In 2024, with Major League Soccer’s 30th season just around the corner, the hallmarks of a modern-day, thriving league are plain to see.
Every matchday, soccer-specific stadiums fill to the brim with supporters. Global viewers in over 100 countries can watch games via MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Players train at state-of-the-art facilities. Teams are active in the transfer market, both as buyers and sellers. World Cup winners and emerging talents make MLS their league of choice.
Things weren’t always this way, though.
Just ask FC Dallas Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, who points to 1999 – when Don Garber became MLS Commissioner – as a tipping point. At the time, MLS was four years old.
“MLS is not what it is today without Don Garber,” said Hunt. “There’s a good chance that it may not even exist because he was so critical in those early days of keeping the league together and figuring out a path for the league to go forward, helping recruit new ownership groups, and convincing skeptical mayors on new stadiums.
“Don will be looked at as one of the most pivotal figures in the history of the sport in this country.”
Hunt’s comments take us back a quarter-century, to when Garber joined MLS after working for the National Football League. He was hardly considered a soccer expert after focusing on the NFL’s international footprint, and many doubted he was the right choice for MLS Commissioner.
Yet 25 years later, Garber has proven to be exactly what MLS needed. Garber navigated choppy waters, steering MLS from a league born amid the United States hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup to one on the rise.
“When I started this journey many years ago, I never thought that the league would be where it is today,” Garber said. “It speaks to the resilience of the sport in our country.”
Steps forward
The growth indicators span far and wide.
MLS started with 10 teams and will soon expand to 30, with San Diego FC joining in 2025. There’s a sizable Canadian footprint, and newcomers, ranging from Atlanta United and Inter Miami to LAFC and Seattle Sounders, have pushed MLS forward.
The on-field product has similarly improved. David Beckham joining the LA Galaxy in 2007 proved transformational, leading MLS to establish the Designated Player rule. Then Lionel Messi signed with Inter Miami last summer, kickstarting a new era for soccer in North America with arguably the sport’s greatest-ever player.
All the while, MLS academies develop world-renowned talents.
Alphonso Davies is the most notable example, going from a Vancouver Whitecaps FC homegrown star to a UEFA Champions League winner with Bayern Munich. He captains Canada as the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaches on home soil. Another shining example is Tyler Adams, a New York Red Bulls product who plays in the Premier League and captained the United States at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Then there’s Leagues Cup, which sees all 47 MLS and LIGA MX teams pause their respective league seasons each summer to compete in the World Cup-style tournament. The revolutionary competition just concluded its second year and offers a direct path to Concacaf Champions Cup.
Of course, MLS Season Pass launched last year as the flagship product of a 10-year, first-of-its-kind partnership with Apple that allows fans to stream every MLS match through the Apple TV app, without local blackouts or restrictions.
The list goes on and on.
Nashville SC CEO Ian Ayre, who previously led Premier League mainstays Liverpool, can’t help but admire this evolution.
“It’s really hard to believe in something as much as [Garber] had to believe in MLS all the way through that journey,” Ayre said. “There have been so many difficult moments for the teams, and financially, all sorts of other challenges. To be the person managing and massaging the egos of owners and the challenges in sports, that’s such a hard job.”
Forward momentum
All this begs the question: Where does MLS go from here?
With 25 years of perspective, Garber shares a vision of a broader North American soccer story.
“We have always believed that North America is driving a lot of the energy and a lot of the potential value of soccer on a global basis, and we believe that MLS is one of the drivers of all of that energy,” said Garber. “We have said for many years we want to be the engine behind creating a soccer nation in America, and now it's creating a soccer continent.”
What the league’s next chapter should entail is up for debate. Atlanta United CEO and President Garth Lagerwey said “it’s go time” to keep ascending, while LAFC Co-Managing Owner Larry Berg believes “it’s just a question of the magnitude and the speed” for even more progress.
A simple truth remains, though: With its long-term leader, MLS’ brightest days are ahead.
“At the darkest of times, [Don] was able to help rally the group. And now at the best moments, he’s focused on how to capitalize going forward,” said FC Dallas President Dan Hunt.
“There’s always a right time and a right place, and we picked the perfect Commissioner at the right time and right place to get us from what was not a great place to such an exciting moment in time.”
