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Dear Don Garber: A letter from MLS fans

By on March 7, 2015

Dear Don Garber,

Congratulations! When you took the reigns of MLS in 1999 things weren’t looking good, but your guidance has led us to our first season with twenty teams — double than in 2001 — and helped the league reach a landmark twentieth season. Our future is only up from here.

We know it’s hard to run a professional sports league — just look at Roger Goodell’s struggles to keep the NFL controversy-free, and metaphorically fumbling in the process.  You’ve got an even harder job, having to bring stability to a league growing wildly in popularity; we can all sense the next few years will be critical for MLS’ growth.

Generally, we’re pleased with the direction you are taking the league. While we American soccer fans still suffer laughs from Europe, we like the fact that you are putting a distinctly American accent on the league. It makes MLS ours, and as we rise inevitably toward the world’s top leagues, all the abuse we’ve taken will be vindicated.

That said, things could be going a little faster: you have a right to pinch pennies, but no longer is the league just struggling to stay afloat. More money needs to be put on the table to achieve a faster growth trajectory. Without risk, there’s no reward, and sooner or later the league’s owners will have to take the risk anyway.

Regarding the league’s single-entity system and free agency, it’s understandable you’d like to keep the owners’ happy given the failures of the past, but at the same time the players — especially the everyday soldiers who lack a star billing — deserve respect and higher salaries. We want to continue to grow, and you’ve hit upon a successful formula by targeting a strategy that revolves around big-name DPs; however, it would be nice to spread the wealth further. Of course, being prudent, a salary cap and minimum wage could still exist, but with more generous thresholds and looser constraints.

Your vigilance, hardly willing to let anything go in the most recent CBA deals, only reinforces the view that your priorities lie in making money (or reaching break-even) immediately, at times at the expense of future league growth and potentially greater investment returns. In other words, what we want, in short, is more willingness to trust in the U.S. soccer demographic and that MLS can assume to take the risks associated with taking a longer view of the league’s trajectory and potential.

Sincerely,
Major League Soccer fans

Photo credit: 1906 Ultras

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.