With ASGs increasingly more exhibition than competition, leagues have turned to gimmicks, revamped formats to attract attention
From inception, All-Star games have always been about marketing. The inaugural Major League Baseball All-Star game was held in 1933 Comiskey Park in Chicago as part of the World's Fair, and it was intended to be a one-off affair to boost morale, and finances, amid the Great Depression.
Its success made it a staple of American culture, a tradition that transcended eras and, ultimately, sports.
It's easy to see the allure. All-Star Games are typically mid-season events that celebrate the sport, pit the best against the best, featuring every marketable star imaginable on the field at the same time. It's fantasy come to life. For one night only, icons clash and, just as importantly, play together in ways fans could only dream of.
But what happens when those icons are more accessible than ever? What happens when actual competition turns into an exhibition? And what happens to a league such as MLS, which – like its brothers and sisters across American professional sports – faces the challenge of making its All-Star Game a meaningful main event, rather than an afterthought?
All-Star games are evolving – or de-evolving, in some cases – and for years, America's supposed showcase events have struggled to maintain relevancy.
The MLB tried to make its Midsummer Classis more meaningful by putting home-field advantage for the World Series on the line, and then added gimmicks such as a swing-off to attract viewers. The NBA has tried format after format, instituting a marquee player draft system designed to create drama and talking points leading up to the game. The NFL dropped it's end-of-season Pro Bowl entirely, replacing it with a high-priced game of flag football.
And MLS has shifted formats repeatedly, too, bringing in some of Europe's best for a ratings boost before relying on rivalries to sell and MLS vs. Liga MX.
All of that is to say that All-Star Games are changing. They're no longer the attractions they once were, no longer as as relevant to a modern generation of fans that consume sports in different ways. Staples of American sport for nearly 100 years, these one-time showcase events are at a cross-sport crossroads – and the MLS All-Star Game, which kicks off Wednesday night in Austin, Texas – is caught in the same wake of change.
Getty ImagesHistory of All-Star Games
Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams once said, “They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays." That isn't true, of course. The first All-Star Game was held 20 years before the "Say Hey Kid" made his first appearance in the Midsummer Classic, but the point stands: All-Star Games are intended to be showcases for undeniably popular players.
For years, such games provided an important opportunity for average Americans to see the stars. Before national TV deals and streaming services, there was no easy way for, say, a fan on the East Coast to regularly watch Mays play in San Francisco, despite his accolades and dominance. There were no regular season inter-league play in MLB until 1997, so the All-Star Game offered a rare glimpse of the some of the game's greats, a collection of larger-than-life giants on the field simultaneously.
That idea became a foundational part of American sports culture.
The NBA instituted its own All-Star Game in 1951, turning its event into a full weekend via the introduction of the Dunk Contest. The NFL's Pro Bowl has roots dating back to 1938, but has long been looked at as the most difficult All-Star event to pull off, given the physical nature of the sport. The NHL All-Star Game began as a clash between the Stanley Cup champions and a team of All-Stars from around the league, but has since evolved alongside other sports.
And then there's MLS, which instituted an All-Star Game upon the league's inception in 1996 to bring some American flavor to the world's sport. Each league has experimented with different formats, but there is one universal truth: interest is declining.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesDeclining interest
Each of the 10 most-watched MLB All-Star Games was held between 1976 and 1987. At its peak, the annual game was watched by more than 30 million people. For comparison, per MLB.com, last week's game pulled in 8.1 million viewers, despite a thrilling tie-breaking swing-off. It's been a steady and consistent decline. The league hasn't hit the 10-million viewer mark since 2015, or had 20 million viewers since 1995.
This isn't just a baseball problem, of course. NBA All-Star viewership has cratered, down from nine million in 2011 to roughly five million in each of the last three years. The NFL's Pro Bowl had an 18 percent decrease this season – in the helmet-less, pad-less flag format – to roughy one million viewers. MLS' ratings remain a mystery due to their presence on Apple, but anecdotally, overall interest seems in decline.
Blame can be placed on a variety of factors. Generally, though, the way in which fans consume sports is shifting. Per EMarketer, digital sports viewers in the U.S. now outnumber traditional cabe TV viewers. Fans under 25, meanwhile, are becoming less likely to watch a game – in any sport – in its entirety. Instead, consumption increasingly takes the form of highlights on social media and other digital platforms.
While past All-Star Games offerered a unique opportunity to watch a Williams or a Mays, every Shohei Ohtani pitch or at-bat for the Los Angeles Dodgers is accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. NBA superstars such as LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Steph Curry are easily accessible, either via the league's national broadcasts or real-time highlight packages. Every Lionel Messi goal is on social media seconds after he scores.
The barriers to entry have been removed, making stars more accessible than ever before. That makes All-Star Games less spectacle and more like any other Wednesday night, prompting leagues to attempt to change the narrative with ginned-up gimmicks, revamped formats and a focus more on player personality than on the actual competition.
Getty Images SportDiffering MLS versions
From its inception, MLS has looked to balance the tradition of European soccer, the culture of American sports and the fun needed to help the league thrive. There were early swings and misses. Who can forget the infamous MLS shootouts?
The All-Star Game has been part of that and, like the league, has evolved through the eras, going through different iterations in an attempt to capture attention. In the early years of the league, MLS relied on a traditional East vs West format, aside from a brief experiment of USA vs World in 1998.
In 2002, though, the league started to pit MLS All-Stars against high-profile teams. Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Chivas, the U.S. men's national team – all have been opponents for an MLS All-Star Game.
While a fun concept, the optics weren't great. Wins were disregarded as fluke triumphs over out-of-shape club teams. Losses were used to point out the disparity between MLS and Europe, which could send over a single club team to beat down on the best of an entire league.
What benefit, tangibly, was MLS getting from 5-2 and 4-0 losses to a preseason version of Manchester United in back-to-back years? Since 2021, save for a clash with Arsenal in 2023, the league has gone with a new format, one that pits the best of MLS against the best of Liga MX.
Getty ImagesThe Liga MX connections
It's no secret that MLS and Liga MX have collaborated in recent years, and the All-Star Game is only one aspect. The Leagues Cup was developed to create direct competition between the two leagues, as was the Campeones Cup. Both are benefiting.
“We need more MLS versus Liga MX matches,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said ahead of the 2024 MLS Cup. “That was really the point of the Leagues Cup in the beginning. … We’ve been trying to figure out a way to get this right. I think we really got it right with the Leagues Cup. It worked super well in the first year. That was not just about Messi; it was just the way the tournament was laid out. And we’re looking at modifications that will, I think, make it more focused on what it is that we’re trying to achieve, which is this great rivalry between our two leagues.”
The All-Star Game is part of that. The aim was to put something tangible on the line, but not quite as drastic as homefield advantage in the World Series. Pride is one hell of a motivator, though, and the thought has been that the vanity of representation in a MLS vs Liga MX duel would lead to a more exciting game.
The on-field product has, generally, been good. MLS won the first two editions, the first in a shootout, before falling, 4-1, last year. The Skills Challenge has created some viral moments and – while still falling short of the energy of a Dunk Contest or a Home Run Derby – still carries those principles into the soccer landscape.
"This is what the All-Star celebration is all about," Garber said. "It's an opportunity for us to take a step back and take a midseason break. It's also an opportunity for us to take one of our most important assets, our best players, pit them against a very competitive team – the stars from LIGA MX – and bring that to a global audience with Apple."