Don Garber

Don Garber
Commissioner of Major League Soccer
In office August 4, 1999 – Present
Preceded by	Doug Logan

Donald Garber (born October 9, 1957 in Flushing, Queens) is the commissioner of Major League Soccer, CEO of Soccer United Marketing, and a member of the United States Soccer Federation board of directors. Garber has spent his entire career in the sports industry, working in a variety of capacities in marketing, television and league administration. In 1999, he was named Commissioner of Major League Soccer after spending 16 years with the National Football League as head of NFL International.

NFL International

Garber spent 16 years with the National Football League, finishing his tenure as the senior vice president/managing director of NFL International, where he oversaw all aspects of the NFL's business outside the United States, including the NFL Europe League. Garber began his career at NFL Properties in 1984 as a marketing manager and became the League's director of marketing in 1988. In 1992, he was appointed the NFL's senior vice president of business development and was responsible for a variety of television, special event and marketing activities.

MLS Commissioner

Don Garber was appointed as the league's new commissioner on August 4, 1999^[1] becoming Major League Soccer's 2nd commissioner, succeeding Doug Logan. His first move as commissioner was to bring the league more in line with the international standard, eliminating the shootout and letting the referee keep the time on the field. Overtime and a fourth keeper sub were the only surviving non-standard rules, and both would go after the 2003 season.

After the 2001 season, two teams, the Miami Fusion and the Tampa Bay Mutiny were contracted, which helped lead to the financial stabilization of the league.

Among his accomplishments is creating a consistent time slot for league games (MLS Soccer Saturday), and putting an emphasis on soccer-specific stadiums, especially if a team is not subsidized by a National Football League franchise, such as the New England Revolution (operated by the owners of the New England Patriots). He has also played a big role in the improving financial shape of the league, which lost $34 million the year before he arrived. The league now sells more than it buys in the transfer market; Garber admitted that one of his biggest mistakes was buying Luis Hernández for $4 million.

He has been nicknamed "The Don" by his colleagues and the media.^[2]

MLS Growth

Don Garber appears to be following a much longer-term growth strategy than all previous soccer league commissioners of the NASL & MLS have taken. He has emphasized slow, steady growth of the league over many decades rather than attempting to force its way into the headlines (Beckham deal included) like the NASL did. Before Garber came into the Commissioner's office, the league had only one team in its own stadium, the Columbus Crew, whose Crew Stadium was built by Lamar Hunt in 1999. Despite this, the league was bleeding money at an unsustainable rate (34 million dollars in 1998). Garber met with league owners Philip Anschutz, Lamar Hunt and Robert Kraft around the turn of the millennium to decide what future actions should be taken to insure the league's survival. Their decision was to build the sport following the model given by Lamar Hunt's Crew Stadium, and also added a few elements to what might appropriately be called the "Garber League Building Plan." One of the pillars of the strategy rested upon the creation of Soccer United Marketing, a commercial soccer company with rights to all commercial soccer properties in the United States. This company would then be owned by all the owners of Major League Soccer and even if their MLS teams didn't make them a profit yet.

In 2003 another portion of the plan began to be implemented. This was the building of soccer-specific stadiums for all the league's teams. In 2003, the "cathedral of American Soccer", the Home Depot Center, was built to house the Los Angeles Galaxy, and both senior national teams. It was the second (behind Crew Stadium) of many soccer-specific stadiums in America, with four more built by the start of the 2007 MLS season. By the 2010 MLS season, two more soccer-specific stadiums will be in use, one of which is Red Bull Arena, a 25,000 seat stadium for the New York Red Bulls.

In order to address the complaints over the quality of the league's play, Garber & the owners embarked on a multi-pronged strategy. The first step taken was the creation of the MLS Reserves Division in 2005 that would give additional playing time to players not starting or playing much for the first team. Along with this new Reserve division the MLS expanded its team rosters to 28 from 24. This would give the league's teams more flexibility and ability to compete over the season.

