{"id":568848,"date":"2026-03-29T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568848\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:15:08","slug":"soccer-luminaries-fete-mls-commissioner-don-garber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568848\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer luminaries fete MLS Commissioner Don Garber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don Garber was a popular executive at the Business of Soccer event, especially among speakers onstage. The longtime MLS commissioner has a deal running through 2027<\/a>, but recent reports noted Garber has opened the door to the possibility that he may leave before his contract expires<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arthur Blank, the Atlanta United owner who hosted the conference at his Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, called Garber \u201cmy brother\u201d during a 1-on-1 session. \u201cGreat friend, great human being,\u201d said Blank.<\/p>\n

Blank also was effusive in his praise for Garber regarding his impact on soccer in this country. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some great commissioners in the National Football League \u2014 none have lasted as long as Commissioner Garber has and had the impact on the sport the way Don has,\u201d Blank said. \u201cFrom an ownership standpoint, from a governance standpoint, from a sporting standpoint, from a leadership standpoint. I mean, everything that\u2019s happened in the world of soccer, Don has been an outstanding spokesperson and leader. … He\u2019s been the godfather of soccer to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

FC Dallas owner Clark Hunt compared Garber\u2019s leadership to that of Pete Rozelle at the NFL. \u201cDon has served a similar role, and Major League Soccer would not be where it is today without him,\u201d Hunt said. <\/p>\n

Hunt reflected on some difficult times for the league at the turn of the century, when MLS had to fold some clubs. \u201cI can definitively say that we would not have made it without Don\u2019s leadership at that time,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cHe got together with my dad [Lamar Hunt], Robert Kraft and Phil Anschutz, and really, the four of them kept the league together during this very, very difficult time and very quickly set it on a path toward growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Mohamed Mansour, the owner of San Diego FC, also called Garber a \u201cfriend\u201d and noted the league has \u201cgrown under his leadership, under his guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat haven\u2019t you done?\u201d said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. \u201cYou continue to shatter records, which I think everyone in this room already knows about. But what I think they may not know about is how instrumental you have been in the transformation at U.S. Soccer. You have supported me and guided me the entire way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all the sports in North America, he\u2019s pound for pound the best commissioner,\u201d said Concacaf President Victor Montagliani. \u201cA kid from Queens who probably didn\u2019t know much about our sport when he was growing up. What he\u2019s done for our sport is legendary and is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don Garber was a popular executive at the Business of Soccer event, especially among speakers onstage. The longtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,94095,573,561,82,32664],"class_list":["post-568848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-concacaf","tag-mls","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-ussf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}