My talk with The Don -- MLS commish Don Garber

I chatted with man atop the MLS totem poll yesterday for an MLSnet piece on his 10th anniversary. Don Garber came aboard as commissioner exactly 10 years and one day ago.

You can read the full story at MLSnet.com … uh, probablytomorrow now. Not sure. I just write ‘em … they decide when to use ‘em. We all have to know our place in life.

But here are some observations and some interesting points from my conversation:

Mostly, Garber “gets it.”

In my opinion, from his first day, he has understood what Major League Soccer and the sports in general requires in order to feed its long and continued march forward.

But Garber understands how to move the enterprise in directions that provide the most benefit over the longest time period. And that ability to engage the long-term strategies (as opposed to the short-term, fan-friendly fixes) is essential in the sport’s viability at the professional level.

The again, sometimes ‘fan friendly” is just what the doc ordered. And Garber gets that, too. Great example: He told me funny stories about his early days here, about how shocked he was at his reception. He strolled into the news conference that first day and got a figurative haymaker punch in the jaw. Fans and media were aghast because he was not a “soccer guy.” Garber, a wee bit naïve about the whole thing, believed that a man who had helped reshape the whole Super Bowl halftime show and had helped successfully launch the NFL enterprise in Europe would be warmly received in here.

Uh, not so much.

As he said, “Fans and media couldn’t imagine why on Earth the owners would hire someone who is not a soccer guy.”

So Garber immediately developed a picture of the passion and protective instincts of U.S. soccer fans. He was quickly able to assess the bigger picture, to get a handle on the domestic soccer market and how it needed to be messaged.

Look, the guy doesn’t need me to defend him or act as an extension of his PR arm. I’m just calling it like I see it. His critics certainly have the right to the their opinions. I’m just not sure how many of them realize how close the league was to collapsing totally back in 2001.

Today, at a time when second-tied U.S. sports leagues such as WNBA and the (practically dead) AFL are struggling, MLS is doing OK. Red Bull Arena will be the eighth MLS soccer stadium when in opens next year. Sponsorship is doing OK at a time when sponsorship generally stinks in the sports world. People with lots of money are still willing to deliver $30-40 million franchise fees. Long story short, the league is doing OK.

Does MLS get it all right? Of course not. For instance, I disagree in a big way with Garber on his assertions that league refereeing is A-OK. I think it’s a big problem and needs a lot more attention from U.S. Soccer, and that MLS is the only property with enough juice to make it happen. (Many fans don’t understand that U.S. Soccer assigns and controls referees.)

But that’s OK. Things aren’t perfect and never will be. The important thing is that people like Garber are on the job. They get it.

That instinctive knowledge of where the property needs to go is vital. It goes a long, long way.