Garber Has Plan for MLS
The last few months have been “the dance of the dinosaur.”
With that cryptic remark, Doug Logan bade his farewell as Major League Soccer commissioner.
He was replaced Wednesday by Don Garber, 41, a 15-year veteran of the NFL and a man who admits to knowing virtually nothing about soccer and who does not speak Spanish.
Given that scenario, Logan’s “dinosaur” remark can be read two ways: He could have been referring to himself, but it might just as easily have been an oblique swipe at the future prospects of the four-year-old league.
“I’m going to try to keep this as serious as I can make it,” Logan said at a news conference in New York, indicating right away that he finds the situation laughable.
“Yesterday, I was an ‘is.’ Today I’m a ‘was.’ But I can assure you that tomorrow I’m going to be an ‘is’ again.
“There’s no elegant way of saying you’re fired. You guys [the media] have got great phrases that you will use along the way, like ‘sacked’ and ‘axed’ and ‘ousted.’ Stuart Subotnick [MLS chairman] has very graciously allowed me the prerogative of resigning, but what is transparent is that I’ve lost the confidence of my board of governors and it’s time to move on.”
Logan, who said he will continue to be an owner in MLS, then switched into Spanish and said an emotional and sincere thank-you to the Latino media, fans and players who have been the backbone of the league in its first 3 1/2 seasons.
It will be a difficult act for Garber to follow. After being introduced by Subotnick as the league’s new standard-bearer, the former NFL international division vice president was peppered right away with questions about his lack of soccer background.
“The immediate answer to that is that this is a league that has soccer experts,” Garber said. “I’m confident that I can lead this league regardless of the experience that I have in the soccer community.
“What this league needs is more than just someone who can lead it and speak to soccer issues, but can speak to the business issues of the sport and to figure out ways to take this game to the next level.”
For the last three years, Garber, from Upper Montclair, N.J., has been in charge of all NFL activities outside the United States, including its European league.
He initially was sounded out by MLS founder Alan Rothenberg to see if he had any interest in switching leagues and eventually was brought in as commissioner by Robert Kraft and Lamar Hunt, who own teams in the NFL and MLS.
“Don has done a tremendous job for the NFL,” said Subotnick, investor-operator of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. “I think you’re going to find that as an organization we’re going to begin to do some innovative things and some creative things, because that’s Don’s reputation.
“He brings to the table an ability to create new ideas and a new environment and a better relationship with the people we most want to serve initially, and that’s the fans.”
Said Garber: “I’ve spent most of the last three years of my life trying to convince people outside the United States that a football is shaped like an egg as opposed to being round.”
