MLS Commissioner Don Garber during halftime of last week's Orlando City-Impact match spoke with media and "addressed questions concerning international windows, chartered air travel for athletes and Forbes’ recently released list of MLS team valuations, among other topics," according to Alicia delGallo of the ORLANDO SENTINEL. The following are some excerpts from that conversation.
Q: Fans were hoping an All-Star game announcement would be coming tonight, where are you on that?
Garber: We made a commitment to Montreal and Vancouver that we will bring an All-Star game up to each of these cities, but the teams are going to do it when they think it’s right for them. Here in Montreal, there’s a lot more work they’re trying to do with the city, with the corporate community and with their fans to make this team more popular. When [Impact Owner Joey Saputo] and his staff are ready to do it, we’ll be the first ones to work with them to make it happen. I will say, next year on the 375(th anniversary of Montreal), we’re looking to do something with the Impact to get our league involved in the celebration because I know it’s an important moment for the city and for the country.
Q: Do you receive any complaint from clubs about traveling in planes that are not chartered?
Garber: Everything with us is about what we need to do to get better. How do we raise the quality of play? How do we invest more in our academies? Everything has got to go into the pot, you’ve got to make your decisions. So, our teams have got to [decide] whether or not charter travel is a bigger priority than perhaps investing in the academy programs to make players better, and all of that has got to get squeezed into an affordable budget so we can continue to succeed as a league.
Q: Forbes released a list of MLS team valuations ... and it showed MLS is up 80 percent from 2013. What do you think when you see those numbers?
Garber: I wish those numbers were about profitability and not necessarily about value or perceived value. I think it shows this is a league on the rise. From an investment perspective, it's good to be long on Major League Soccer, it's a good investment in professional sports. But most importantly, in the U.S. and in Canada, this is really the last professional sports league that still has its greatest amount of growth in front of it (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 9/10).
