WVHooligan.com - MLS Blog » Don Garber

Unbalanced Schedule It is

Drew Epperley — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:43:30 +0000

No balance in the 2012 schedule for MLS. Can’t say I am shocked to hear this news today from Don Garber. I know folks won’t like it but they’ll have to live with it – for now.

Garber Says He Likes New Playoff System

Drew Epperley — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:14:35 +0000

Gotta love how he dances around the issues with the new playoff format. Again Don, it isn’t the amount of teams it is the format itself. It just isn’t good enough. The new format makes it competitive for many teams, sure, but does it make for a better MLS Cup at the end when the…[continue reading]

Garber On Possible New MLS Cup Format

Drew Epperley — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:02:28 +0000

Higher seed hosting the MLS Cup? Sounds like it could be a real possibility when you hear MLS Commissioner Don Garber talk like this. My bet, it happens when the league gets to 20 clubs but who knows, maybe it will happen this year.

$100 Million Price Tag On NY Expansion Team

Drew Epperley — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:00:59 +0000

I meant to do more with this quote yesterday but I was a little busy. Anyways, MLS commissioner Don Garber finally put a price on the long-rumored 20th MLS club in New York.

That price, $100 million big ones. Wowzers.

Few Good Minutes With Don Garber

Drew Epperley — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 02:15:57 +0000

MLS Commissioner Don Garber spoke to the media tonight here at the FC Dallas-New York Red Bulls match. A few interesting nuggets from the commish, one for me being that expansion is no longer the top priority with the league. He also mentioned that there were several suitors for the club in New York but…[continue reading]

Garber’s Discussion With SBJ/SBD On Expansion, TV, And More

Drew Epperley — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:31:09 +0000

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber was at the AT&T Sports Franchises and Facilities conference, hosted by SBJ/SBD. He took part in a little Q&A and offered up some interesting nuggets on expansion and TV ratings.

On expansion:

We are focused on New York. It’s a big market. The Cosmos have a great legacy and they have a great soccer history that so far the Red Bulls have not been able to tap into. For the most part Red Bulls fans come from New Jersey. The challenge for [the Cosmos] is to build a stadium, and as we all know New York City is not the easiest place to build. And we’ve put a high price on the 20th team. In 2007 we were asking around $7 million, and last year [teams] sold for $40 million. This could be in the $75 to $100 million [range].

Dang. That’s a hefty price-tag for a new club but honestly we shouldn’t be shocked by that number. Plus it is a team presumably in New York, so driving up the expansion fee makes a little more sense in that manner to me.

On the Wilpon family:

We have talked with [the Wilpons] about MLS. They have a good situation when it comes to stadiums in the site around Citi Field. Willets Point is one of the largest pieces of undeveloped property in New York.

Like I’ve said before, it all comes down to stadiums in New York and if the Wilpons have the land for it, MLS needs to find a way to do something with them. I have a small hunch that before long the Wilpons and the Cosmos will get together and iron out some stadium details for a MLS team. But the clock is ticking on that.

On TV Ratings:

I had lunch with [an NHL friend] and we spoke about their deal with NBC and Versus, and talked about our situation as a challenge and an opportunity. We have to convert those fans who are part of the global game. We are similar to the NHL; however they are not competing with Russian hockey like we are competing with the Premier League. We need a product to convert those fans, and we do it by having good stories in local markets and better promotion. You think about what has driven hockey, it was strong local teams that had great local TV deals and passionate supporters. The soccer audience is big. Chelsea versus Manchester United had 550,000 viewers this year.

Good point about the NHL where MLS is and isn’t like them here. MLS has a lot of things to go up against, they are a small fish in a very large pond. The NHL is just a big fish in a smaller pond, at least in a hockey-sense (in a US sports landscape they’re a smaller fish).

A lot of interesting points here by Garber. He had some other interesting quotes about Kansas City and their stadium. For the full article, click here.

SuperLiga Out, WFC In

Drew Epperley — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:08:11 +0000

Yesterday’s press conference about the World Football Challenge finally shed some much needed light on the fate of the summer tournament between MLS and FMF, otherwise known as SuperLiga. MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that the new WFC tournament came together because of SuperLiga, while the CONCACAF Champions League was more of the determining factor to not continue SuperLiga.

“This is a transition,” Garber told MLSsoccer.com. “SuperLiga was a great tournament which served its purpose during its time.

“CONCACAF got more and more committed to a continental tournament with the Champions League, which we’re very supportive of. It has delivered the value we intended [in SuperLiga] to put our teams against the best competition in this region.”

