'We have found a matchup that the players genuinely care about' - MLS exec on 2025 All-Star Game vs. Liga MX, Skills Challenge

GOAL: Liga MX All-Stars return to be the opponent this year. It's the fourth time in the past five years that they've been chosen. Why Liga MX now, and why not a European team like Arsenal, who you faced in 2023?

DURANA: We love All-Star, it’s a celebration of our league, a celebration of our sport in North America, a celebration of local communities. But we also want a game that people want to watch, a competitive game that's meaningful. And I think in the MLS-Liga MX format, we have found a matchup that the players genuinely care about. If you go back and you watch the first three iterations or editions against Liga MX, the play was intense, and even in the Skills Challenge, it meant something to players. So I think we want the All-Star Game to be a showcase, but we also want to put on a great game on the field, and we feel the first three editions delivered on that. We're excited for the fourth.

GOAL: The Liga MX and MLS rivalry has fueled competitive, yet fun games in recent years, but outside of All-Star, Liga MX has been a step ahead of MLS in the Champions Cup, with the Seattle Sounders being the lone MLS team to ever win it. On the other hand, MLS has found success in the Leagues Cup winning the first two iterations. How is this All-Star Game helping grow a healthy, yet contentious, rivalry between the two leagues?

DURANA: We want competition. Rivalry is proven in all forms of research across all sports - it drives engagement, it drives fandom, it drives intrigue. It's the very reason why we launched the Leagues Cup because we wanted more opportunities for MLS teams to play against Liga MX and prove our quality to fans and to give more players access to international competition for development. There's a lot of history in the Champions Cup or Champions League. There's a lot of new history that's been written in Leagues Cup, and we love the fact that people notice and are talking about it. You know, the All-Star Game is an extension of that rivalry, clearly a different format, but we believe our relationship with Liga MX has never been stronger. The more we can continue to develop this rivalry and storylines, the better it's going to be, the easier it's gonna be to elevate the North American game at a global level. We aspire to continue to grow as a region, and we think this rivalry is a good way of standing out, building strong storylines, and continuing to drive our game in North America forward.

GOAL: How important will the All-Star Game be from a rating and marketing perspective with it being streamed on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV?

DURANA: We love our Apple TV partnership and what it's done to make it easier to be an MLS fan, the fact that we're now able to produce games that have a single look and single feel, it elevates the quality. To be able to work with Apple on new initiatives like Sunday Night Soccer… And we also recognize that different products draw different types of fans.

For us, the MLS regular season and playoffs have been around for a long time, and we've got a strong following. The Leagues Cup has enabled us to connect with different types of fans and different consumers. We're very keen to build relationships with fans of Liga MX and help them understand the quality that we have here at Major League Soccer and the All-Star Game is another dimension where there's a level of intrigue to it. It's a format unlike any other in the world within our sport, and the idea that we can offer a match that features perhaps Sergio Ramos and James Rodriguez on one side, you know, the global superstars and emerging stars in our league on the other side is going to attract different types of people. And if people come to MLS Season Pass and Apple TV for the All-Star Game, the hope is they stay for the rest, and that's part of how we continue to build audiences and build fans of this league.

GOAL: In recent years, we've seen MLS NEXT Pro goalkeepers partake in the event. Is there a chance that with the Skills Challenge in 2025 we see MLS and Liga MX partake in that particular challenge, or is it going to remain with the NEXT Pro goalkeepers?

DURANA: After every single year we look at all options and all opportunities, but for 2025 Goalie Wars will be back, and it will continue to be an MLS NEXT Pro event.

GOAL: Will there be any new Skills Challenge events that fans could look forward to seeing, that you might be able to share about?

DURANA: We'll make announcements about Skills Challenge specifics in the near future, but, like I said, every single year we sit down after the Skills Challenge. We think about ways that we can elevate, and make it different. As you saw last year, we added NWSL players, we added Liga MX Femenina players and we added legends. So we're always looking for ways to make it different, give people different types of audiences a reason to tune in. And you can expect some modifications for this year's challenge.

GOAL: How do you compare the MLS All-Star Game to the likes of the NFL, the MLB and the NHL versions? Each league has a unique take on it, but what makes MLS is all star game in particular special - and has MLS taken any inspiration from the other sporting leagues to develop the match?

DURANA: We always look at what other people are doing. And we recognize, as you know, that we're just 30 years old, 30 years in as a league, so there's people that have had considerable head starts on building things like their All-Star week and All-Star weekends. We feel strongly that we have one of the most competitive All-Star Games out there. It means a lot to players, even the Skills Challenge they want to win, and that's a really good product. We also have a full week of programming where we go in and really make a meaningful impact in the host community. We certainly admire what other leagues do and how they've been able to evolve and grow. But I think that the recipe of MLS versus Liga MX is unique in that we're able to take our best compete against another league's best, and that's just part of the benefit of being part of a global sport like soccer.

GOAL: What makes Austin the perfect host city for the event, and Q2 Stadium the ideal venue?

DURANA: Austin is one of the great soccer cities in the United States, Austin FC, I mean, they've sold out every single regular season playoff match at Q2 since their inception. So it's got an unbelievable fan base. It's also in the heart of Texas. The last All-Star Game in that state was in 2010 when MLS took on Manchester United, and it also happened to be Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez’s debut [for the Premier League side]. But, think about Texas as the host of MLS versus Liga MX All-Stars. I don't think we could write a better story. And the fact that it's at Q2 in a city like Austin, with the passionate fan base that they've been able to build over the years, we're really excited about it.