MLS Commissioner Don Garber gave a ''state of the league'' address on Aug. 2, on the eve of the MLS All-Star Game.
Don Garber:
This is now my third ''State of the League'' address and I can't think of a better place to deliver it: The spectacular Maryland Soccerplex — the host to last week's U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships — and home to the first-ever Pepsi MLS SoccerFest.
This facility says a lot about how far soccer has come in this country, and this weekend gives us a unique opportunity to celebrate that progress, and showcase the best our sport has to offer.
First off, I'd like to thank the media for being here today. Each year the quality and quantity of our coverage improves and we appreciate your efforts to ensure our fans get the coverage they deserve.
Keep it up folks — your audience is screaming for it.
The Pepsi MLS All-Star Weekend kicked off earlier this morning with a visit to the White House and a memorable reception with President Bush. It's not often you get an audience with the Commander-in-Chief and it speaks volumes about how far soccer has come in our great country. Later today, these fields will be teeming with kids playing the game they love, connecting with the heroes they aspire to be, and dreaming about the kind of men and women they can become.
Yes, the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area is a special place for soccer in this country. And no place will be more special than RFK Stadium tomorrow at 3:30 pm when a live national television audience will tune in to ABC Sports to watch the seventh annual Pepsi MLS All-Star game.
We're excited about the format for this year's match that pits the MLS All-Stars against a U.S. men's national team for the ages. It will be an exciting, competitive game, as the young guns of MLS combine with savvy internationals to take on the pioneers and future stars of modern American men's soccer.
This game will celebrate all that is great about our league and our sport. Young American and international stars like Taylor Twellman, Tim Howard, Carlos Ruiz, Marco Etcheverry and Carlos Valderrama.
Players who helped establish the sport here and created moments that will be remembered in the annals of our sport for all of time, players like Tony Meola, Alexi Lalas, Cobi Jones and Chris Henderson. And of course, a few guys who thrilled our nation in Korea, bringing soccer to the forefront of America's consciousness for three weeks in June.
I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Federation leadership — USSF President, Dr. Bob Contiguglia, EVP Sunil Gulati, Secretary General Dan Flynn and Coach Bruce Arena for bringing American soccer perhaps it's most celebratory moment.
I would also like to thank each of you for your support in pulling this weekend together. We couldn't have done it without you.
The 2002 World Cup was a seminal event for soccer in this country. While we have repeatedly stated and firmly believe that there are no shortcuts on our path to becoming a true soccer nation, the U.S. team's trip to the quarterfinals certainly was a crucial step in the right direction.
In Korea, American soccer made a statement — and the world listened. We're here, we're ready to compete with anyone in the world and we will be back.
We are the leading soccer nation in our confederation, at the international and club levels, and we command respect.
Importantly, our league made a statement as well. Lead by the ''MLS StrikeForce'' of Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Mathis, Josh Wolff and Brian McBride — not to mention defensive pillars Eddie Pope, Jeff Agoos and Pablo Mastroeni, and ''MLS Alumni'' Brad Friedel, Tony Sanneh and Frankie Hejduk — we've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Major League Soccer, in seven short years, can and has produced world-class talent.
Off the field, the World Cup was also a great success for Major League Soccer and our sister company, Soccer United Marketing. As the owner of the U.S. English-language television rights to the World Cup we were able to attract 37 different advertisers to the table — selling out our inventory. These companies were rewarded with record ratings despite the fact that the games were on in the middle of the night.
In fact, the U.S.-Germany game was, without qualification, simply the highest-rated second-quarter program in the history of ESPN.
This success also drove record media coverage, with our players adorning the covers of Sports Illustrated (over Tiger Woods and the L.A. Lakers), ESPN The Magazine, USA Today and even doing a couple of fashion spreads. They held a regular slot on SportsCenter, the morning shows, the late-night circuit and MTV.
This team proved – once and for all – that America produces great soccer players – on and off the field.
I've been asked many times since the World Cup ended … how do you sustain this momentum? Candidly, you build it piece by piece, and it starts with players.
There is nothing more important to our league and national team than the continued effort to develop great soccer players. The Nike Project-40 program has been an incredible success to date, but we need to do much more.
We are currently working on a plan for the development of reserve squads for each MLS team, in addition to working with U.S. Soccer to increase the number of competitive opportunities for our young players. These reserve teams will supplement the excellent youth clubs and organizations that already exist in this country.
We also need to provide opportunities for the enormous number of Hispanic kids who are outside the reach of the current player development system in this country. Our investment in those youngsters will connect us with their communities, and, importantly, provide the league with a steady stream of talented young athletes.
This is not something we intend to do alone. It is another example of our desire and ability to provide the resources and expertise to support and grow the sport at all levels in the country.
Good players lead to good soccer
For the first time in the U.S. national team's history, a Division I professional soccer league made up of predominantly home-grown talent was in place for the entire four-year World Cup qualification cycle. MLS has provided the [U.S. menÆs national team] with an ever-widening pool of professional talent that is hardened and tested on MLS fields every day — fighting for roster spots and selection to the starting eleven. This competition for spots not only makes our national team better but inevitably makes our league better.
The United States now boasts the dominant national team in the CONCACAF region, winning five of the last six games against Mexico, all since the birth of Major League Soccer. These wins equal the total number of victories against our southern neighbor during the previous 62 years!
MLS has proven to be the most dominant professional league in the region, winning two of the last three FC Champions' Cups, which the Kansas City Wizards are currently pursuing.