There, finally, the announcement we’ve been waiting to hear. SuperLiga is no more. While Garber said the new WFC tournament is meant to be more of an additive to SuperLiga rather than a replacement, we all can read between the lines on that one. The WFC will certainly bring in better clubs, which will bring in higher gate numbers for the clubs and hosts involved. This was always a struggle with SuperLiga and the league and it’s clubs had to have seen that over the course of the tournament.

It seems now that the summers will be packed with a couple MLS clubs hosting teams like Barcelona and Manchester United instead of playing teams down in the middle of the FMF standings. In a way you want your clubs to be able to beat up on FMF clubs at any point but there is something to be said about playing competition like Barcelona once in the summer. I’m fairly sure most fans and players would agree, they’ll get more out of a game with Barcelona than they would a game with Atlas.

New York Still Favorite For 20th Club But..

Drew Epperley — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:50:45 +0000

For a while now you know I’ve been pumping New York as club number 20 down your throats nearly as much as Major League Soccer has. But now it seems there could be a twist in the story. While Commissioner Don Garber still says a second team in New York is the main candidate it seems recent comments made by him suggest the league could be pulling away from favoring New York as much as they have.

A lot still rests on how the New York Cosmos will work within the league structure.

“The Cosmos today are a very exciting re-launch of a retro brand,” Garber said. “But it’s very preliminary. We need to get further with them about how they would get capitalized, how they would fund a privately financed stadium, their view on the MLS system which requires a real committment to the single-entity concept. The best way I can describe it is that discussions are prelminary but positive.”

Now Fred Wilpon and his group could have something to say about it. From the sounds of things MLS is either just interested in the land that the Wilpons own or they want the Wilpons involved with the Cosmos re-launch in some fashion.

“I have been talking with Wilpons for a number of years,” Garber said. “These guys are deeply committed to being partners off the field and competiiors on the field. There is a real commitment to growing the sport.

“I think Wilpons fit very well with our owners in terms of who they are and their values and ehics. I don’t think whole story has been told about them. I believe they’d be a great ownership in MLS and think they have a pretty darn good site for a stadium.”

Honestly, based on how much debt the Wilpons are in right now over the whole Madoff scandal, the league would probably be wise to stay away from them as owners, no matter how good of an owner Garber believes they’ll be in the league.

For the first time in a while though Garber mentions that New York is a high priority even if it isn’t at number 20. Weird. He then threw out a boat load of cities that are interested in a team. Among the cities that Garber mentioned as possible contenders were Atlanta, San Diego, Arizona, Orlando, Las Vegas and Detroit.

“It’s possible that another market could jump in there,” Garber said in Friday’s annual media teleconference call leading up to First Kick. “If that happens, we’ll just move our efforts and our plans in New York to a later time period.”

As for Miami, his comments are pretty much in line with what I’ve been saying on here for over a year now.

“We’ll run down to Miami and Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “I would lvoe to be there. I just don’t think they have the support to be viable right now.”

A lot still needs to happen for a second club in New York and thankfully members of the media pushed Garber pretty hard today on that subject. At the end of the day fans out there have to realize that Garber and the league will ultimately do what is in the league’s best interest as far as finding that next expansion market. Obviously the league is interested in expansion beyond 20 clubs, something I’ve mentioned before will happen (I firmly believe they’ll expand to 24).

(H/T to Jeremiah Oshan over at SBNation for grabbing these quotes during the media call earlier today. He’s a life saver!)

Garber Sits Down With AOL’s Fanhouse

Drew Epperley — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:27:30 +0000

I hyped up one Brian Straus article the other day and today I’m going to pimp another one. Straus was able to sit down with Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber for a long, in-depth interview earlier this week. If you haven’t taken a glance at the entire thing you should do so, its well worth the read.

I wanted to point out a few interesting quotes from the article and give you my thoughts on the answers Garber gave. I thought Straus did an excellent job at posing some tough questions to Garber and it was interesting to see him go into some PR speak and try to avoid certain questions.

Regarding Playoff Format:

Our goal would be to have a long-term format in 2012. The objective in 2011 was to make a decision that we believe will at least emphasize the regular season more so than any of the other options that we looked it.

By rewarding the top finishers — the Supporters Shield winner and the top finisher in the other conference — with a game against a wild card team that had fewer points. Rather than keep those teams in the conference, having those teams regardless of conference play against the Supporters Shield winner and top finisher in the next conference. At the end of the day, we believe this format will prioritize the regular season.

My two cents: Playoffs are here to stay no matter which way we look at it. I’m good with that too. With Garber as Commissioner we’ll never see the Conference structure go out of the picture. It just won’t happen. Still, the way the playoffs are formatted with the two-legged semifinals series after having only single elimination games before and after them, make the playoffs still seem like a step away from where they should be.

