MLS commissioner Don Garber addresses media and fans

MLS commissioner Don Garber put a modern flourish Wednesday evening on his annual talk to help kick off the new season. A Google+ Hangout, produced at Google’s New York City office, was the delivery device as Garber fielded questions from journalists and fans.

Among the significant touchstones:

• A lot of the questions were about New York’s second franchise. Long story short here, MLS continues to plan on the 20^th club landing there, and says development plans on the new stadium in Flushing Meadows are moving along, but with “a lot of work to do.”
• In fact, getting that stadium for a second NYC club represents “the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced,” Garber said.
• The Cosmos, about to begin play in domestic soccer’s second tier, will not be that team. Not without a meaningful sea change on the relationship between the new-old club and MLS. Garber: “They had a choice to make: Do they want to vie for a New York City MLS team or do they want to go to the second division? They decided to go into the second division and we support that and continue to support the NASL and the USL.”
• He did identify Orlando, Miami, Minneapolis and Atlanta as the current bunch of secondary expansion candidates. It does not sound like anything is close in any of those markets, although Orlando’s aggressive posture on stadium plans seems to have the Florida city better positioned than others.
• Garber spoke on the new initiatives aimed at tamping down certain undesirable behaviors along the sidelines and involving the referees. More on that here and here.
• He said the league does intervene occasionally as MLS clubs negotiate with foreign clubs over player sells, indicating that MLS does have interest in player valuation that may not always align with individual club interests. He said the league was “very involved” with the recent Brek Shea talks, which stalled before the FC Dallas winger was finally sold to Stoke City for a total just below $4 million.
• Along those lines, Garber indicated that he would prefer the league “never sell a player.” More on this one later at ProSoccerTalk.
• Garber expressed support for Landon Donovan, who remains away from the Galaxy for another few weeks. “This young guy has been holding the responsibility as the leader of the sport on the field since he was 15, 16 years old. None of us have had to do what Landon has had to do. … Think about it. It’s unprecedented for a single athlete in a professional sport.”
• The single-table format questions that will always come up at these things? Not. Going. To. Happen. As always, Garber reiterated  that Major League Soccer’s board of governors remain bullish on a playoff structure.

Here’s the video of Garber’s address, and the question-and-answer session:

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