MLS Commissioner Don Garber spoke to the media on the eve of the 2002 season. Garber emphasized the five key areas MLS is concentrating on: (1) the game on the field, (2) stadium development, (3) internationalization of the game, (4) Hispanic market; (5) and youth market. Key updates: no McKinney stadium for the Burn, deal to have the Hunt Sports Group operate the Burn will hopefully be finalized soon, talks with FIFA to have Sept. 11 memorial match in New York or Washington, Garber added that Columbus is now profitable thanks to Crew Stadium and MLS season-ticket sales are up 5 percent. Garber’s opening comments: “We are very excited about the start of our season. It is a World Cup year and we are encouraged by the progress of the U.S. National Team, a team that has many of our players as stars. We very much look forward to what we hope will be a successful World Cup for the U.S. National Team and our ongoing and continued involvement with that tournament.” “Many of you know that the League, through Soccer United Marketing (SUM), is the host broadcaster for the English broadcast rights here in the United States. Our team led by Mark Abbott and Mike Cohen have been working very closely with ABC and ESPN on finalizing a production format for those games, shooting various player features and working on scheduling a variety of other things that will link our League on a day-to-day basis with the World Cup. Very importantly we will deliver the highest quality World Cup programming our audience has ever seen.” “Our focus will always be the game on the field. Clint (Mathis) and Landon (Donovan) are on this call and probably best represent how encouraged and excited we are about the great young players that are in our League and performing on our national team. As a result they will get international exposure for their involvement in the World Cup. These guys are playing every weekend before and after the World Cup and our fans have an opportunity to see some of the greatest soccer players in this country as a result of their development in MLS.” “Developing players will continue to be an area we focus heavily on. It is something we are spending an enormous amount of time on, as we work with our coaches, the U.S. Soccer Federation, and the USL. It will continue to be our No. 1 priority as we go through our planning for the years to come.” “I have said this before and I’ll say it again, but another key to our success is directly related to getting our teams in appropriate environments. The newest facility that we broke ground on in Los Angeles will take soccer to another level in this country. The commitment of our investors will be reinforced with new homes for our teams. We hope that the L.A. groundbreaking will be the first of many stadium announcements that we will make this year.” “Today, we will officially say that discussions with McKinney, Texas, are over. We will find a stadium resolution for the Dallas Burn, but it won’t be in McKinney. We are committed to putting together a soccer complex that will include a soccer stadium and a plethora of soccer fields that we will take around to communities throughout North Dallas in places like Allen and Richardson, as well as throughout other cities in the Dallas area. We will find a place for our Dallas Burn to play and we are convinced that based on the popularity of this sport in that market, we will have a home for the Burn.” “We will continue to focus on the internationalization of our sport while tying into the international appeal of the game. We are planning to investigate a wide variety of tournaments and competitions. We are committed to finding an international tournament format that allows us to work in partnership with other entities. We are working on a different format for our All-Star game, with some of the options being our All-Stars playing against an international club team.” “We have had positive discussions with FIFA, lead by Alan Rothenberg, who is representing the League, to bring the World Cup Champion over to plan an exhibition against the World All-Stars that we hope will take place in New York on September 11. That’s a program that we think will celebrate world soccer’s commitment to the United States and the city of New York. It will be a fundraiser for the victims of the tragedies in September. We are also looking at having that event occur in Washington D.C. That idea has also received positive feedback from Sepp Blatter.” “We are excited about our national broadcast schedule on ABC and our five-year deal with the Disney family of networks. We believe we have the right formula and mix of games on both networks. Soccer Saturdays will continue for five years and the ESPN2 games are in an exclusive window without any competing games.” “Our continued involvement in the Hispanic market is important, whether that be with players or tournaments. The explosion of this market is something that we think we need to capitalize while continuing to plan for the future.” “Last, but not least would be the youth market. This is probably our biggest opportunity, both as it relates to attracting fans, but also developing young players for the future.” “Our goal is to make progress, in all areas. That means progress in our product, the competition on the field each week, with media coverage and progress with attendance. You shouldn’t expect attendance to change on a week-to-week basis, but we are hopeful that we can continue the success of last year. Season ticket sales are up about 5% right now and hopefully that will continue throughout the season.” “You all know that we have had a difficult offseason. We are confident that we will be able to capitalize on local involvement in all 10 markets. We announced yesterday that SVS&E and AEG teamed up to purchase the Earthquakes, with SVS&E President Greg Jamison joining our Board of Directors. We had also hoped to announce the finalization of an agreement with Hunt Sports to operate the Dallas Burn, but I’m confident that will be completed in the near future.” Garber on Soccer Saturday and television ratings: “We have a five-year deal with the Disney family of