Tighter Schedules, SuperLiga, CCL:

We have a slightly longer season. We may or may not have SuperLiga going forward. That’s a decision we’ll make shortly. There was very little schedule congestion caused by the additional games. We believed it was time for us to extend our season. We have a very short season. We have some players who believe they need to play elsewhere to stay in shape, to come back in form for the MLS regular season. We continue to look at conforming with the international calendar. The way to start on that is, we’ve got to have a longer season. The best way to have a longer season is to have more games.

My two cents: First of all the writing is clearly on the wall about SuperLiga. It just won’t happen this year. Too many questions and scheduling issues surround it. With expansion meant expanding the schedule a bit, we knew this would happen eventually and quite honestly with the roster expansions too, teams can and will be able to handle it.

On Beckham:

I believe the David Beckham signing will be viewed as one of the historic milestones in MLS history. He elevated the exposure and credibility of this league in ways that we would not have been able to do at that time without a signing of that magnitude. Financially it was a deal that made sense for us. Our television ratings grew when David was playing for the Galaxy. The anticipation and excitement around the league, the media attention, all escalated. It’s hard for anybody to argue that it wasn’t a good signing and an important thing for the development of the league. That’s not commissioner’s speak. That’s fact.

Does it disappointment me that he trains with Tottenham (after the Galaxy opened preseason camp)? Yes it does. Was I supportive of his desire to play for Milan on loan so he could prepare for the World Cup? I wasn’t pleased with it. But we did it to support a guy who was important to the league and someone who had made an important commitment to us. In retrospect, would we make the same decision? I don’t know. But certainly, on balance, this was a very successful signing and something that I think will go down in our history as a real important part of driving the league’s success. It’s inarguable.

Most players are keeping in shape and are on vacation during the offseason, whether it’s in Major League Soccer or any other league. That’s the way our contracts are structured. He wants to train and stay in shape. That’s not a bad thing. It’s only something that I believe becomes a challenge for us when that training impacts his role for the team that has him under contract, the L.A. Galaxy. AEG allowed him to train, the owner of the team allowed it, and said, “You’ve got to get back when it’s time to get down to business.”

My two cents: Long comment for sure but a very interesting one indeed. I’ve always felt the league was a bit upset with the way Beckham has played them over the last couple years with his loan stints in Europe. I’m with him in the thought that the signing was still a very important one in the league’s history. The doors his signing opened up for the league are still being measured and will continue to be so for years to come.

Beckham owning a club and Expansion in general:

I would assume that when he’s done playing he will act on his option, and we look forward to working with him on that.

We have been very focused on our 20th team being in New York. We’re not close to being done with that. But it still remains our goal, and therefore the other markets that we remain in discussion with will come in as team 21 or beyond.

My two cents: With Beckham not able to own a club in NY or LA, the options are limited for him and his group. I know where some fans would like him to go, I got a hunch it won’t be there though. The league is still holding strong to getting the Cosmos or some New York club in as the 20th team.

Rebranding:

The clubs are recognizing that they need to be locally connected, relevant sports teams playing the world’s game. Part of that is how they brand and position themselves. The move to international branding is not something that I think diminishes their value as American sports teams. I’m totally okay with that. In fact, I’d rather have names like FC Dallas than the “Burn”. I’m not sure what a “Dallas Burn” is. When we think of brands, does it resonate as a soccer brand? If it could be the name of a lacrosse team or a college sports team and it doesn’t really resonate? Than I struggle as to how effective that brand can be.

My two cents: I posted this over at BigDSoccer.com earlier this morning. I find it great to hear that he thinks having a “FC” over a “Burn” makes more sense for the league. I know some folks hate the whole FC/SC thing in soccer but it is apart of the culture of the game. Hearing that some rebranding that has gone on in the league doesn’t diminish the value of the club is also positive to hear. It is pretty amazing to think that out of the original ten clubs only two have the same logos left (Columbus and New England).

Major Announcement Set For Tomorrow

Drew Epperley — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:36:33 +0000

So MLS is holding a media teleconference tomorrow afternoon as commissioner Don Garber, LA Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan and New York Red Bull striker Thierry Henry all join together for it.

Its being dubbed as a “Major Announcement”, whatever that means. Only thing that comes to my mind is a new TV deal that will be a blockbuster deal for the league. That or something out of left field like a new tournament (yuck), or even crazier the league’s own TV network (highly unlikely). It could also be news of the league schedule but I doubt that will come out until next week. The last thing that comes to mind is a new playoff structure.

We’ll find out more tomorrow at 3:30pm ET. Once the details come out I’ll be sure to let you all know here.

What do you think it will be?