Don Garber speaks with the NY Times Soccer Blog

[VPjr]

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/qa-mls-commissioner-don-garber/

[piltdownman]

Q: Back to expansion for a second. How many teams can the league add and still remain healthy?

A: It doesn’t make much sense right now to speculate on how big we can be someday. We’ll have two new teams in 2011, and we’d like to add two more sometime thereafter, but there’s no timetable. After that, we’ll take a step back and assess where the league and the sport is in this country.

From a character like Garber, does anyone else take that to mean two in 2011 and two more in 2012?

[CanadianSoccerFan]

Surprised there's not more reaction on this one with this subtle bash on the Champions League and Montreal fans. Very un-Garber of him. Seems like he's getting a bit fed up with the "USL is kickin' your ass" talk.

quote:"And I know some fans and the media are up in arms over certain things we have no control over. Our SuperLiga has been a wild success. So along comes the Concacaf Champions League, which we have no control over. The fans scream and yell and the media looks at our teams not performing well, but what are we supposed to do? Our teams have to decide what’s more important to them. So we are left to plow along, take our lumps and stay steady and strong. Then people up in Montreal look at what the U.S.L. teams have done in the Champions League and wonder why they should even want to be in M.L.S. But it’s big for them, not as big for us."

[VPjr]

quote:Originally posted by CanadianSoccerFan

Surprised there's not more reaction on this one with this subtle bash on the Champions League and Montreal fans. Very un-Garber of him. Seems like he's getting a bit fed up with the "USL is kickin' your ass" talk.

i found some of "the Don's" comments quite shocking too. I'd like to know who within MLS sees Superliga as more important than the CCL? My guess is that the players and clubs would be FAR more interested in being the CONCACAF representative at the FIFA World Club tourney rather than killing themselves to win this silly Superliga title. It seems that Garber is really saying that Superliga is very important to him and the stuffed suits in New York because they control it whereas they have no control over CCL so its not important as a result.

[Richard]

The CCL is not an American creation and can't possibly be as important as something that is. I also find his disdain for the way 'foreign' leagues operate versus the 'American way' rather offputting. He seems to think that MLS needs to reinvent the wheel so to speak... the fact that other leagues around the world have been operating far more successfully and for eons longer than MLS is evidently lost on Don Garber.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

quote:Originally posted by piltdownman

From a character like Garber, does anyone else take that to mean two in 2011 and two more in 2012?

You could also read it as two more when the New York Mets are ready to take the plunge based on the other answers. I doubt they would actually turn down any strong bids just to comply with a preset timetable, however.

[tmcmurph]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2008/08/superligas_money_issues.html

"According to the tournament format, players on an MLS team that wins the title are to share $150,000 and players on an MLS runner-up side split $100,000. So essentially the Houston and New England players have decided to pool the $250,000 and distribute it equally, regardless of the result. This move comes amid union discontent that only 25 percent of the advertised $1 million SuperLiga grand prize goes to the players"

So a $6k bonus to each player after how many games? A $1 million prize and 1/4 goes to the players. Gee, I wonder where the rest goes?

"FIFA has increased the prize money by £500,000, with a total of £8million now up for grabs. The champions will take home £2.5m, the runners-up £2m, the third-placed side £1.25m, the fourth-placed £1m, the two fifth-placed teams £500,000 and the seventh-placed team £250,000."

So it looks like Don is flogging a dead horse. FIFA WCC has a with a $16 million payout and the MLS SuperLiga has a $1 million.

No word on the player/club ratio FIFA WCC. Anyone know?

[tmcmurph]

"We’re trying to schedule away from as many international dates as we can, but it’s an impossibility to schedule away from them all."

Ah progress, albeit minor and bloody obvious, but progress all the same [8D]

[Guest Jeffery S.]

First, regarding bonuses. The players have to negotiate them before the competition begins, before the season starts. Most clubs in the world set out a general overall bonus structure, beyond individual contracts, for all squad members, before the season starts. At MLS they clearly do not do that.

As for international dates, there are only 10 official dates over a year, two friendlies. Of the ten dates the first, in late March, and the last, this week, need not affect MLS scheduling. That leaves six, in early June, early September and early-mid October 2009.

Of the friendlies, one is in February, the other in August. But those are always negotiable of course.

So all MLS has to do is avoid three weeks over 2009 in their scheduling and they'll have gone a long way. So difficult?

Let's leave Gold Cup out of this, that is definitely a bigger and more difficult factor to work out, and does indeed affect MLS more deeply.

[Lorne]

Garber and the MLS is accepting bids from Miami and rejecting bids from Vancouver and Montreal..that is what I read inbetween the lines here. The MLS is proudly and unabashedly AMERICAN and good for them, but as a season ticket holder in Montreal, good riddance. The MLS league and structure are antithetical to the Impact; flashy and promising, but ultimately meh. Montreal and Vancouver will keep building solid Canadian soccer development programs and professional entertainment.

[Luis_Rancagua]

Here's the latest views on MLS expansion with Don Garber's question-and-answer interview with the New York Times:----------------------------------------------

Q: There has been much talk, and much written about the effect the economic downturn will have and is having on sports leagues. For M.L.S., it seems that the economic impact will be on your attempts to work with various municipalities to build new stadiums. You also have seven bids for two new teams that will start play in 2011, with fees set at $40 million per team.

