MLS Commisioner Don Garber talks Cincinnati ASG, AppleTV deal, and more
Damon Gumbert
Commissioner of Major League Soccer Don Garber attended Sunday’s match in Cincinnati for the club’s 10 year anniversary. Garber was kind enough to speak to local media before the match, and I happened to be there. Instead of me writing about what he said and pretending like I know what I’m talking about, I figured it would be better for those who care enough to come to this website to just read the man’s words themselves. So, I hereby present to you the entire transcript of that media availability.
On FC Cincinnati showing how a smaller market can perform:
“FC Cincinnati is a small market that acts like a big market. You know, winning the supporter shield, signing with top players, having a state of the art stadium, having a rabid fan base. I remember attending the Red Bull match and they were in the USL, and this was a big time team from the very beginning, so, you know, when we think about the league, contrary to what most people think, we don't think about big markets and small markets. We think about high performing teams and teams that aspire to be high performing. and FC Cincinnati has been a high performer from the very beginning. So we're proud of everything that this clubs done.”
On what the next steps are for teams like FC Cincinnati:
“You know, I think it's the development outside. From the very beginning, the development was part of the vision. Jeff and I were talking earlier about the different stadium sites that we were looking at and this was the site we always wanted and this was the site they were able to deliver on, but rounding it out with the mixed use and being a focal point for the community. When I think of this club, it is a community based club. It's had support from the very beginning. So seeing how the team can help redevelop this city is what I'm very excited about. I think it was part of Carl’s original vision.”
On what he remembers from the early days of the club and how far it has come since:
“I remember the march to the match, in that first game here with Carl, Martha and Jeff and seeing that swarm of orange and blue and taking a picture, I remember us showing it at a board meeting and saying, you know, ‘We've arrived as a top flight professional sports league in soccer league.’
When you have that level of support, that lives in the community… I have a home in Florida, somebody that rents the house next to me as FC Cincinnati season ticket holder. I mean, the team is outside of this community and has a national awareness and recognition and that doesn't just happen by accident. I think it was part of the original plan and the original vision.
I remember that guy dressed up in that funny outfit in blue, that spandex outfit, that met me at the airport when I flew in, and I've got so many great memories, and you know, winning the supporter shield after a couple of struggling seasons. And that too, is part of a great journey. You know, it doesn't just always happen the way you want it, you've got to earn it, and this team has earned it on off the field.”
On the potential of Cincinnati hosting an MLS All-Star Game:
“We've committed to an All-Star Game to to this community, to the club, and it's just a matter of when they want it, how to organize the timing of it, but we've committed it from the very beginning. So we will have an all Star game here”
On potential to loosen roster restrictions and salary rules while maintaining a competitive balance:
“I mean, I think you answered the question the way we think about it. You know, having structure around the way the league is organized allows every team to be competitive, every fan in the beginning of the season to think they could win the supporter shield to win MLS Cup, they could perform well in international competition and in order to do that, you've got to support every team, regardless of their market size or regardless of, you know, how they're structured in terms of their own ownership group. I've always believed that, I will always continue to believe that. I think Cincinnati's proven that you can be a smaller market and win, that you can have the capacity to sign big name players, they've done with Denkey, and I think for MLS in where we are today in our journey to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world, being strategic about how we make decisions is going to be a big part of how we operate. Those aren't made by the commissioner. They're not made by the League office. They're made by owners who come together and manage this dynamic in a way that ensures everybody, you know, has an opportunity to win.
Continuing on keeping a competitive balance while promoting ambition within clubs:
“Yeah, well, you know, that's where their fans and ultimately, their market has to provide the pressure on them so that you deliver for everybody's expectations. You know, I believe that you earn championships, you don't have them based on who your ownership is or what market you're in. You got to make good decisions. You got to bring in Chris Albright at the right time. You got a higher Pat Noonan at the right time. And those decisions paid off. And every team has the opportunity. Chris was in major league as a player and was working at all the club. And Cincinnati hired him. And he started out to be great hire. Pat's been in the league a long time. He was an assistant. They hired him here. So I think every team succeeds or fails based on their own ambition and what decisions they make.”
On the AppleTV+ deal and how to make it more accessible to casual fans:
“The sports media landscape is going through seismic disruption. It is the biggest subject that all of us who've been in the industry a long time, are thinking about and managing through. Local television for all major sports is going through challenges as digital and streaming becomes kind of more important in sports consumption habits. The vast majority of our fans consume soccer digitally through streaming services, over 80% of them. We wanted to lean into that, we wanted to ensure that we had a global landscape. So when a team like Cincinnati is thinking about signing a global player, it's not just about the fans here, it's what this team means around the world, and we believe that still to be true.
Now, that being said, there are things that we can continue to do as we're in the beginning of this relationship to ensure that all fans have more access. Are there ways that we can provide more games in front of the paywall? Are there ways that our teams could have more rights to re-air games? How do we ensure we're pushing content, free content, to our fans, both locally, through team content production, but also through the league. I think we're in the beginning of this journey, and my guess is over time, we're gonna see some changes.”
On adding more content to the service to make the hefty price more worthwhile:
“There's quite a bit of content, not all of it is on season pass. Some of it is is available for free and much of it is available on club websites. So that's part of the story, is how do you let everybody know where all the content is in a world where not everybody is fully used to consuming content digitally through streaming services. So I think you'll see changes in in the short term, midterm and long term. I'm convinced that we are in the beginning of this transformation and in time, people aren't going to talk about it quite like they do today.”
On the success of the new League’s Cup format:
“So if, talk about audiences and ratings, our viewership for League’s Cup, our commercial revenue in League’s Cup, the excitement around it is at an all time high. So we're very bullish on the tournament. We, as a league continue to innovate. We had a format at the beginning, we thought maybe we could evolve that by having more MLS x Liga MX games and having those top four teams qualify in a quarter finals. We'll see how that goes. By the way, we're right in the middle of it, see how that plays out through the rest of the year. If it drives, you know, more interest then we'll stay with it, if it's something we think we need to change, we'll change it. But we love the league's Cup. We think it's a great tournament.
On concerns about rotation during League’s Cup:
“That's part of being in a world where you're constantly creating things are new. The NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, they don't have to think about these things because they're 100 years old. We're constantly thinking about ways that we could organize our competition, whether it's the league competition, how do we have new tournaments like the League's Cup? We've just evolved our playoff format. So I think that's what makes MLS so special.”
On if there are plans to keep the league at 30 teams or more expansion:
“Right now, we're sized right, our competition format’s right, but, you know, the sport's becoming more popular, MLS is becoming more popular, more tournaments, there's more pressure on our clubs, with the numbers of games that they're playing, the Club World Cup was a great tournament this summer, but came right in the middle of the MLS schedule, the World Cup will be here next summer, so I'm not quite sure what the future holds.
It's hard to imagine that MLS won't look a bit differently five years from now than it looks” today, but I was asked that question when we had 16 teams, 20 teams, and now we have 30, it seems right, but we'll see how it plays out in the future.”
