League Aims for Expansion, Development
Don Garber, Major League Soccer’s commissioner, gave little away Friday in a state of the league address that was optimistic in tone but threadbare in particulars.
Speaking in Columbus, Ohio, the day before the MLS All-Star game, Garber said he envisioned the 12-team league expanding to 18 teams, but that no further expansion would come before 2007.
When it does come, Toronto is in the forefront, and Houston, Cleveland, Milwaukee and St. Louis are “at the top of our list,” Garber said.
“Our ultimate goal is to be an 18-team league across the U.S. and Canada at some point in the future,” he said.
Relocation appears likely for the San Jose Earthquakes and Kansas City Wizards, although there was no confirmation of that from Garber, who said the goal is to try to keep both teams in those markets.
Garber and other MLS officials met prospective new investor-operators in Canada on Thursday, the same day that the league announced the sale of reigning champion DC United to a group of Washington businessmen for what Garber termed “the highest sale price ever for an MLS team,” a reported $26 million.
The league’s ownership group is more than double the size it was two years ago, Garber said, with AEG’s divestment of DC United reducing its interest to four teams and San Jose also set to be disposed of soon by AEG.
Speaking of the league’s founders, men such as Phil Anschutz, Lamar Hunt and Robert Kraft, Garber said they had “set out to establish a professional soccer league in this country that could lead the development of the sport at all levels.
“It wasn’t just about games,” he said. “It wasn’t just about wins and losses. It was about creating a soccer league that could get us to the point where we are today.
“They believed then, and I think they still believe today, that a viable and popular first division soccer league would be the driving force for the entire sport in this country.”
Garber pointed out that in 1996, when MLS was founded, the U.S. national team was ranked 34th in the world. Today it is ranked sixth, thanks in large part to players produced by MLS.
“We are quietly becoming a soccer power to be reckoned with,” he said.
Garber also expressed hope that league teams would be invited to participate in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s premier club competition.
Mexican clubs have been invited to take part in recent years, but there has not yet been a similar outreach toward MLS.
Garber said one short-term league goal is “to provide more resources and incentives to our teams to develop players” and is considering ways of allowing MLS teams “to retain the rights to those players they develop” instead of losing them in the annual draft.
He added that the league’s competition committee also is looking into the length and timing of its playing schedule. Options, he said, include having a split season and “reserving an entire month during the summer for international competition.”
