Billionaires, celebrities, and CEOs like Bob Iger are investing in U.S. soccer—and the beautiful game’s American gold rush is just beginning

For decades, U.S. soccer franchises had taken a backseat to other major league teams. That’s all changing with Major League Soccer (MLS) becoming America’s fastest-growing pro sports league.

The six key growth indicators powering MLS’ remarkable rapid rise are:

1. Booming attendance: The MLS is averaging 23,00 fans per game, more than the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and close to Major League Baseball figures. Some MLS season games routinely draw 72,000 to 82,000 fans, blowing past the last 10 NFL Super Bowl championships.
2. Billion-dollar media rights: Apple has acquired MLS rights for $250 million per annum in a deal $2.5 billion in total, nearly three times MLS’ previous deal of $90 million per annum ($720 million in total). Just a year in, Apple’s MLS Season Pass is already winning the Sports Streaming Wars with more subscribers (over 2 million) than YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket (1.3 million subscribers).
3. High-flying franchise fees:  The jump in MLS franchise fees is mind-blowing. Last year, St. Louis City FC paid $200 million. The next new franchise, San Diego FC, paid $500 million—an almost threefold increase in just under two years, the highest among all U.S. men’s major sports leagues. Despite the ever-increasing fees, a startling 10 new teams have joined the MLS in the past 10 years.
4. Rocketing median valuations: The average MLS franchise value climbed at five times the rate of growth of other U.S. pro league franchises.
5. Insatiable ticket demand: The average MLS ticket price ($45-50) is now higher than the average MLB ticket price ($37), underscoring insatiable appetite from fans. For Lionel Messi’s U.S. debut, demand so outstripped supply that regular season games went for an astonishing $110,000 per ticket.
6. Monster venues: With sold-out, soccer-specific stadiums, many MLS teams have been forced to move to larger NFL stadiums. Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, and Seattle are just some of the cities where the capacity of MLS venues tower over those of their MLB, NHL, and NBA counterparts. Recently, MLS’s Inter Miami CF mulled moving to the nearby NFL stadium but ultimately chose to have their own stadium (25,000 seats),…