LOS ANGELES -- Amid a difficult economic climate, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber laid out the league's plans for 2009, detailing changes related to roster size, international competitions, scheduling, as well as sponsorships and expansion, all in the hope of continuing to grow the sport in the United States.
Garber was quick to say 2008 was "a very good year for our sport," highlighting the Professional Sports League of the Year award that MLS received from the Sports Business Journal. But he also minced no words in talking about the economic obstacles ahead.
"These are challenging times for the sports industry," said Garber. "It's a challenging time for any company in this country or throughout the world, and Major League Soccer is no different than any other business that's operating in what is probably the most trying economic time in our country's history, certainly in our generation.
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"We and our clubs are working hard to make sure we can weather that storm, watching what we spend and how we spend it, insuring that we're doing as much as we can to drive as much revenue as we can over the next year or two or three, or however long this economic crisis lasts."
In such economic conditions, corporate sponsorships are especially vulnerable, with Garber stating that the corporate community was "getting hammered" in this area. But Garber indicated that the league relied less on that revenue stream than other sports entities, and that no corporate sponsors "on a macro" level had pulled out.
Garber added that the interest in acquiring expansion teams remains strong. The Commissioner said that a group interested in bringing an MLS club to Montreal had taken themselves out of the running for entering the league in 2011, but he was enthusiastic about the presentations made on behalf of Miami, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Portland. Ottawa made a particularly strong impression, with Garber saying that group "blew us away" with their presentation. Atlanta and St. Louis are the other candidates.
The decision on which two teams will win the 2011 sweepstakes will be made in early 2009 and "certainly before the start of our 2009 season," according to Garber.
With regard to on-field considerations, the league has received considerable criticism about roster sizes and overscheduling in the last year, and to that end, Garber outlined several changes. The number of slots for developmental players has been reduced from 10 to four, while teams can now carry between 18 and 20 senior roster players. The hope is that teams involved in international competition will be better able to manage the playing demands that come from participating in those tournaments.
The changes do come at a cost. With fewer developmental players on a given roster, the reserve league has been eliminated, with the savings in salary expected to be applied to other members of the roster, as well as each team's youth academy.
When asked if that would result in an increase in the salary budget, Garber said, "There's a small increase in the salary cap every year," without elaborating on how much. "There will be small growth in the salary cap."
In addition, Garber stated unequivocally that there would be no changes to the rules regarding designated players for 2009, although a considerable review would take place prior to the 2010 season.
The scheduling difficulties the league encountered were most keenly felt on international fixture dates, with some teams struggling to have enough players on hand to play their league matches. Teams engaged in international tournaments also faced difficulties, with fatigue playing a significant role in the postseason fates of several clubs.
In light of these struggles, reducing the number of actual players on the roster might strike some as counterintuitive, but the league announced several changes to help teams combat these problems. First, there will be no overlap of teams participating in SuperLiga and the CONCACAF Champions League, thus reducing the likelihood of a fixture pileup. New York, Columbus, D.C. United, and Houston will participate in the CCL, while Chivas USA, Chicago, New England, and Kansas City will partake in SuperLiga. The league will continue to participate in the U.S. Open Cup.
Another significant change was that the league will make a greater effort to observe international fixture dates. There will be two dates next year where the league will be off completely, while they will go to a reduced schedule on four other weekends. An analysis was made to see if more fixture dates could be observed, but Garber said that doing so would have result in a loss of between $3 million and $5 million.
"Faced with what we believe will be more trying economic times in the years to come, [observing more dates] was something we did not believe was the right economic decision for our league," he said.
With Seattle -- which has already sold 18,000 season tickets -- entering the league in 2009, the league will go to a 30-game schedule in which each team plays the other, home and away, while having two other games against rivals.
With Philadelphia entering the frame in 2010, it's expected that a complete, home and away format will be used. Given such a setup, a push for a single table might once again gather steam, but Garber indicated that conferences -- and playoffs -- will remain a part of the league's future, with the postseason format remaining the same as in 2008.
"We believe in the playoffs," said Garber. "And as much as many of you sitting around -- particularly those that are writing blogs -- don't believe in the playoffs as much as we do, we believe that perhaps the most exciting part of our season has been the last couple of weeks."
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