Photo by ISIphotos.com
MLS Commissioner Don Garber gave his annual State of the League Address on Monday and covered a wide range of topics, from expansion to the Collective Bargaining Agreement to the Designated Player rule.
Here are some of the highlights:
Garber downplayed talk about a potential player's strike or lockout, but was also clear in stating that MLS wasn't going to cave in its CBA negotiations simply to avoid a work stoppage.
"We, the league, will not agree to a CBA that will negatively impact our ability to continue to grow this sport in the United States and Canada," Garber said. "We've been very committed to doing that and quite successfully, I might add, for the last 14 years and we're not going to compromise any of the key issues that we're discussing confidentially within this agreement in order to avoid a stoppage."
Garber also revealed that MLS was in talks with Montreal about becoming the league's 19th team.
"We've had productive conversations with Montreal to be our 19th team," Garber said. "We have not put a timetable as to when that team would join the league if we're able to reach agreement with them. We do not have any active discussions going on of note for the 20th team and certainly don't have any timetable for the 20th team."
Garber revealed that MLS is considering having the host the MLS Cup Final be determined by regular season record.
"There's support here in the league to really strongly consider moving MLS Cup away from a designated site and into a market where the team that earns the right to host it does so," Garber said. "We obviously have a lot of logistical challenges we're working through to figure out if we're able to pull it off."
Garber also touched on topics such as the Designated Player (MLS is happy with it, though he wouldn't say whether a second DP slot per team was happening), the CONCACAF Champions League (Garber stated that MLS teams need to start winning the tournament) and single table (MLS won't be going to it in 2010).
What did you think of Garber's comments? Like the idea of a top seed hosting an MLS Cup Final? Disappointed that Single Table isn't coming? See Montreal being a successful 19th MLS team?
Share your thoughts below.
So, you are just assuming that there would be no playoffs. That is where you are wrong.
Next year will essentially be single table. A balanced schedule and the top 8 make it in….who would have thought!!
People need to stop assuming that single table means no playoffs.
It means ur bad.
good point..you cant keep everything else constant and add teams. a lot of things are really dependent on what comes out of the CBA. it will obviously dictate where the league heads in the short and long term
ives,
Do you think bring back a reserve league will be part of the CBA talks? Do you ever see them bringing back a reserve league and as part of this expanding team roster sizes? Obviously this would be a good way to further develop young talent as well as get reserves already on teams some experience in a real game environment. Although it would also mean increasing the salary cap considerably.
agreed, boo-hoo Gah….there are tickets if you want em, assuming its important enough for you to shell out the cash to get em. If not stay home.
agreed…why skew the final with giving one team home field advantage…they earned the right to play in the final and have a chance to win….what more reward do they need.
Single table would kill away support at games…not that there is much anyway.
My bad, I knew I was forgetting someone, insert them to the East and move Chicago to the Central
COuld play each team in your division 3 times and everyone else once for 26 games.
Take top 1 or 2 from each and then either next best 2 or 5 teams.
I still prefer a single table, but this would put more emphasis on rivalry gaems.
Mamadou Diallo scored 20+ goals one year because he had incentives in his contract for scoring.
Why should they switch? What makes single table better?
Smaller conferences allow you to more easily track the teams progress in a smaller group. It also sets up point competitions between the same teams each year, allowing rivalries to develop. And regional rivalries tend to mean more.
All the US sports have divisions, and they are not pointless. Now will someone please make the argument why single table is definitively better?
Don’t forget Toronto
I’m in favor of the single table because everyone is playing each other twice next season
If the MLS is going to stick with confrences to develop rivalries then they really should switch to 3 after Portland and Vancouver join.
1. East NY, NE, Phil, DC, Columbus, Chicago
2. Central Houston, Dallas, KC, Colorado, RSL
3. West- Sea, Port, Van, SJ, LA, Chivas
I suppose this would have to wait until a 6th team could be aded in the central.
All this being said I would prefer single table home and away.
I think you are mistaken, I am sure a few will show up in the sounder colors, but I don’t think it will be a Sounder love fest. We e already did that numerous times this year. I for one as a Sounder fan will be there to support the MLS and soccer in the US. As of now I have no idea who I will root for, if all of the teenage girls show to root for LA I might turn instantly to RSL. For myself I will root for the team that decides to play attacking soccer.
