The Thursday Three: Snippets about and from Brad Stuver, Guilherme Biro, and Don Garber himself
It was a good night for the three Austin FC players involved in the game, and we also got a sense of how many people are really tuning in to MLS.
After several successive late nights of recording a Who's Who of MLS on smartphones and other recording devices, the throng of media who came to Austin — joining those of us who do it here all the time – is on the other side of the 2025 All-Star Game extravaganza. Without further fanfare, here's a look at some of the most salient quotes from last night.
'That gave me chills'
"The way that they welcomed their hometown hero, Brad, onto the field, honestly, that gave me chills," Sebastian Berhalter told Moisés Chiullan in the locker room free-for-all after the match, and indeed, one of the biggest clusters of media descending on a player happened when Brad Stuver held court after two successive nights — between his All-Star Skills Challenge performance and holding Liga MX's finest scoreless for more than a half hour of play — that raised his profile leaguewide.
Stuver learned he'd getting the starting nod about an hour before gametime, with head coach Nico Estévez mindful of minutes restrictions that some MLS teams relayed about their players — especially those active in an unusual (and unusually heavy) Friday night slate.
"I'm fortunate enough to have that every single game day," Stuver assessed. "Every game day feels just as special as the first time, like it doesn't wear off, and I'm just so grateful and just so thankful to be here in Austin and representing. I can't thank the fans enough for supporting me through everything."
The event gives players an opportunity to get to know each other better as colleagues, which Stuver said he appreciated. While it might create cognitive dissonance for fans to see an Austin player delighted by the actions of regular-season nemeses like Minnesota's Michael Boxall and LAFC's Denis Bouanga, Stuver's grateful for the perspective the experience provided.
"It was a great week getting to know these guys on a personal level," he said. "Obviously, going against the guys, Liga MX's best players, best strikers, I'm showcasing what I kind of knew about myself all along, that I can be in the elite level of this league. And for me, this isn't just the end-all be-all. It's not the final stop. For me, it's about staying consistent and trying to be better. And I mean, there's another All-Star Game next year, and I need to maintain this level to help my team."
A surprise for Biro
Estévez was faced with an issue on Wednesday morning. Definitive word finally came that the two Inter Miami entrants, Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba, wouldn't be participating in the game despite the fan votes and keen interest in seeing them. While MLS had already prepared by calling in extra attackers, the math on minutes that left backs in camp could play didn't add up to 90 — meaning that the squad needed another left back.
"It's a funny story," Estévez began, relaying that after a 9 am team meeting, he got word about Alba's absence — which is how Austin FC fullback Guilherme Biro not only became an All-Star, but got a coveted-by-fullbacks No. 2 on a jersey he'll get to keep forever.
"I think he was very happy and surprised when it was announced to the team and to him, and he helped us as another player, and I think that he did a good job," Estévez assessed.
Biro relayed (thanks to We Are Austin TV's Alex Sanabria doing Portuguese-to-English translation on the fly) that he got the call-up when he was in the middle of his own training session independent of the All-Star squad he'd suddenly been tapped to join.
"Once I received the call, I trained harder and then got out of training and prepared for this," Biro said of a whirlwind All-Star journey that lasted about 15 hours.
Finally, some numbers
There's definitely more to dig into on Commissioner Don Garber's address to media — which I'll get into as soon as possible in written or in podcast form — but one of the most newsmaking moments came when he gave insights on the audience that Apple TV's MLS Season Pass is generating.
"The Apple deal has grown," he boasted. "We're averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match. That's an increase of almost 50% compared to last year."
When called out later about it being the first time that the league has revealed such numbers, he quipped, "There you go, breaking news," before talking about a broadcast strategy that's still evolving — with less of a Saturday night logjam of matches this year compared to last year, but with the bulk of matches still in a time frame in which 17 of the most faithful groups of viewers aren't watching streams because they're instead watching their teams live in stadia.
"Remember that every single game is treated exactly the same on MLS Season Pass," Garber said. "So how do you evaluate the fact that we have games going on simultaneously, way more games going on simultaneously than any other league? So we're not putting one or two games on on a Saturday and then the next game on a Saturday or a handful of games regionally on a Sunday. Other leagues have a Game of the Week or the Game of the Night, or Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV. All of our games for the most part, are on Saturday, all up against each other.
"So if you have 120,000 unique viewers across that, that's a lot of people aggregated ... depending on what week it is, you've got over a million people that are unique viewers to a match. What we're struggling with, and I think what the industry is struggling with, is there has been no system to be able to evaluate how people are in a subscription service, how they're viewing and consuming games, and what is the metric that matters most? Is it average minute audience? Is it unique viewers? Remember, we're on a subscription service, which is very different than just having your games available on a linear network. So we and Apple have just been trying to figure it all out."
He promised more numbers and more drilldown in the future, but initial reactions on Bluesky were more alarmed than encouraged, with veteran satellite radio personality Jason Davis noting, "This is especially insanely bad when you consider that MLS on Apple TV is a GLOBAL product."
What was also puzzling was how those averages were assessed, and if viewing numbers from teams like Inter Miami and LAFC were grossly inflating those averages. Not to disparage St. Louis City SC and Charlotte FC, but I'm left wondering how consistently large an audience is really out there for teams like that, especially when they're competing in the same time slot with higher-profile teams that have more star power.
(Definitely more to come on all the Garber comments; while there was a lot of noncommittal commissionerspeak in there, there were also some hints of news coupled with a sense, from the reporters' questions, of what issues are most prevalant for the league's fans, defenders, and critics.)
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. You can comment here if you’re a subscriber, or reach out via Bluesky.
