Editor's Note: Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber sat down with local media members on Monday for his second annual media roundtable. Here's some of the highlights of his answers.
Any chance of video replay in the MLS?
I don't think in the short term. We as a soccer league, in a relatively immature market, really want to be the followers on world changes instead of being leaders. It really addresses the credibility of the league . . . If FIFA decides to look at international replay, we'd certainly be willing to do that. But I think we're probably a ways away from it.
Where are you in the expansion process?
Expansion is going well. There's more interest in investors getting involved with the league than (at) any other time in the history of the league. We're fielding multiple offers from different cities. Toronto will come in 2007. There are two cities vying in 2008; Cleveland and St. Louis being those two cities. We're looking to get back in the Bay Area; there are a number of people interested in that market. Philadelphia has two interested parties in that city. (We'll) have 13 teams in '07, a Midwestern team in '08.
With only 13 teams, are any changes necessary?
We'll just have a bye week to manage through the playing schedule. We have so many games that go on in the week, we play on Wednesday and Saturdays, and in '07 we'll be playing on Sundays as well.
When do you anticipate the decision on the 2008 team?
In 60 days.
Has there been any talk during World Cup years of taking a break during the World Cup?
We set it out to our general managers, and they wanted to play. In 2002, and even in 1998, the overall interest in the league increased during the World Cup. It seems counter-intuitive in another country, but ultimately with the national attention turning to soccer during the World Cup, our attendance has gone up and our ratings have gone up. Unless that changes significantly this year, and it might, we're probably looking at playing again.
Financially, what has the $150 million adidas deal enabled you guys to do?
It's not just financial. It's the strategic benefit. I'll start with (the financial benefits). That's a $15 million-a-year deal. Our reserve league is a function of the adidas deal. These adidas generation players are coming from the funding that allows us to expand our rosters, and be like other teams around the world where we become clubs that are a big pyramid with lots and lots of kids playing at the bottom all the way up to the the first team at the top. That's a function of our relationship with adidas. Our kits and uniforms I think are some of the best in the world and they've really taken our merchandise up to another level. They created last year something called MLS films, which is our version of NFL films.
As important, we met Red Bull through Herbert Heiner, the chairman of adidas. This is the most important soccer company in the world. Franz Beckenbauer is friends with the chairman of adidas and they were talking about what things need to happen in the U.S. They were sitting at lunch with the chairman and founder of Red Bull, and a few months later we've got a guy investing $100 million in Major League Soccer. It's the non-obvious (things) that are really the true benefits of the adidas deal.
What's going on with the MLS All-Star game for this year?
We have a good one going on. It's not ready to be announced. We had a little delay on logistics last week, but we're going to make an announcement in a week and a half.
How important is a move to the more traditional soccer schedule?
I don't know the answer to that, I just know we're getting a lot of pressure to conform to the schedule — pressure from FIFA, pressure from CONCACAF, the whole issue with the CONCACAF Champions Cup. I have no doubt that our teams can play against Mexican clubs and win as much as they lose. We're not, because we play those games in February when we're still in our off-season. The Champions Cup is important. We need to prove to the ethnic community that we're as good as they are. That, coupled with the FIFA issues that they want to have all leagues conforming to the schedule. That being said, I was at the game at the Meadowlands on Saturday. It was 34 degrees, it was snowing earlier in the day. There were 34,000 tickets that were out, and I don't think there were 34,000 people in the stands because it was darn cold. Our market is just not yet sophisticated enough like they would for American football game, or a German Bundesliga game.