photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com
With the 17th season in MLS history just weeks away from kicking off, commissioner Don Garber held his latest State of the League address in Columbus, Ohio to discuss some of the hotter topics.
Accompanied by Columbus Crew owner Clark Hunt and Crew president and general manager Mark McCullers, Garber touched on everything from the Crew's season ticket sales to the league's schedule.
Of interest to many fans and pundits, Garber also spoke about the league's ongoing search for a 20th franchise. Garber continued to stress that the league is working on getting it to be a team in New York.
"We are working hard on New York and working with the Mayor's office and city," Garber said.
Scheduled to meet with owners of USL Pro club Orando City SC and that city's mayor and officials on March 1, Garber stated that the league is looking to return to Florida in the future.
"We need to be in Florida at some point," Garber said.
Garber may want the league to return to Florida, but he admitted he was "gun-shy" over giving Tampa another chance considering its previous team, the Tampa Bay Mutiny, folded in 2001.
Garber also said the league's schedule will need to be altered in the future so that it is more in sync with FIFA's international calender. He did not offer a timetable as to when that might happen.
"I think at some point, and I don't know when that point is, we'll probably have to be more aligned with the international calendar," said Garber. "How we get there and when we get there remains to be seen."
A topic the MLS commisioner, Hunt and McCullers all touched on was the Columbus Crew's effort to reach 10,000 season ticket holders, just as they did in 1999 and as recently as 2006.
McCullers would not say how many season tickets had been sold to date, though he did reveal that the totals had already surpassed that of 2011. Still, Garber wants Crew fans to get back to the 10,000 figure.
"There's no reason why you can’t have that now," said Garber. "You've got a lot of teams with 10,000 season tickets. You've got to get back to that point."
Garber also gave Crew fans some good news when he stated the league would continue help the team as much as possible in the future.
"We're going to continue to provide whatever resources the league can," Garber said, "to bring the team back to the position it was in a few years ago."
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What do you think of Garber's comments? Do you see New York or Orlando getting the 20th franchise? Agree with Garber saying that MLS needs to be more aligned with the international calendar?
Share your thoughts below.
Where’s the Minnesota Love? Soccer is pretty popular there along with Hockey and Football. I grew up playing in the USA Cup, an absolutely massive tournament, grew up in traveling soccer, high school soccer, even played a bit in college. With the Minnesota Stars slowly getting more popular (again), and the younger generations who are much more soccer-friendly, starting to get up in the “correct age range” for buying tickets, I could see Minneapolis being a viable place. (Though then Wisconsin would have to have a team to have a “bitter rivalry” like the Packers and Vikings!)
International calendar != fall-spring schedule. Garber may likely mean aligning behind the FIFA scheduled dates. Much like they are this year.
If you’re OK with not having a truly national league. An entire quadrant of the country — potentially the fastest growing one at that, left out — doesn’t make sense.
The New York Red Bulls are a Newark, NJ area team. Those are the people who go to the stadium and before/after they hang out in that area. If New York gets a team in Brooklyn or Queens (Manhattan is impossible), then actual New Yorkers will go to the games and feel some loyalty to the league. People from the boroughs don’t really go to Red Bulls games. Maybe they watch them on TV, but that’s as far as that extends. Bring a team to the boroughs and New Yorkers will accept them and they’ll get 30,000+ in the stands with ease.
I was thinking the same thing. Several Latin America leagues do the dual seasons/year thing. Argentina and Mexico come to mind.
20th Team should be the Cosmos and the stop at 20 teams, a new market can come in until one goes broke or something.
NYRB then can become Newark RB or NJRB
Cry me a river. It would take me 10 hours to drive to a match.
You forgot about the part of bankrupting the city.
Good that you got a pro/rel arguement in. 😉
Stop with the pro/rel nonsense! It is not happening! Ever!!! We don’t have the metric system either. And our money isn’t called euros or pounds.
You failed to mention how Garber spoke more about Miami than Orlando. The times are changing and Garber knows it. That’s why he mentioned the big draws at the Barcelona, USA and Gold Cup games. The Strikers even average 4K and that’s in Div 2 with no stars.
