Soccer has a huge opportunity to become America’s favorite sport, as it is everywhere else.
But it won’t get there with the minor league business model of Major League Soccer (MLS) Commissioner Dan Garber.
Garber’s business model was crafted in the 1990s, when MLS feared failure. All teams are controlled by the league. The season runs from the spring to the fall, and ends in a series of play-offs, just like baseball.
The league has prospered, thanks to expansion fees. New owners pay hundreds of millions to join MLS, and this gets split among existing teams. This means teams can’t be relegated if they refuse to be competitive. It makes for lazy owners and bad soccer. It means the most important games are played when they don’t draw interest.
The answers are simple, but Garber won’t consider them. He needs to go.
Once he’s out of the way, MLS should buy the minor league United Soccer League. It can do this by selling its own interest in member teams. This will create a windfall that can fund a new structure.
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