The Serbian center back joins as a U22 Initiative player ... taking up the last senior and international roster spots as the roster currently stands. (As the roster currently stands.)
As we reach this key juncture of the season, we look at the games remaining and the players who might be coming in and out during the summer transfer window
After several successive late nights of recording a Who's Who of MLS on smartphones and other recording devices, the throng of media who came to Austin — joining those of us who do it here all the time – is on the other side of the 2025 All-Star Game extravaganza. Without further fanfare, here's a look at some of the most salient quotes from last night.
'That gave me chills'
"The way that they welcomed their hometown hero, Brad, onto the field, honestly, that gave me chills," Sebastian Berhalter told Moisés Chiullan in the locker room free-for-all after the match, and indeed, one of the biggest clusters of media descending on a player happened when Brad Stuver held court after two successive nights — between his All-Star Skills Challenge performance and holding Liga MX's finest scoreless for more than a half hour of play — that raised his profile leaguewide.
Stuver learned he'd getting the starting nod about an hour before gametime, with head coach Nico Estévez mindful of minutes restrictions that some MLS teams relayed about their players — especially those active in an unusual (and unusually heavy) Friday night slate.
"I'm fortunate enough to have that every single game day," Stuver assessed. "Every game day feels just as special as the first time, like it doesn't wear off, and I'm just so grateful and just so thankful to be here in Austin and representing. I can't thank the fans enough for supporting me through everything."
The event gives players an opportunity to get to know each other better as colleagues, which Stuver said he appreciated. While it might create cognitive dissonance for fans to see an Austin player delighted by the actions of regular-season nemeses like Minnesota's Michael Boxall and LAFC's Denis Bouanga, Stuver's grateful for the perspective the experience provided.
"It was a great week getting to know these guys on a personal level," he said. "Obviously, going against the guys, Liga MX's best players, best strikers, I'm showcasing what I kind of knew about myself all along, that I can be in the elite level of this league. And for me, this isn't just the end-all be-all. It's not the final stop. For me, it's about staying consistent and trying to be better. And I mean, there's another All-Star Game next year, and I need to maintain this level to help my team."
A surprise for Biro
Estévez was faced with an issue on Wednesday morning. Definitive word finally came that the two Inter Miami entrants, Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba, wouldn't be participating in the game despite the fan votes and keen interest in seeing them. While MLS had already prepared by calling in extra attackers, the math on minutes that left backs in camp could play didn't add up to 90 — meaning that the squad needed another left back.
"It's a funny story," Estévez began, relaying that after a 9 am team meeting, he got word about Alba's absence — which is how Austin FC fullback Guilherme Biro not only became an All-Star, but got a coveted-by-fullbacks No. 2 on a jersey he'll get to keep forever.
"I think he was very happy and surprised when it was announced to the team and to him, and he helped us as another player, and I think that he did a good job," Estévez assessed.
Biro relayed (thanks to We Are Austin TV's Alex Sanabria doing Portuguese-to-English translation on the fly) that he got the call-up when he was in the middle of his own training session independent of the All-Star squad he'd suddenly been tapped to join.
"Once I received the call, I trained harder and then got out of training and prepared for this," Biro said of a whirlwind All-Star journey that lasted about 15 hours.
Finally, some numbers
There's definitely more to dig into on Commissioner Don Garber's address to media — which I'll get into as soon as possible in written or in podcast form — but one of the most newsmaking moments came when he gave insights on the audience that Apple TV's MLS Season Pass is generating.
"The Apple deal has grown," he boasted. "We're averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match. That's an increase of almost 50% compared to last year."
When called out later about it being the first time that the league has revealed such numbers, he quipped, "There you go, breaking news," before talking about a broadcast strategy that's still evolving — with less of a Saturday night logjam of matches this year compared to last year, but with the bulk of matches still in a time frame in which 17 of the most faithful groups of viewers aren't watching streams because they're instead watching their teams live in stadia.
"Remember that every single game is treated exactly the same on MLS Season Pass," Garber said. "So how do you evaluate the fact that we have games going on simultaneously, way more games going on simultaneously than any other league? So we're not putting one or two games on on a Saturday and then the next game on a Saturday or a handful of games regionally on a Sunday. Other leagues have a Game of the Week or the Game of the Night, or Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV. All of our games for the most part, are on Saturday, all up against each other.
"So if you have 120,000 unique viewers across that, that's a lot of people aggregated ... depending on what week it is, you've got over a million people that are unique viewers to a match. What we're struggling with, and I think what the industry is struggling with, is there has been no system to be able to evaluate how people are in a subscription service, how they're viewing and consuming games, and what is the metric that matters most? Is it average minute audience? Is it unique viewers? Remember, we're on a subscription service, which is very different than just having your games available on a linear network. So we and Apple have just been trying to figure it all out."
He promised more numbers and more drilldown in the future, but initial reactions on Bluesky were more alarmed than encouraged, with veteran satellite radio personality Jason Davis noting, "This is especially insanely bad when you consider that MLS on Apple TV is a GLOBAL product."
What was also puzzling was how those averages were assessed, and if viewing numbers from teams like Inter Miami and LAFC were grossly inflating those averages. Not to disparage St. Louis City SC and Charlotte FC, but I'm left wondering how consistently large an audience is really out there for teams like that, especially when they're competing in the same time slot with higher-profile teams that have more star power.
(Definitely more to come on all the Garber comments; while there was a lot of noncommittal commissionerspeak in there, there were also some hints of news coupled with a sense, from the reporters' questions, of what issues are most prevalant for the league's fans, defenders, and critics.)
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. You can comment here if you’re a subscriber, or reach out via Bluesky.
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