A: The economy will affect us as we look to do whatever we can to weather the storm. We have to be smarter, more efficient. But I go to bed at night knowing our owners are committed.

How will the economy affect us? The obvious answer is sponsorship. Like all leagues, we will be under stress as companies struggle with their marketing expenditures. Soccer United Marketing, which delivers a lot of revenue to our league, will be challenged landing sponsorships for international games. It’s down to the consumer and ticket sales for all leagues will be tough.

On expansion, we had seven bid for two spots all at $40 million, which is $5 million less than our last team sale, Houston. I don’t expect any issues on expansion fees. That is not the key issue for us with expansion anyway — it is getting the right owner and the right facility.

Q: On the expansion front, after having signed a strategic partnership with Barcelona, it seems like the joint bid for a team in Miami that involved Barcelona is a slam dunk.

A: We’ve got meetings of the expansion committee that will sit down with our board of directors at M.L.S. Cup in Los Angeles. We have had some presentations from the folks there and we’ll try to go through our analysis. I think they have taken it to the next level in Miami and it is a compelling aspect to the whole concept. I’m on my way to Miami this week to tour the stadium and meet with Marcelo Claure.

Q: There has been some talk that some of the seven bidders are balking at the $40 million expansion fee. True?

A: Again we do what have to do. We have an expansion price and have had multiple bidders submit plans. They know that the price is the price. If we can’t get our price, we would postpone making that decision. We are absolutely convinced that several groups will be viable to for the next round of expansion. We are seeking strong potential owners in the right markets with the right facility plan and who believe in the increasing value of our teams.

Q: Last year, you spoke in public about your hope that the owners of the New York Mets would bid for a team. But they are absent from the current round. What is the story of that situation?

A: I never, ever expected the Mets to be involved in this round. They can’t have a new stadium ready for in 2011. We continue to meet with the Mets as they look at possibilities in Willets Point. I never expected them to be ready to play in 2011. Where would they play? And the redevelopment project at Willets Point could take years. We don’t need to do it faster, we have to ensure that what we do is strategic and involves good decision making.

[Guest Jeffery S.]

In another MLS expansion thread I posted that I'd heard Barça board members were in Miami this week, so that comment about him meeting with Claure explains that: Barcelona will have execs present as they visit the stadium and talk about the project.

So it is clear that they are lobbying hard: has Garber been to Vancouver? Have they invited him yet, done a bit of hospitality?

Everyone knows that the real way to win a bid is to wine and dine those making the decisions. But in Canada we are a bit naive about this, because we think that decision making should be done objectively on the basis of serious criteria. How silly of us!

[VPjr]

^ as I said in a previous thread, people who are far more connected to this expansion stuff than I am have told me that the clear front runners right now are Vancouver and Miami. Both are willing to pay the full $40million. Both have high profile ownership. Both give the league the geographic balance they desire. Both have adequate stadium plans that can be ready by 2011.

I'm not prepared to put my money on it but I'm becoming more and more convinced that these are the 2 teams that will be granted franchises

[Vancouversoccerman]

I know that Don Garber has been to Vancouver and has met with the Vancouver ownership group several times. The Whitecaps have a pretty close relationship with MLS management that goes back a few years. Whether that has any bearing on the final outcome remains to be seen.

He wrote me an e-mail a few months ago that repeated the MLS mantra that expansion bids would be judged on three criteria: Ownership, Stadium Situation, and Fan base. Without going into a lot of detail, he also said he has great respect for what the Whitecaps have accomplished in the soccer community here. Once again, I wouldn't read anything into it, but you never know what matters and what doesn't until the end.

[tmcmurph]

I was hoping for Van and Mtl but the more I see of the Miami bid the more I think you are right about it being Van and Miami. Miami is in one of those prime TV markets that MLS drools over and has the Barca name associated and good financial backing but their fan support has been anaemic at best over the years. Montreal has fans, a built in rivalry with TFC and a French/Euro/immigrant culture.

That second one will be close. Here's hoping it is Montreal. If not this round then definately next.

[Tuscan]

Assuming that Barca fully backs the Miami bid, I would say they are a shoe-in without question. Unfortunately for Montreal, Vancouver will offer Western Canadian representation, and will offer a derby situation for Seattle. I just don't think the time will be right for the Impact in '09 when the decision is made.

I agree with the idea that Garber is frothing at the mouth to see another team enter the league in New York. He has talked about another New York side, and the Mets, in other interviews and reports that have been released already, so I only see it as a matter of time.

I'm surprised that he made any mention of relegation and promotion. The way it looked in that interview, I don't see the creation of a second division in his line of sight. Also, he seems content with keeping the two conferences instead of creating a single table, and I suppose not changing the conference format and keeping away from any type of promotion/relegation system go hand-in-hand.

I love the fact that we have professional soccer, at the moment stable in fact, in North America. It's exciting to think about how much room there is in Canada, and North America in general, for soccer to expand. Hopefully Don knows what he's doing, and we steer clear of another NASL-style collapse.