Don Garber
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Don Garber (born October 9, 1957) is the commissioner of Major League Soccer, succeeding Doug Logan in 1999. Previous to this, he was employed by the National Football League as head of NFL International.
His first move as commissioner was to bring the league more in line with the international standard, eliminating the shootout and letting the referee keep the time on the field. Overtime and a fourth keeper sub were the only surviving non-standard rules, and both would go after the 2003 season.
After the 2001 season, Garber contracted two teams, the Miami Fusion and the Tampa Bay Mutiny, which helped lead to the financial stabilization of the league.
Among his accomplishments is creating a consistent timeslot for league games (MLS Soccer Saturday), and putting an emphasis on soccer-specific stadiums, especially if a team is not subsidized by a National Football League franchise, such as the New England Revolution (operated by the owners of the New England Patriots). He has also played a big role in the improving financial shape of the league, which lost $34 million the year before he arrived. The league now sells more than it buys in the transfer market; Garber admitted that one of his biggest mistakes was buying Luis Hernandez for $4 million.
Don Garber is already known in MLS for his new strategy of improving the league's fortunes by building its future through stadiums, new broadcast rights fee deals, more extensive internet revenue streams (MLSgear.com, MLSLivetv, etc), a steadily improving quality of play by developing more American players from an earlier age by MLS clubs, and for the steady expansion of the league from its more troubled days around the beginning of the millennium. Under Garber's leadership, the survival of MLS appears secure, and the young league looks set to grow through expansion, improved attendance, and better TV coverage. It is today more a question of how fast the league can expand than a question of it ever making a profit. Many believe that with the upcoming broadcast rights fee deal the MLS is negotiating, the league may for the first time ever be making an overall profit, thus making it vastly more enticing to invest in for possible new owners (Garber has indicated that the league has received guaranteed long-term investments exceeding $250 million over the last few years). Should this occur, Don Garber may be overseeing a dramatic shift in the American sports landscape. One in which soccer becomes America's fifth sport after American Football, Baseball, Basketball, and hockey, and may some day replace hockey as America's fourth major professional sport (although many other sports also seek to hold such a distinction). Time will tell if Garber's cautious optimism of the league's future is indeed justified.
He has been nicknamed "The Don" by his colleagues.
