As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ever

The event will be streamed free and broadcast live in three languages

In what has been called the MLS’s “Caitlin Clark must-see-TV moment,” this weekend’s MLS Cup production will be the largest in the league’s history. With global icon Lionel Messi taking the pitch at Fort Lauderdale, FL’s Chase Stadium on Saturday, MLS, Apple, and production-services partner NEP are pulling out all the stops — including deploying iPhones for game coverage — in what’s expected to be one of the league’s most-watched games ever.

“Without question, this will be the biggest production we’ve ever had on an MLS match — MLS Cup or otherwise,” says Seth Bacon, EVP, media, Major League Soccer. “The number of cameras and level or production resources we’re deploying is an indication of the growth that we’ve had, both as a league and as a production company. We want to take all the innovations that we’ve built over the course of the year and make them come to life in the biggest moment here at MLS Cup.”

The busy MLS Cup compound at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, FL

In addition to streaming free on Apple TV, the match will be broadcast on FOX, FOX Deportes, RDS in Canada (in French), and TNT in Mexico. With Messi leading Inter Miami against one of the league’s other major stars, Thomas Müller, and the Vancouver Whitecaps, many expect record viewership numbers for the most expansive MLS Cup presentation to date.

“We will be lucky enough to have the eyes of the entire soccer world on us, with the FIFA World Cup Draw on Friday and Messi going out to win a trophy on Saturday in a phenomenal matchup,” Bacon says. “This is a huge moment for a league and one we’ve all been waiting for. And, because of the infrastructure and momentum and team that we’ve built [at MLS Productions], we are going to be ready to capitalize on it.”

Onsite in Ft. Lauderdale: Studio Shows, 30+ Cameras, NEP Mobile Units

The 38-camera complement at Chase Stadium is headlined by a quartet of iPhone 17 Pros, which will capture live game footage in a historic first for an MLS broadcast. Also on hand are two Ronin RF Steadicams (one of which is equipped with an iPhone 17 Pro), in-goal robots in the nets on both sides of the field, four super-slo-mo systems, a referee cam, and a drone. The production team will also have more than 50 EVS record channels at its disposal.

“We had plans to make the show as big as we could regardless of the participant,” Bacon notes when asked if the production levels increased as a result of Messi’s participation. “We were confident in the significant production levels we put together. Certainly, adding the world’s greatest player to the game adds an element for us. We knew going in that we would have enough cameras and super-mos to tell the story many times over. We’re more focused on the editorial side and how we use those cameras to tell the story.”

MLS and Apple studio shows will broadcast from on-field sets.

MLS and Apple have rolled out their English- and Spanish-language studio shows at Chase Stadium. One corner of the field has been cordoned off, and two elevated platforms have been erected to serve both shows for pre/postgame and halftime broadcasts. Fox Sports also has an on-field set for its shows.

In the truck compound, NEP HD6 and Super B mobile units are handling Apple TV’s English-language game and onsite-studio-show productions; NEP NCPII is home to the Spanish-language studio and game operations. In addition to the mobile units/broadcast facilities, NEP is supplying sets, lighting, power, transport/distribution, and commercial playout for Apple TV and continues to partner with MLS and FOX to provide above- and below-the-line staff.

“We are going to be the engine that powers the storytelling around MLS Cup,” says Bacon. “We are learning every day, every week, every month, every year about ways to integrate new technology and find efficiencies with the resources we have onsite. As a result, we have been able to deploy a lot more resources and be very nimble to help us capture more content. That includes not only game content but also interviews and [shoulder] content that we can integrate into the Apple livestream and [linear] broadcast, as well as provide to our digital and social teams.”

Roughly 110 crew members, engineers, and operators are on hand this weekend. On the NEP side, the 2025 MLS Cup broadcast is tech-managed by Joe Heck and Jamie Weber and supported by production operation leads George Williams, Emmanuel Wallace, Adam Willis, Steve Kravitz, and Hildelisa Gonzalez.

Behind the scenes with the MLS Cup onsite production crew

The English- and Spanish-language line cuts and 5.1 audio mixes will be produced onsite in Fort Lauderdale and sent via AT&T GVS network to MLS’s production facility in Stamford, CT. All graphics will be integrated there (a new workflow that MLS launched this season), and multiple versions will be created for distribution: a clean feed, English sponsored and unsponsored, Spanish sponsored and unsponsored, Canadian French sponsored and unsponsored, Mexican Spanish sponsored and unsponsored, and Sportradar/IMG Arena betting feeds.

