- January 8, 2025
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Don Garber doesn’t always love having his picture in the newspaper. For most people, seeing their photo in the paper is a source of pride and excitement.
Garber, however, is not like most people. Because for the commissioner of Major League Soccer, a role he’s held since 1999, having his name and his face in the newspaper is more of a requirement than a desire.
That is, of course, unless it’s a shot of him holding a large snook or tarpon, his smile plastered ear to ear, the trophy of a long day of fishing in Sarasota Bay, typically with his close friend Captain Warren Girle.
Sarasota is an area that Garber is quite familiar with. An avid fisherman, Garber has been coming to the area for more than 35 years with his wife Betsy. In 2008, he bought a property in Longboat Key. He currently owns a place in Lido Key and makes the trip down whenever he has a moment — a rarity, given that time is not exactly in abundance for the face of soccer in the United States.
“I love it here,” said Garber. “Sarasota Bay is one of the best fisheries in the country. The weather is amazing and Sarasota has a great food scene. If I’m not catching a fish, I’m eating one in a restaurant. A couple of days ago, I was at Mar Vista. Last night I went to Veronica Fish and Oyster and we spent New Year's at Euphemia Haye.”
On Jan. 3, Garber made the trip down to the Bird Key Yacht Club where he spoke in front of roughly 140 members as a part of the club’s Seafarer Speakers series, sharing stories about his time as commissioner, his career path and what the future holds for soccer in the United States. It was a night made possible by member Gene Goldberg — an old friend and colleague of Garber’s from the time they spent working at the National Football League in the 1980s and 90s.
For the members in attendance, it was a chance to see something truly special — the leader of one of the top five professional sports in the country, speaking about the future of MLS at a critical juncture in the league’s existence.
When Garber came to MLS in 1999 after working in the NFL for 16 years, the league was in disarray. Ten teams played in non-soccer specific stadiums, dotted around the country The league’s very survival — not to mention its statute as one of the top professional leagues in the country — was in question.
Today, MLS is thriving thanks to a strategy of sustained growth implemented by Garber over his 25-year tenure. In 2024, 29 teams across North America called MLS home — with a 30th, in San Diego, set to be added in 2025.
According to MLS, more than 11.4 million fans attended regular season matches, the most in league history and a 5% increase from 2023. Additionally, the average attendance of a game — 23,234 in 2024, was also the highest in league history, with 10 clubs either matching or setting records for average attendance.
The massive growth of MLS can be attributed to a number of factors, but started with the idea that teams needed to be playing in their own sport-specific stadiums. When the league was founded, it was meant to act as counter-seasonal programming for NFL owners, who also owned all of the MLS teams.
“They thought that they needed something to do in their stadiums when their stadiums were empty in the spring and summer and I came in and pretty quickly realized that didn’t make sense,” said Garber. “I’d go to a game in the Meadowlands and there would be 800 or 1000 or 2000 people.”
Now, 26 of the league’s 29 teams are playing in their own stadiums. It’s a sign of how far the league has come and how the perception of professional soccer has changed in North America.
The MLS rise in popularity has also come from its increased ability to attract big-name international talent, which started in 2007 with the recruitment of David Beckham to the LA Galaxy and has extended into 2023, when the league lured international superstar Lionel Messi to Inter Miami.
As much as MLS has grown under Garber’s 25-year tenure, he’s confident the league will continue to rise in prominence in the coming years. In 2025, the FIFA Club World Cup, a competition featuring 32 of the world’s best professional teams, including two from MLS, will be played in North America. In 2026, 12 host cities will also host the international soccer championship, the FIFA World Cup.
“It’s going to be like dozens and dozens of Super Bowl matches,” said Garber, of the 2026 World Cup, “It already captures the attention of everyone in the world, but now it will capture the attention of everyone in this country. With all of the sports activity happening here in the next three years between the World Cups and the Olympics in 2028, I hope that we’re able to capture the attention of everybody that is coming here and use that as the rocket fuel to launch us into a new era of MLS.”