Youth Soccer

At the end of the 2006 MLS season, several more measures were introduced to improve the quality of play. The league mandated the creation of a youth development system, with U-14, U-15, U-16, U-18, U-20, and U-25 development squads [1]. Further, the league said that any player a team developed could be signed without giving them up to the MLS SuperDraft. A maximum of two per year are allowed to be signed after two years of development play for their respective MLS team. Further increasing the incentives of MLS owners to invest in the mandatory teams is the increased portion of the transfer fees some of these players may bring, which will help a club's finances.

Designated Player Rule

Another new competition initiative the MLS undertook at the conclusion of the 2006 season was the creation of the Designated Player Rule, or "Beckham Rule". It is nicknamed after David Beckham as his signing with the Los Angeles Galaxy was the first use of the rule by the league. He came to the league in the summer of 2007 thanks to a record $250 million dollar, 5 year deal. This may be an acknowledgment by Garber and the league's owners that it needed a few more "marquee" players to boost interest and the long-term strength of the league in a quicker fashion.

SuperLiga

The latest competition initiative the league has taken under Garber is the creation of SuperLiga,^[3] a new North American Championship tournament with a 1 million dollar prize, the richest ever for North American soccer. In the initial tournament, 4 sides from the Mexican league and MLS each will compete on American soil for the ultimate prize. It is hoped that this increased international competition will help develop American players to higher calibers of play and lead to increased interest in both American and Mexican soccer clubs.

Television Deals

Commercially Garber has also made huge strides over a long period of time. One of the most important of those commercial landmarks for the league was the first-ever TV rights deals that Major League soccer agreed to with ABC/ESPN, Univision, Fox Soccer Channel, and HDNet. Between them the league will take in approximately 20 million dollars of money each year and no longer be responsible for producing the games. This appears to be a key turning point for the league's financial state towards overall league profitability, which Garber has predicted by 2010.

Sponsors

Furthering the league's financial well-being is the landmark decision to be the first professional sports league in North America to allow sponsor's names on the front of jerseys [2]. Real Salt Lake signed the first agreement with XanGo, a multi-level marketing company, for an estimated 4-5 million dollars over 4 years [3]. With a floor of $500,000 dollars per year for a shirt sponsorship, of which $200,000 goes to the League as a flat fee, this is thought to be a sure-fire way to increase owner's incentives to invest in their team(s).

Soccer United Marketing has further increased incentives to be in league ownership, as it recently sold the US rights to the 2010 & 2014 World Cups for some 425 million dollars.

Recently though that ownership has been dramatically diversified. In 2001, there were just three owners in the 10 team league: Philip Anschutz's Anschutz Entertainment Group (6 teams), Lamar Hunt's Hunt Sports (3 teams), and Robert Kraft (owner of New England Patriots & Revolution). Since then the league has diversified to 14 owners of 18 teams under Garber's careful guidance.

MLS W.O.R.K.S.

In 2007, Garber formed MLS W.O.R.K.S, the League's community outreach initiative, dedicated to addressing important social issues affecting young people throughout America.

References

1. ^ "MLS Introduces Don Garber as league's new Commissioner". August 4, 1999. http://www.mlsnet.com/content/99/0804garber.html ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Chatting with the Don of MLS". March 17, 2011. http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/columnist/carlisle_jeff/id/6223577/jeff-carlisle-interviews-mls-commissioner-don-garber 
3. ^ "World renowned soccer rivalry gives rise to SuperLiga". MLS. 2007-01-13. Archived from the original on 2007-01-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20070117163445/http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20070113&content_id=81815&vkey=pr_mls&fext=.jsp. Retrieved 2007-01-13. 

External links

• Don Garber bio from Major League Soccer's official site

Preceded by Doug Logan

Commissioner of Major League Soccer 1999-present

Succeeded by Incumbent

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Name	Garber, Don
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Date of birth	October 9, 1957
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