South Florida has a big TV market and MLS stands to make much money out of it. To have a true national foothold MLS needs Miami. Not Mickey Mouse town.
I wouldn’t exactly call Newark “the suburbs”.
This is overblown. CitiField and Yankee Stadium are in the farthest corners of the city and it takes a lot of people well over an hour to get there, but it doesn’t stop people from going. RBA is very conveniently located – the travel time from midtown Manhattan to RBA is less than it is to the baseball stadiums. Not to mention how long it takes for anyone living anywhere to get to the new Meadowlands. Bottom line, travel time shouldn’t be stopping anyone from going to RBA.
apparently he cares about Columbus too…
This taking an hour to get to stadiums is just an lame excuse. It takes my friends and I anywhere from 45 to 90 mins to get to a game in Seattle from where we live.
If you love your team or soccer in general, this is only an inconvience. Not a deal breaker for going to games or supporting your team.
NYC baby!
ATL has a bad rap, but it’s not entirely deserved. Most people in the ATL area are not from the area and so are more committed to their old home teams in NFL, MLB, etc. But the vast majority of people have no such roots with MLS, and the opportunity would be there to build a fan base from scratch. LOTS of people play and watch soccer in ATL.
Also worth mentioning that most ATL teams develop regional interest. Close to half the attendance at Braves games, for example, come from more than 2 hours away. A team in ATL would draw fans from SC, TN, AL, etc.
Seattle was never called a “good sports town” before Sounders happend.. Mariners and Sonics never had anything more than fair-weather fans..
Meanwhile Boston and Chicago have always been “top level sports towns”
My point is how a city supports their baseball and basketball teams really isnt a good indicator for their potential MLS support.
“One thing for sure, Im not going into NYC to see a game. But its good for people in the city.”
This is the reason that NYRB do not fill out the stadium all the time. I don’t believe people realize how much of a hassle it is to travel to different parts of the city.
While the stadium is right near public transit it is still at least an hour, typically well over that, for most of the NY metro area to get there.
Blank’s interest abated when the economy went south. But the Atlanta Sports Commission is committed to soccer and the audience is clearly there. A team in the city center would be the wrong approach, though, imo because Atlanta is so spread out. Kennesaw or Gwinnett (home of AAA Braves, Arena Football, and minor league hockey) would make sense if the right location was found. Silverbacks would be more successful if they weren’t playing in that crappy Dekalb stadium.
Find a owner and have a stadium plan in place, then get back to us.
+2
if you travel to europe and go to sporting goods stores and flip thru the jerseys you occasionally will see a LA Galaxy shirt, never any other MLS sides (maybe a NYRB or Seattle) but you can easily find a COSMOS jersey.
Garber wants the Cosmos to be this league’s New York Yankees. and personally i think they could be..
+1
@k Was that why Luis Robles was ruled to have to go through allocation instead of a free pass to NYRB because the league tilts everything NYs way?
Because the midwest is another good region for expansion? Indy and St. Louis, if they could get over the threshold of a realistic ownership group, could possibly support a franchise in a really cost effective way (somewhat less expensive travel to either coasts and most of the centrally located franchiese, cheaper land available near something like city centers, lower general expenses than the coasts, etc.).
Welcome to communism…where the grand leaders pick winners and losers.
Because Garber has an inferiority complex and wants oh-so-badly for this league to be taken seriously. How else can you explain his mind-boggling interest in a 3rd failed franchise in FL?
Amazing to me that they would consider a THIRD team in Florida after the first two failed. MLS currently has ZERO presence in the entire southeastern quarter of the country but to try again in FL just because some idiot investor is based there is insanity.
