Replacement refs, VAR announcements, and Apple tweaks: What’s new in MLS this year

The new Major League Soccer season starts Wednesday night when Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami hosts Real Salt Lake (8 p.m., Apple TV). Not much has changed in the league since last season ended two months ago, but there are a few new things. Here’s a look at them.

The Professional Referee Organization, which assigns referees to games in MLS and other U.S. leagues, locked out the referees’ union over the weekend. Unless a deal is reached by Wednesday’s kickoff, Messi’s first regular-season game of the year will have replacement refs on the field.

Last week, the union — officially called the Professional Soccer Referees Association — voted down a proposed collective bargaining agreement, and refused a no strike-no lockout proposal. The lockout started a few days later, MLS’s first referee work stoppage in a decade.

The referees wanted to be paid more, but it’s not just that. They wanted quality of life improvements too, in particular travel accommodations. In a league where players rightly fly charter to every game, PRO offered to pay for business-class air travel to the regular-season finale (for which refs are assigned at the last minute) and the playoffs. Veteran official Corey Rockwell noted that would cover four or so of his 70-plus flights per year.

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As for the money side, it’s not just about the center referees. While many of them are full-time at this point, most sideline officials are not. One source with knowledge of the matter told The Inquirer that most assistant refs — the ones with the offside flags — make at most $35,000 a year from their MLS regular-season work.

Lead video review officials make around the same, and assistant video review officials — who sit one chair over in the booth — make at most $17,000 a year, for around 30 games per season.

PRO offered raises across the board and trumpeted the percentages in a news release. But the percentages matter less than the actual dollars to the union, along with the other issues.

“The skyrocketing growth of MLS has significantly increased demands on officials mentally and physically, and as such has increased demands on both our professional and personal time,” PSRA president Peter Manikowski said in a statement. “Our members are asking not only for fair compensation at a time when the league is reporting record growth but also for the ability to take care of themselves on the road and at home to continue officiating at the highest level that this sport demands.”

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“We made meaningful progress during recent bargaining, agreeing to fair pay increases, and addressing many of the PSRA’s concerns with respect to non-economic items,” said PRO general manager Mark Geiger, a former longtime referee himself. “We are left with no choice but to institute a lockout and use qualified non-bargaining unit officials so that games can go ahead as scheduled.”

PRO is funded by the leagues it serves, with MLS putting in the most money, and its offices are within MLS’s Manhattan headquarters. It’s no surprise which side the league is on here.

“It’s extremely disappointing that the officials have voted against the tentative agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement,” said Nelson Rodríguez, executive vice president of sporting product and competition.

» READ MORE: An analysis of the Union’s roster at the start of the 2024 season

The many rules that the replacement officials will have to enforce include video reviews, which a lot of refs haven’t been trained to use. There are also two new rules around injuries and substitutions, and these have noble intentions.

The first pertains to injured players — or, in some cases, seemingly injured players. If a player goes down and stays down for more than 15 seconds, the center official will stop play and the team’s medical staff will come out. The player must then leave the field and stay off the field for at least two minutes.

This should crack down on players who want to buy time by staying down. If they aren’t injured, their team will be forced to play down a man for two minutes.

The second rule mandates that players who are substituted out must leave the field within 10 seconds of the stoppage of play. If the player doesn’t leave in time, his incoming teammate will have to wait 60 seconds extra, then until the next stoppage in play. There are exceptions for injuries and goalkeeper substitutions.

MLS noted that when this rule was launched in its reserve league last season, 99.7% of the more than 3,200 substitutions that took place were completed in 10 or fewer seconds.

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If you’ve gone to a Union game over the years, you might have noticed that when stoppage time starts, it isn’t counted on the scoreboard in the stadium, even though it is on TV. That will finally change this year: the clock will keep counting past 45:00 at the end of the first half and 90:00 at the end of the second half.

It’s a small thing, but as with video review announcements, a welcome one.

A rule that started with FIFA tournaments last year has arrived in MLS. When a video review decision is made, the center referee will announce the verdict over the stadium’s public address system. That’s long been the case in other American sports, and now it’s the case in soccer.

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There are two notable additions to Apple’s MLS streaming coverage this year. The first is a Spanish-language version of MLS 360, the Saturday night whip-around show with live coverage of all the simultaneous games.

For all the criticism Apple got last year (and still gets), MLS 360 was widely acclaimed. Its popularity should grow further now that it’s bilingual. Tony Cherchi will host the show with former Portland Timbers manager and longtime MLS player Giovanni Savarese, and former Orlando City goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo.

The other major new addition is a multiview option if you’re watching on an iPad. Like with Apple TV boxes, you’ll be able to watch up to four games at once on one screen.

As was the case last year, MLS Season Pass costs $99 for the season or $79 if you subscribe to Apple TV+ (where the movies and such are). The monthly rate is $14.99, or $12.99 if you’re an Apple TV+ subscriber.

If you have season tickets to the Union or any other MLS team, the primary account holder gets a Season Pass for free and can share it with up to five other people through Apple’s family-sharing system.

» READ MORE: Apple is still keeping secret how many — or few — people watch its MLS telecasts

Last year, T-Mobile gave MLS Season Pass free to its mobile phone customers, like it long has with Major League Baseball’s streaming service. There’s been no word yet about whether that will happen again this year, and everyone involved has been very coy about it.

One source with knowledge of the matter told The Inquirer on Tuesday that “we don’t have anything to announce today” – a refrain given by multiple such sources in recent weeks.

So we asked if that meant the answer was it wouldn’t be offered.

“That means there’s nothing to announce today,” the source said. “There’ll be something hopefully soon for you — can’t get into anything further.”

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