With Orlando City SC exiting the 2024 Leagues Cup after winning their group, something changed but something else remained the same.
Orlando City SC won their group in the 2024 Leagues Cup with a thrilling and masterful shootout victory over Atletico San Luis of Liga MX. The team’s next Liga MX opponent, Cruz Azul, posed the same standoff. This time, Orlando was forced to exit the competition.
That’s what changed. That’s because, after the group win, Orlando City looked primed to go much deeper in the third edition of the Leagues Cup. The maiden competition in 2019 included only four teams from each league.
Last year’s tournament expanded the competition as was done this year.
What remained the same are the two negative clouds looming over this year’s Leagues Cup. Those clouds gathered over supporters groups across MLS who saw the MLS commitment to this Cup as threatening participation in the U.S. Open Cup.
To keep MLS teams as fresh as possible, the league limited participation in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to eight teams. That aimed the remaining 18 squads at the Leagues Cup, pitting MLS clubs against Liga MX competitors.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber expects the Leagues Cup to firmly capture the imagination of the MLS sporting public. He said he credits the tournament with doubling MLS Season Pass streaming subscribers.
Compared to their MLS match attendance, Orlando City ticket sales look small. But just as Garber described, attendance grew this year. From one source, with matches left to play, leaguewide attendance in the tournament has averaged 22,154 with Orlando at 15,159.
U.S. Open Cup attendance with full MLS participation last year averaged only 5,477 for the tournament.
The Open Cup is the oldest soccer competition in the U.S. It started in 1913 and today pits professional and amateur clubs against each other on the pitch.
The supporters calling for this boycott mean well. They asked for a show of U.S. Open Cup support while MLS withdrew some of their squads’ participation.
But by the attendance figures, the boycott isn’t working. Attendance at either U.S. Open or Leagues Cup tournaments isn’t overwhelming.
But after only three tries, the Leagues Cup is already much closer to capturing supporters’ imaginations than U,S. Open ever has.