MLS and its Commissioner Don Garber have come a long way in 10 years, writes Sport Business Journal’s Tripp Mickle, who reminds us that when Garber was named to the league’s top post in 1999, “the soccer press didn’t think he would last 10 months. He had no soccer background, attendance was in decline, two teams in Florida were on the verge of contraction, and the four-year-old league was hardly acknowledged in the national sports landscape.”
But here Garber sits a decade later “fretting over the behavior of the world’s most recognizable soccer player” and debating on which two cities will be lucky enough to be the next to join a league that “now boasts 15 teams, expansion fees worth more than $30 million, a handful of international soccer stars, and collects broadcast fees from ESPN, Fox Soccer Channel and Univision.”
So how did he and the league get there? “Whether it was standing up to a bully in eighth grade or a billionaire in the MLS boardroom, courting a new ownership group, or contributing to a team ticket sales meeting, he has demonstrated an unwavering self-assurance and democratic approach to people that has driven his ascent to the global soccer stage. And for him, it all comes down to character,” answers Mickle.