Why the hell is the league promising to return the Columbus Crew to prominance?! What business of the league is it to pick winners and losers? I’m losing faith in the equality-for-all, communistic league structure. Its bad for US soccer. Maybe the league should focus on courting the interested investors in Atlanta rather than playing favorites among the current ones.
the gerber boy only cares about NY and LA, every rule change, every league decision is done with the expressed purpose of making NY and LA successful, he does not care about any other city except to fill out the schedule. the DP rule was created so LA could win, the unballanced schedule was created so NY could win, it goes on and on and on…
St louis needs and deserves a team end of story
And owned by Kennesaw St.
Kennesaw is too small.
And you’ve been to how many now Sqeaked er tweaked?
Sometimes embarrassing?…all NYRB games are embarrassing.
people need to realize a team IN the city will attract fans a lot easier than RBNY. further, all we hear about from foreign stars is that they want to be in LA and NY. given the DP rule, the best way to get more stars into NY is to give them another team. Chivas could be doing the same thing, but their obsession will staying Chivas USA alienates a lot of would-be fans and they’re roster requirements don’t easily allow for foreign stars.
having said all of that, i think Miami would be an easy draw for foreign stars. the problem is, Miami isn’t the best sports town. the stars would need to be there from day 1, otherwise i am not sure it would work. Orlando isn’t a terrible idea though. i think it could be a good draw for DPs. the Tampa talk just needs to go away. it’s has to be Orlando or Miami.
An Apertura and Clausura works for me
IMO, allowing NYRB to build a stadium in Harrison, NJ was a colossal mistake — a great stadium, but a terrible location, based, partly I assume, on the idea that MLS can win in the suburbs, which it can’t. NYC should have an MLS team, but where does that leave NYRB? I just don’t see how it all works out.
With cities in the south vying for MLS attention again, it just makes it clear that a promotion/relegation system can work here. Keep MLS at 20 teams. There are already a handful of good markets hungry for promotion to it. Let that list grow to 12 or so teams in the next decade and then get a true second division going.
The good fanbases (I think) would be willing to risk relegation if it made the league better.
What does he mean about giving assistance to Columbus? What is wrong with Columbus? Are they in financial trouble? Not supported enough? Potential move in their future?
Also, the most international city in the Southeast is Atlanta. They need a team ahead of Orlando or Charlotte. They also have a willing owner in Blank (Falcon’s owner) and already have a site ready for a soccer specific stadium in Kennesaw.
Maybe because it’s a HUGE market… not to mention the Red Bulls don’t even play in NY…
You think the league did that blindly without having a vision of further expansion in Portland and Vancouver? Gimme a break dude. Is that you Kasey Keller?
I don’t understand why Garber and MLS want a second team in NYC. The Red Bulls aren’t selling out every night. I don’t get it. There are plenty of cities that are deserving of a team.
Fox Sports West would show both Chivas USA and Galaxy games, sometimes back to back.
Speaking of the tv markets. Currently MSG covers Red Bull games. They have another channel MSG Plus. Would MSG two soccer games on the same night? Knicks and Rangers are also shown on those channels.
So does Florida, especially South Florida. Orlando may be different, but Miami doesn’t even support the best team in the NBA. It’s also telling that a major U.S. city can’t sell out a NFL game.
YEah, they should never have put a team in Seattle.
Uh wait…
My guess is they are trying for bigger TV markets. Not sure where Charlotte fall in that categorie compared to Florida. That is one of the reasons to put a 2nd team in NY. The only reason,I can think of, Atlanta is not in the running is because they have a history of not supporting teams in their market.
If you’re going to put a team in NC it should be in Raleigh.
I am really undecided on the calendar issue. I love watching soccer during the summer, but I don’t like having the playoffs in November.
NYRB have a hard time filling the stadium now. Its embarrasing sometimes sitting there when the stadium is 3/4 full and they announce a sell out crowd. What will happen if NYC gets a team? Cant be good.
One thing for sure, Im not going into NYC to see a game. But its good for people in the city.
I wish I was 10 years older and more successful, so I could bring a team to Charlotte like there should be. I don’t understand why you would put a team in Florida when the next closest team would be in DC. If you want to get back to Florida, fine, but you have to gradually move to Florida. Put a team in Charlotte and maybe Atlanta and Tennessee too before you just put an outlier in Florida.