February 23 – Following in the footsteps of ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ and F1’s ‘Drive to Survive’, Apple TV+ in conjunction with the league and production company Box to Box has released ‘Onside: Major League Soccer’.
Produced by Executive Producer, Paul Martin, who has previously worked on ‘Drive to Survive’, ‘Break Point’, and ‘Full Swing’, the docuseries looks to create a series of compelling storylines, and narratives that give a deeper insight into the league for both the hardcore and novice fan.
“MLS was able to facilitate a level of access into the world’s most popular sport that I just don’t think you would get with some other leagues,” Martin said of Box to Box Films’ unique opportunity.
“For what we do, that was incredibly exciting and enticing.”
Like ‘Drive to Survive’ which was built on characters, most notably, Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner, Martin saw FC Cincinnati’s head coach, Pat Noonan as the kind of personality that will entice a wide variety of audiences to tune in.
“You need to find those individual stories that operate on different levels and have that subtext where people can say, ‘OK this is a story about Wilfried and Pat, but I can see it’s representative of something bigger going on within those clubs, within those cities and within those leagues,’” Martin said.
“It’s about finding stories that can operate on those levels.”
One story that Martin says he was avoiding is the 14-year-old whizz kid, Philadelphia Union’s, Cavan Sullivan.
“Fourteen-year-old kids don’t make for great TV in this kind of space,” he remembers thinking. “Then I sat down with his family and they’re incredible. Then you sit down with Cavan and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this kid has to be in this show. Whatever ‘it’ is, he’s got ‘it’ in abundance.’”
However, with such a ready-made storyline, the fly-on-the-wall camera crew came away with a portrait that will enable fans to understand Sullivan.
“It was certainly fun,” Sullivan said. “The Box to Box crew created a great environment with my family. We met them in one day, and they were already eating dinner with us. It was strange. There was a mic guy, two people in the house, guys coming in and out of the van in my driveway, but it was easy to adapt.”
‘Onside: Major League Soccer’ premiered last weekend with the first episode free on #MLSSeasonPass, other episodes will be hidden behind the AppleTV+ paywall.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at oc.ll1740377959abtoo1740377959fdlro1740377959wedis1740377959ni@of1740377959ni1740377959m