by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jul 24, 2017

Why is MP & Silva deal a non-starter?

Who is MP & Silva?

The debate over MLS and pro/rel resurfaced on Monday with a Sports Business Journal report that international media company MP & Silva (whose founding partner is Miami FC owner) offered $4 billion for MLS's global media rights on the condition that MLS institute a system of promotion and relegation.MLS currently has an eight-year agreement for domestic media rights with ESPN, Fox Sports and Univision Deportes that extends through the 2022 season.Even if MLS wanted to consider the MP & Silva deal -- which covers domestic and international rights -- it would have to wait until any form of right of first refusal or right to negotiate that ESPN, Fox Sports and Univision Deportes have expired. That would not be for several years.MLS currently only sells its commercial rights through SUM (domestic media rights) and MLS Business Ventures (international media rights), both "in-house" entities. (SUM recently bought back the 25 percent interest it sold to Providence Equity Partners in 2012.). It doesn't use a third-party intermediary as the selling agent.MP & Silva is an international sports agency that distributes TV and media rights for sports federations, leagues, clubs and rights holders.Its Italian founders started out buying the international media rights to Serie A clubs and expanded from there. MP & Silva's majority owner is now Chinese firm Everbright Securities and Beijing Baofeng Technology, which paid $1 billion for a 65 percent interest in 2016.

MP & Silva and MLS aren't strangers. MP & Silva sold international media rights until MLS went in-house with MLS Business Ventures in 2014.



What's Riccardo Silva's interest in pro/rel? Silva launched Miami FC in 2016. The club is the most successful club in the NASL, but its path from here is uncertain without promotion and relegation.







Coached by former Italian star Alessandro Nesta, Miami FC won the 2017 NASL spring championship going away and is in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup (where it will play FC Cincinnati in a makeup game on Aug. 2). It averaged more than 6,000 fans a game at FIU's football stadium -- renamed Riccardo Silva Stadium in April -- an increase of 15 percent from 2016.



1. In its backyard, Miami FC likely faces competition from David Beckham's Miami Beckham United group, which (finally) has moved closer toward securing a stadium deal necessary for MLS to sign off on it as the league's 24th team.

2. The NASL only has eight teams and likely needs to field 12 in 2018 if it is to maintain its Division 2 recognition from U.S. Soccer. It has already announced plans to field teams in Orange County and San Diego in 2018, but the future of its current eight teams is not entirely certain.



One problem team has been Jacksonville, which the NASL operated for the first part of 2017 until Central Florida businessman Robert Palmer agreed to take over as Armada owner.



Of the 11 Division 2 teams averaging more than 5,000 fans a game in 2017, nine are in the USL and only two -- Indy Eleven and Miami FC -- in the NASL. Of the seven returning NASL teams, four are averaging less than their final 2016 average. And the eighth team, the expansion San Francisco Deltas, is last in the NASL with average attendance of less than 2,500 a game.