In addition, FOX Sports broadcast will be produced out of NEP M14, handled largely by the MLS/NEP crew that produces all of FOX’s MLS regular-season and playoffs broadcasts remotely at NEP’s South Florida REMI production facility.

iPhone Impact: Four iPhone 17 Pros Will Play Big Role in Coverage

In a first for a live MLS broadcast, MLS Cup 2025 will integrate live game footage captured on an iPhone 17 Pro, with four devices positioned throughout Fort Lauderdale, FL’s Chase Stadium.

“We’re always looking for ways to innovate and test new technologies with our partners, including Apple,” says Bacon “We’ve been testing [the use of] iPhones about four months now and have been looking at different ways to utilize them. In our tests, we’ve tried several different setups, rigs, and locations and played around with zoom, speed, color, and other technical and creative aspects. We think we’ve found the ideal setup going into [MLS Cup this weekend].”

The four iPhones will consist of a wired high–end-zone camera and three wireless systems: a pitch-side DJI Ronin gimbal rig, a supporter cam focused on the fans in the stands, and a sideline camera shooting coaches’ reactions throughout the game. Whenever an iPhone camera feed is shown during the broadcast, it will feature a “Shot on iPhone” overlay graphic.

MLS worked closely with Apple’s iPhone technology and live-production team, as well as with NEP, to create the iPhone camera rigs and control systems that will be used to shade the cameras from the truck. A large chunk of the league’s tests, Bacon says, have been focused on how to seamlessly integrate these iPhones into the truck as live camera sources.

“These are actual iPhones,” he stresses. “We’re not plugging them into some other contraption; the iPhone will be the device capturing the action and coming into the truck for our broadcast. We think that’s going to be a differentiating factor compared with what others have done in the past in using iPhones [for live game coverage].”

The match will be the most ambitious deployment of iPhones for game coverage to date, following a Friday Night Baseball production at Fenway Park in September.

“We’ve done the testing and know that the technology will work,” says Bacon. “It’s just a matter of going out and getting it done. The quality of the picture that you can capture on an iPhone today is second to none. So we know it’s only going to be additive from a fan-experience standpoint and allow us to tell even more stories than we do on a typical match.”

Season of Change: Looking Back at 2025 and the Move to Stamford

Saturday will be the culmination of a season marked by significant behind-the-scenes changes for the league’s media- and broadcast-production arm. In January, prior to the start of the 2025 season, MLS Productions moved its operations from NEP’s Metropolis Studios in NYC to “The Studios at WWE” at WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT, as part of an expanded multiyear deal with IMG.

Since the move, all of Apple TV’s MLS studio shows — including MLS Countdown and MLS La Previa pregame shows and MLS Wrap Up and MLS El Resumen postgame shows — have been produced out of Stamford. MLS also brought on AE Live as its exclusive graphics partner and adopted a centralized graphics-integration model for all game broadcasts.

“It has been a terrific year for us at MLS productions,” says Bacon. “We knew when we launched this project in 2022 ahead of the 2023 season that there was going to be a long road ahead and there would be changes from year to year. But I think we are now at a point where we have more consistency in the way that we produce [our content].

“The studio here in Stamford has been everything we expected and then some,” he continues. “We’ve been able to leverage the technology, the connectivity, the infrastructure, and the consistent group of people to not only maintain the quality we had from the first two years but also start to push forward even further. Behind-the-scenes changes invisible to the consumer [as well as] big-ticket items like our fully virtualized studio are adding new layers of storytelling and quality to our productions.”

As MLS, Apple, IMG, and NEP head into the grand finale of a season in which they produced more than 600 games on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, Bacon and company are looking to truly go out with a bang.

“We want to take all the things we’ve learned and tested throughout the year and drive them into one [MLS Cup] show,” he says. “Just like the grand finale of a huge fireworks display, we want to go out with a bang that people won’t forget.”

MLS Cup will air free on Apple TV in more than 100 countries and regions with no subscription required. Coverage will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET with special editions of pregame shows MLS Countdown and MLS La Previa and conclude with postgame recap shows MLS Wrap-Up and MLS El Resumen.