MLS Commissioner Don Garber Continues To 'Break Glass' With The League

Boardroom Talks

Boardroom Podcast Network

Business, Entrepreneurship, Sports

4.4 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

MLS Commissioner Don Garber welcomes Boardroom into the MLS’ New York City office. In conversation with Boardroom Co-Founder and Philadelphia Union Part Owner Rich Kleiman the Major League Soccer commissioner discusses how an early job with the NFL jump started his career. Then, the duo discuss the nuances that come with managing sports owners, the impact of superstardom on the league brought on by players like Lionel Messi and David Beckham, how the AppleTV streaming partnership paved the way for other sports teams to follow suit and more. Later, Garber shares insights on the scalability of the league and the archetype of the modern fan, health and safety of its players, what fans can expect from the 2026 World Cup where he likens the global event to the NFL’s Super Bowl and so much more.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Robert Kraft and Lamar Hunt, who founded MLS. I was at an owner's meeting after making a presentation,
0:06.3	and Robert said to me, what do you know about soccer? I said absolutely nothing. He said you'd be a
0:12.5	great commissioner. What's up everybody and welcome to another boardroom talks. Today we are in
0:19.3	New York City, New York in the offices of Major League Soccer.
0:23.6	And today I have the honor of speaking to the man in charge,
0:26.6	the Commissioner, Mr. Don Garber. Don, welcome to the Boardroom.
0:29.6	Rich, great to be here.
0:31.6	Thanks for our friendship and all the great things we do together.
0:34.6	This is going to be fun.
0:35.6	This is going to be a lot of fun. I wanted to have this conversation with you for a while because I'm truly curious. As you know, we invested in the league years ago. We've spoke throughout the last few years, and I've always tried to learn more and more about what it is that you've built and what you're continuing to build. You came from the NFL.
0:55.2	I heard that there's an amazing story
0:56.9	about how you were presented this job.
1:01.2	First, I'd love to hear that story,
1:02.7	but also would love to hear a bit about that experience
1:06.2	working for the NFL and then kind of what
1:08.1	learnings you took from that entering into this challenge?
1:11.6	Sure, you know, I almost out of college.
1:13.6	I had a couple of years at a PR advertising agency, but almost out of college I went to go
1:19.6	work for the NFL in their marketing group.
1:22.6	It was called NFL Properties.
1:24.6	Then it was filled with a bunch of Ivy League guys who worked at Colgate Palm
1:30.9	Olive or Nestle or Nabisco. You know, and I guess they thought that selling the NFL was like,
	...

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