Like I have said in numerous other post I can be convince to root for one of the two team with good reasons
I love the idea of Single Table because:
1. The world does it that way
2. It will add more value to the Supporter’s Shield
3. It will add more value to the US Open Cup
I am not sure how theycould have pulled it off given that the entire lower bowl is always sold out. While not on top of the field there really isn’t a bad seat at Qwest, obviously some are better than otheres.
Nothing. But adding more teams while we lose more of our top players is going to leave us with a crap product. Hopefully the draft classes will continue to improve like this year’s.
Agreed and that’s an excellent point about shipping off to Europe just to ship off. It might be a money issue but it does no favors for the league to have an MLS dominant player like K. Coop playing as a sub on a Bundesliga 2 team. We sell off the talent that makes the league interesting and get far too little in return. But as long as the talent wants to leave (and is getting offered more money), what can we do?
If you were on a team, in a single table format, and you had no chance of winning league, would you be inspired to play well the rest of the season unless you had threat of relegation? Single table is implying no playoff format, so why play rest of season if no threat of being relegation? You need relegation if single format were to work effectively! League too young too have relegation. You think soccer is mediocre in MLS now, just think of no relegation and a single table. All the mid to lower level teams would not give a crap and it would really suck!
Montreal!
I agree its not a bad idea. My only concern being that the two teams that make the final should be on as equal terms as possible. Having a home field advantage would be a big advantage and might make the games less competitive, but I also get people who say that the team has earned it with their regular season record. Interesting either way.
Agreed. With all of the best talent shipping off to Europe (just to ship off to Europe it seems–not a whole lot of regard for which league), adding more teams continues to seem like a bad idea.
And can we please pay all of these guys a living wage? $20K? Seriously?
In comparison with the previous commish’es, I’d take Garber in a heartbeat. He’s done a lot for the current state of the league. A “real football” man probably would’ve been so true to Eurosnobbery (no salary cap, single-table, no shared revenue, etc) that the league would’ve crashed financially….just like Europe.
Why is it essential that single table only works with relegation?
With expansion, pay ceilings, and shortened rosters, all about to converge, Garber will have to deal with the threat of a lesser product immediately. Expansion is a certainty, so he needs to deal with the other two issues and quickly. If he thinks the Sounders model will bail him out, he’s mistaken. The product on the field must improve through play, not circus.
Because you do not have relegation! Single table only works with relegation! Imagine, your team out of running mid way through season…What do they have to play for…NADA, unless you relegate teams which will not happen for decades!!!
Also a per game salary incentive would be motivational. Think of those players at the low end of salary schedule…Imagine an extra 2K for every win? Now that is an incentive!
A SINGLE table will not work until you have relegation! And it will a long time, if ever, if we ever have relegation. Relegation implies, all teams will play hard every match because they would not want to be relegation. No relegation, No single table. Pretty simple!
First of all it sound that Mr.Garber not willing to give any of the Idea a try. First lets talk about the CBA I’m in favor that players need to get pay better to a certain amount, We still have to employ the Salary Cap at least 4-5 million per team. Especially now the each franchise is costing approx. 40 million for new comers. Second I think too many team from Canada is not a good Idea cause we will be starting to be the back bone to a maybe a new league in Canada and soon those team after making name for themself in the MLS will break apart ala USL. Third I think the Finals should be play as any other country a Home and Away game. Why MLS have to be like the NFL and have a a one game in a Nutral site. It should be play with home advantage to the team who is on top position. Like today is should be play one game in RSL away & at Home for the Galaxy. The same is with Basketball, Baseball, & Hockey. And last please Garber the one thing we need to grow this game in this country is a better players on the field, Better Referee, and a Good Coaching Staff, Let each Team deal with their own contract and players. Forget about the Stupid Draft. Please give us a better entertainment and don’t ruin this beautiful game cause you want to Americanize it. I’m for a little change but please don’t go over board…..
Well, we are headed to having 18 teams in two years–and only 30 regular season games. Therefore, conferences will help alleviate an unbalanced schedule.
I agree that the home stadium fans should be there or it would most likely be empty. It would have just been nice to one section in the lower bowl, not the entire bowl.
Interesting proposal–but one of the universal interesting aspects of sports is that each year, a team starts ‘fresh’. One can imagine the outrage if the team with the best record in the league finishes with the 7th seed. But, again thought provoking.
And it’s not nearly as ridiculous as the Mexican League. 3 groups of six where each team plays the other team in the league once…at least MLS will get to an unbalanced schedule eventually due to league size where playoffs make sense.