networks. We are not looking at exploding our ratings on a game-by-game or a month-by-month basis. Our goal is to have more people watching our games on television so that in six years when we need to renegotiate we have a more valuable commodity to generate greater revenues. We are counting on that happening over the next five years.” Garber on the MLS investors and potential future investors: “We have a very committed but small group of people who have a vision for what professional soccer can be in this country. One of our real goals is to expand the number of people with that vision. What we need to do to attract more people into that fold is to create a more profitable business. The thing that will drive that profitability is to have our teams in their own stadiums. The team in Columbus is making money. We are convinced that once we get facilities that are appropriate for our business more people will look at that and want to enter the fold. Our challenge is not to build these facilities on our own. No team or league in this country does that. Building soccer complexes is an enormous financial commitment.” Garber on stadium developments in Washington D.C.: “We know that United has contributed to the D.C. Sports Commission by keeping RFK open for these past six years. We believe that the Sports Commission needs to keep discussions open with AEG and D.C. for a new facility for that team, not only for the fans and team itself, but also while they are actively pursuing professional baseball team. Garber on the possibility of United playing in a temporary home: “Putting a baseball team in RFK would create real conflicts with our team. I don’t believe that we would be able to coexist with a baseball team. We are hopeful that the solutions is a new soccer-specific facility for D. C. United.” Garber on increasing international play: “This is about connecting closer to the international appeal of the game. This will result from credible competitions. There are two objectives there, one is to connect to the international appeal and also to connect with the Hispanic audience.” Garber on the need for a stadium in San Jose: “AEG and SVS&E are looking at ways to improve that stadium to make it even better than it is today. One thing that Spartan Stadium could provide for us would be greater revenue opportunities for the team. That said, Spartan Stadium is the appropriate size for our sport and gives us an intimate environment. Garber on a Spanish television agreement: “Both Univison and Telemundo have been good partners for our League. They have a sports package that don’t work with what we think is a good time for our games. We have had discussions with both networks to find a time to broadcast our games. Those discussions have not been finalized at this point. We are focusing on local TV and radio in all markets. We are convinced that we will be able to connect the Hispanic population through other local Hispanic media.” “I think that the League has enabled us to play on a consistently high level day-to-day. MLS has improved and so have the players who compete at the National Team level.” Garber on possible shift in the philosophy of signing Hispanic players: “Our philosophy is to convince our Hispanic audience to follow and care about a great local team that has tremendous stars, some of which will have Hispanic backgrounds and some of which will be American kids. We don’t believe that you can buy fan connection, but you have to earn it with good soccer. We believe our soccer is great and that we are doing well against Mexican teams. Instead of getting great players it is about improving the level of play.” Garber on Bruce Arena’s comments in the Washington Post: “I haven’t spoken to Bruce yet on that article. Bruce has been a huge supporter of this League, as we develop players and improve the level of play. I would like to think that they were taken out of context. One of our owners just put $ 100 million into bricks and mortar. The more our owners are committed to putting themselves into our League, the more likely that we are here to stay. We have a 5-year commitment to the League on TV and the World Cup. It is inconceivable to think that we aren’t here for the long haul. At times we will go through difficult times, but we are here for the long haul.” Garber on attracting international investors: “We are interested in investment from anyone, wherever they are based. We are interested in having developmental teams or players. It would be about their commitment to the U.S. market. We have had discussions with international soccer teams. They see the value here, including international touring, international competitions and tournaments. None of these relationships have been about players or player development. It would be more about their commitment to the market rather than putting their second team here.” Garber on having a limited number of investors: “We expect to have a larger group of investors. We would like to have more investors. When I first came into the League I expected to have more new people investing in MLS. But the fact that we still have a very committed group of investors gives us more stability.” Garber on attendance: “What we are trying to avoid is this year is the weekly watch on our attendance as a sign of our success or failure. This is a very different League that we have this year. We’re playing in one stadium that will have 10,000 seats to start, and 15,000 seats 1/3 of the way through the season in Chicago. That obviously is going to have an impact on our attendance, and our season is starting two weeks early. Our opening week will be a very different in March than it will be in the early parts of April. That being said, our goal is to grow our attendance this year, and we’re pretty confident that we’ll do all those things necessary to have more people come to our games. We want to get away from this sense that our success or failure is going to be driven by what happens each week. We are looking at what our attendance is going to be halfway through the season at All-Star break, and then we will be looking at it again at the end of the year.”