This international success raises our credibility both domestically and abroad. Expanding this platform will be an important strategic priority going forward. To this end, you will see MLS teams increasingly playing against the best teams from Mexico, Europe and South America. We are examining tournament concepts that will enable us to match up our teams against some of the best teams in the world in a meaningful and competitive way. International competition, in all its forms, will play a larger and more important role in MLS's future.
Switching gears, a bit, let's talk television.
We are in the first of a five-year deal with ABC and ESPN that includes both Major League Soccer and the World Cup. We continue to believe in the concept of destination viewing on MLS ''Soccer Saturday'' and have carved out exclusive windows on ESPN2. We've seen a 20 percent jump in ratings since the end of the World Cup and expect that trend to continue for the remainder of the season.
Locally, over 90 percent of our games are shown on live television and for the first time in MLS history one of our teams, the MetroStars, have a weekly pre-game and post-game show. The MetroStars' deal is the model for our League.
Their local game broadcast package on MSG has three times the hours devoted to the team than their previous deal. Their local games, by the way, out-rated the Devils and the Islanders, and are currently averaging 40-50,000 viewers per telecast.
Moving from our game on television, to our game live … Let's talk about attendance and stadiums …
Once again, we are making progress on the attendance front. We are averaging nearly 16,000 fans a game and are on course to register another year-over-year increase. As I've said many times, the goal is not to track numbers, but show progress. To grow the number of people who are actively engaged with our teams. And so far, we are doing just that.
Slowly but surely we are making progress on our critical stadium issues. This year, we opened CMGI field, the home of the New England Revolution and the site of the 2002 MLS Cup.
Next season, the Galaxy will begin playing in the spectacular new Home Depot National Training Center in Carson, CA. This $200 million dollar facility will also be the host for our 2003 marquee events — the MLS All-Star game and MLS Cup.
In New Jersey, we are awaiting final state senate approval for the state, county and private funding package for a new stadium for the MetroStars. That vote will take place in September and we are very encouraged by the support we have received from the Governor and other public officials.
We continue to make progress with our discussions with two specific communities in North Dallas. The tax incentive structure in place in Texas is perfect for the public/private partnership we need to have a new facility for the Burn. We expect to have an update in Dallas in the late fall of this year. We continue to forge ahead with discussions in Kansas City and here in the Capital Region.
Needless to say, the development of facilities for our sports continues to be a critical element to our success.
Fans and Stadiums are key to our next subject — Expansion
We need to expand our footprint — and we will — but it must be at the right time under the right circumstances. As I've stated before, we will expand when we have the right market, with solid local ownership and an appropriate facility, and not before.
We continue to seek investors willing to commit to the sport for the long-term, along with a public or private vision for a soccer-specific stadium.
This weekend, we have a contingent of interested investors joining us from Tulsa, Oklahoma and Cleveland, Ohio. In the past months, we have visited several new potential new MLS markets, including Toronto, Detroit, and San Antonio. We will not be expanding the League in 2003. We are hopeful to expand in 2004, though we have no specific dates in place.
Let's talk a bit about the 2002 season … As you all know, the defending champion San Jose Earthquakes are at the top of the table, and each of the remaining nine teams are within four points of each other, fighting to the finish for every playoff spot. With eight or fewer games remaining, no team this season has been able to string together three consecutive wins — there are no ''easy wins'' home or away in MLS.
Our overtime system has provided several thrilling moments, with 11 game-winning golden goals in the 29 games that have gone to OT this year. Of the 18 ties, only two have been scoreless, debunking yet another soccer myth.
I want to remind everyone, the roads from all 10 MLS cities lead to CMGI Field and Providence, Rhode Island, host city for MLS Cup 2002. Like tomorrow's game, our Cup will be shown live on ABC Sports across the country.
Lastly, we have a couple of exciting announcements on the commercial front.
The first such development is with Nike, who has been a partner with the League since the beginning and has recently renewed its commitment for another three years. I can't tell you how much this means to the League.
Yesterday, we announced that the world's leading security company, ADT, will become the newest sponsor of the League. This relationship speaks to the cross-over benefits between MLS and the World Cup media deals. ADT originally signed on as the ''Presenting Sponsor of World Cup Tonight'' and recently increased its commitment to include Major League Soccer as well.
Finally, I am thrilled to announce a new partnership with Radio Unica, the leading national Spanish Language radio network in the country. Radio Unica will produce a weekly MLS show on its network of owned and operated stations during its popular ''Unica en Deportes'' programming block.
The working title for the show is ''La Hora de MLS,'' or MLS Hour, and it will be supported by daily MLS updates on the network. Radio Unica will also be our partner in bringing MLS Cup to the Hispanic radio audience.
As the ''League for a New America'' and THE sport for Hispanic-Americans, we are excited about the exposure and credibility Radio Unica brings to our sport and I would personally like to thank and recognize Radio Unica's President, Mr. Jose Cancela, for his friendship and support.
In conclusion, this weekend is indeed a celebration of everything that is good about soccer in America. In a little over a decade we've gone from being a developing soccer nation, to a country where great players are developed, who play for great teams here and abroad, and can compete internationally against the best in the world.
While it would be nanve of me to suggest we don't have a very long way to go before we are a solid part of the sports culture in America,áI stand here more emboldened than ever about the prospects for our League and sport. Look around you. We are still very early in the process but look how far we've come.
With exploding youth programs, solid and expanding amateur leagues, a growing and supportive college system and a professional league that is driving the development of great future players — young men that kids throughout our country can idolize and hope to emulate.
Imagine what the next decade holds!
Thank you for your time and support. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Please e-mail me at mlsgarber@mlsnet.com.