the league’s appeal for brands seeking to build trust, drive product education, and acquire customers among younger, diverse, and digitally engaged fans. Healthcare and automotive follow closely, with each category leveraging MLS’s long dwell times, in-stadium visibility, and Apple-led streaming ecosystem to drive both awareness and consideration.​

Within the top 10 spending categories, automotive and food products stand out with the highest growth, each posting 17% year-over-year gains. Auto growth is anchored by Audi’s league-wide renewal and deeper club integrations from Toyota, Kia, and Honda, signaling that global automakers increasingly view soccer as a primary route to multicultural, next‑gen consumers ahead of 2026. Food brands are sustaining last season’s surge in spend as Mondelēz, Siete Foods, Chick-fil-A and others trade up into higher-value assets, while new entrants like Nongshim and Whataburger use MLS to support market expansion and cross-regional brand building.

At the brand level, BMO, Royal Caribbean, Etihad Airways, Toyota, and AB InBev rank among the top investors, illustrating how financial services, travel, mobility, and beverages are using MLS as a multi-market, year-round storytelling platform. New jersey patch deals, averaging more than $5.5 million annually, and fresh venue naming rights agreements, exceeding $14 million per year, underscore how high-impact, TV-visible assets have become the core of MLS commercial strategy. For sponsors, these assets deliver consistent exposure across national broadcasts, Apple’s global distribution, and always-on social content.​

Star power remains a critical amplifier. Lionel Messi continues to dominate the league’s endorsement landscape, with his presence catalyzing both league-wide attention and incremental value for partners that can authentically connect to his global following. A second tier of endorsers, including Thomas Müller, Son Heung-min, Diego Luna, and Maarten Paes, reflects MLS’s growing international footprint and its ability to surface emerging talents who resonate with specific markets and communities. For brands, this creates a layered endorsement ecosystem—from global icons to rising local heroes—capable of supporting both broad reach and highly targeted campaigns.​

This report quantifies how and where dollars are flowing across MLS sponsorship and interprets what those patterns mean for brand strategy. It is designed to help CMOs and senior decision makers assess whether MLS aligns with their growth objectives, identify which categories and assets are most competitive, and uncover whitespace opportunities across clubs, assets, and athlete partnerships.​

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