Major League Soccer has a robust post-pandemic story to tell, and it’s found just the person to tell it.
Newly announced senior vice president and chief marketing officer of MLS and Soccer United Marketing (SUM) Radhika Duggal joins the league at a pivotal point in its history. MLS has grown from 19 teams in 2014 to 29 teams this year—with a San Diego franchise on the way in 2025—after adding Inter Miami, Nashville SC, Austin FC, Charlotte FC and Saint Louis City SC since the Covid-disrupted season in 2020.
As a former CMO at fintech and ecommerce company Super.com, a marketing leader at JP Morgan Chase and Pfizer and a management consultant at Deloitte, Duggal joins the MLS executive team as it creates its sports marketing strategy and programs while building a global fanbase. Plus, as an adjunct assistant professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of the textbook “Consumer Behavior: A Marketer’s Look into the Consumer Mind,” the CMO is looking to provide the league insight into the mind of the modern fan and customer.
The league’s already given the exec plenty to work with.
In 2022, the MLS signed a unique 10-year streaming rights deal with Apple to air every league game on Apple TV with no local blackouts. Last July, less than a year after winning his first World Cup with Argentina, superstar Lionel Messi joined MLS in Miami—boosting team attendance by 35%, league attendance by 5% and signups for Apple’s MLS League Pass by 280% from the start of the season. This year, multiple Miami away matches featuring Messi have already drawn National Football League-sized crowds.
Lingering just beyond all of that is the next men’s World Cup, which the international soccer governing body FIFA is bringing to the United States, Mexico and Canada in 2026.
ADWEEK spoke to Duggal about her first six weeks at MLS, the marketing opportunities she sees throughout the league and how Messi’s spotlight can illuminate even more MLS stories..
ADWEEK: What are the opportunities and obstacles ahead for MLS as it approaches the North American World Cup?
Duggal: This league has an incredible volume of tailwinds, and I’m just lucky to be along for the ride.