Well the conferences will be meaningless next season because it will be a balanced schedule where each team plays the other team twice. So essentially we have a single table schedule with conferences coming into play for playoffs. I wish they would just take the top 8 teams to the playoffs regardless of the conference now that the schedule has changed.
Look this is the real world… The best thing for fans to do is attend games and buy merchandise and get all their friends and family to do the same. In addition when games are on fans should watch. I am all for raising salaries for players, but attendance at most MLS events is still dismal after all these years. TV revenues are improving, but are still not great.
Fans can petition all they want, but I think owners want to see the numbers. Don’t expect any owner to cut into their revenues unless they see it as an investment opportunity.
Garber is a hack.
CAN YOU SAY “STRIKE!!”
Anyone who is spending the money to travel to Seattle for the final will see the final.. there are hundreds available on Craigslist alone.
See you there Gah
Next year essentially is a single table (every team will play the other once, right?), but it also has playoffs. It’s not like at least two teams from each conference would not have qualified anyways, so it acts the same even if we keep the conference trophies.
Too lazy, don’t have the time to read all of the comments, so apologies if this was already said.
I agree completely.
Who does the league think they are fooling by being so cheap at the offering table?
Long run, this league can’t grow on small rosters and bit-players earning less than 40k a year.
Here is what I care about:
a fun league to watch with entertaining attacking play.
teams that care.
good players earning a good wage.
mls teams doing well in CCL. I do think RSL will take it serious next year.
I don’t care about:
single table
relegation promotion
2nd DP
Our league has players out there making less money than the folks that pick up their garbage each day. There are good American players coming out of high school or college that don’t even consider MLS, that opt to play in the French 2nd Division or even USL-1 because they can’t get paid a sane amount in MLS, and the big issue concerning most people here is single table? Jeezus. This league has much bigger issues than that.
But since the *entire point* of the proposal is for the highest remaining seed to host the final, your “but what if it was at RFK without DC in it?” comment is utterly irrelevant. If DC wasn’t in it, it wouldn’t be at RFK.
… and all the other American sports leagues have it wrong while the European leagues have it right? Who is the target audience? Oh, right, Americans.
Um no. no. Boneheadedly American? The league is located in the the United States and caters to American fans. There is no reason to do it like anyone else does it just to placate a few Euro-snobs who won’t ever watch it anyway.
With Promo/Relegation out of the question for MLS (for at least 20 years) a single table makes NO sense.
As the league grows to 19-20+ clubs the conference set up becomes more effective and similar to what you see in the NFL. Rivals play each other twice a year and outside conference teams only once a year or twice a year on a bi-yearly rotation.
This is why there are conferences/divisions in US sports. Can you imagine how long the NFL season would be if everyone played each other at least once? I could see the MLS even going to a 3 conference set-up. Play rivals twice a year, another conference clubs twice, and other conference clubs only once.
DP rule is fine for right now. Need Salary Cap increase.
MLS Cup at higher seed would be a plus.
CONCACAF Champions League is a Joke. Forget it.
Seems like 34 is just too many games. That’s the exact number of league games as in the Bundesliga, and while not as long as the Premiere League, the Bundesliga is a heck of a long season.
With Cup games, Champions League, Superliga and national team matches, it’s way too many games in too short a time span.
I guess Brazil does do this, but their league is far more established.
Single table makes sense, the league isnt big enough for East and West. The final should definitely be played at the field of the better of the two teams who make the final, in this case it would be LA. Why? because the comish knows the Sounders fans are going to show up in there teams colors, chant for the sounders, and not give a crap who wins, so the atmosphere will be less than stellar. Meanwhile, the true fans of each of the teams are out in the cold. This is a decision that should have been made long ago.
As grant said, its all about balance.
The current MLS format, like with all American sports, have unbalanced schedules through conferences and “regional rivals”.
IMO this sort of negates the Supporters Shield because although Columbus had the best record, and congrats to them, they didn’t play the same schedule as most of the league.
I don’t feel strongly on single table; either way is fine. To me, the main issue is: CBA. Nothing else really matters until this is addressed.
The league can ill-afford a stoppage; it would be a huge mistake that I hope both owners and players realize.
The cap must increase; I’m hoping to around $5.1 million. The players should push for this higher cap and not for guaranteed contracts because a lower cap and guarantee contracts is a recipe for disaster for everyone.