Bruce Arena ‘embarrassed’ that MLS teams still have to fly commercial

While MLS has grown significantly in global perception and quality of play since David Beckham showed up in 2007, the league is still fighting the same battle that they’ve been fighting since the inception of the Designated Player rule: They’re trying to present the image of being a world-class league while saving money where they can.

One of the ways that the league saves money is by having its players fly commercial. LA Galaxy boss Bruce Arena -- whose owner would likely pay for chartered flights -- is sick of this.

“I’m embarrassed that we travel that way,” said Arena. “I don’t think it helps the reputation of our league ... It’s time for our league to get into the modern days of professional sports. Travel impacts the competition.”

Arena says that the league’s travel arrangements lead to teams missing training days, as well as sitting in hotels and airports when their players could be getting medical treatment at their facilities earlier if they took chartered flights. MLS commissioner Don Garber disagrees, defending the position of his majority of owners that would rather not be forced into a position where they have to spend a lot of money or let rich teams have a competitive advantage.

“Our teams have got to decide whether or not charter travel is a bigger priority than perhaps investing in the academy programs to make players better,” Garber said. “All of that has got to get squeezed into an affordable budget so we can continue to succeed as a league. Charter travel is less of a priority than investing in academy programs.”

So Garber’s literally gone with a “won’t anyone think of the children” defense. Nice.

Let’s watch Ronaldo clown people for 10 minutes.

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