The departure of Deputy MLS Commissioner Ivan Gazidis will leave a huge gap in the organization, writes Andrea Canales. Gazidis, unlike many of the league's functionaries, is an out-and-out soccer man who can crunch numbers but also knows the game and the league inside out.
While Commissioner Don Garber was a good appointment for the league for his "expertise in managing the American sports market," he doesn't "know soccer like Gazidis … not by a long shot." The two worked well together "partly because their skills were so in balance. Gazidis understood both the power and reach of the global game, but also how far MLS still had to go to reach that level. Garber, meanwhile, had the local connections in the U.S. scene that gave the league the clout it needed to advance."
Gazidis avoided politically complex changes in MLS such as relegation to the USL, but at the same time dumped unpopular innovations such as the shootout or overtime to decide tied games. No doubt, she continues, there are plenty of business people lined up to replace him, but Gazidis is "a soccer guy, first and foremost. It leaves me with some worry about who could fill that role now in MLS."