![\"Larry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TOS-Z-MLS-COMMISH-0809-e1786065563612.jpg\")
Larry Berg and wife Allison attend a gala in Los Angeles in 2025. Larry Berg is the newest MLS commissioner and the first to have an extensive soccer background. (Frazer Harrison\/Getty Images\/TNS)<\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 There are plenty of fun stories to tell about Larry Berg\u2019s roots in soccer. But Berg\u2019s introduction as Major League Soccer\u2019s next commissioner Tuesday wasn\u2019t the time to tell them. There were other priorities.<\/p>\n
The biggest was finding out his vision for how the league will capitalize on the World Cup \u2014 especially when it comes to slashing the phone book\u2019s worth of roster rules. It will be interesting to see the impact his ascension to the role will have on teams across MLS, like Orlando City SC.<\/p>\n
As part of Los Angeles FC\u2019s ownership group, Berg has recently been a co-chair of the league\u2019s powerful sporting and competition committee, which means he knows that rule book inside and out. Now he knows which of those rules need to go to make MLS more competitive on the global stage, and thus more attractive to global soccer fans who look down on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve accomplished an extraordinary amount over the last three decades, but success can never become an excuse for standing still,\u201d Berg said. \u201cStatus quo is not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n
Current commissioner Don Garber said that when he appointed Berg to that committee in 2019, Berg \u201cbrought to that role an entirely modern and forward-thinking perspective as to where the product could be on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
The league has long discussed an overhaul that will free teams to not just spend more money, but have more freedom in how they spend it. The latter is as important as the former, with rosters chopped into so many classifications: Designated Players, Targeted Allocation Money, Under-22 signings, and so on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t accept this role to protect what we\u2019ve already accomplished \u2014 I accepted it because I believe this league is ready for its next chapter,\u201d Berg said. \u201cWe\u2019ve come an incredibly long way in a remarkably short period of time, and everyone who has helped build Major League Soccer should be proud of that. But I also believe the opportunity in front of us is even greater than what we\u2019ve accomplished so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is proof that overhaul is on the way. At Monday\u2019s vote of team owners that elected Berg, Inter Miami\u2019s powerful leader Jorge Mas was seen walking out of the lobby holding a printout of a presentation titled \u201cMLS 3.0.\u201d He was gone before reporters could ask him what was in it, but fans would like to know.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe platform is in place, the infrastructure is in place, the opportunity is in front of us,\u201d Berg said. \u201cNow it\u2019s time to pull the right levers, make the right decisions, and build on everything that\u2019s been created. Together, we\u2019ll make the right decisions to elevate our competition, strengthen our clubs, develop more world-class players, and inspire the next generation of supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Berg\u2019s fellow co-owners at LAFC, Bennett Rosenthal, was a co-chair of the committee that vetted commissioner candidates. He said choosing Berg \u201cputs us in a position, and puts Larry in a position most importantly, to succeed and get consensus to make those changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another major headline is that Berg is the first MLS commissioner to have a major soccer background before taking the job. It needs to be said that he\u2019s only the third commissioner in league history: Doug Logan had the job first, from 1996-99, and Garber has had it since. He will stay in the job through the end of this year, then spend 2027 with the new title of chairman.<\/p>\n
Larry Berg and wife Allison attend a gala in Los Angeles in 2025. Larry Berg is the newest MLS commissioner and the first to have an extensive soccer background. (Frazer Harrison\/Getty Images\/TNS)<\/p>\n
Logan worked in sports marketing, in particular around basketball and hockey. Garber came from the NFL, where he had spent 16 years in a variety of roles \u2014 the last leading the league\u2019s international business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Larry, our league has found exactly the leader we need at this time,\u201d Garber said, coincidentally speaking 27 years to the day since his hiring was announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe understands it because he helped build it,\u201d Garber continued. \u201cHe knows our clubs and knows our league because he\u2019s experienced it full time, and understands the opportunities and the challenges ahead. \u2026 I think your integrity, your ambition, your thoughtfulness, your smarts, your respect that you have for the game, is going to help take this league to where we all want it to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berg, 60, has been around soccer since his childhood. He was a fan of the old Philadelphia Atoms of the North American Soccer League back in the day, and has been a devoted traveler to U.S. national team games for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to take you back to 1974: I was eight years old when my father saw a flyer taped to a telephone pole announcing a brand new youth soccer league in our hometown,\u201d he recalled. \u201cHe didn\u2019t know anything about soccer, to be clear, but he thought it looked interesting and signed me up anyway \u2014 there were only two teams, so we played the same opponent every weekend. I don\u2019t think either of us could have imagined that one decision would eventually lead me here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosenthal said his committee believed from the start that \u201cwe needed somebody who had a passion for the game, and there was nobody who had a bigger passion than Larry. And when we say the word passion, Larry described this role as something he had \u2018a calling\u2019 to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen how much of an impact that actually has. But there surely will be some impact, directly and subtly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve experienced this sport as a player, a fan, an owner, and now with tremendous humility as next commissioner,\u201d Berg said. \u201cThe foundation has been built. Now it\u2019s our responsibility to build on it, and that\u2019s what excites me most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berg specifically noted how important it is for the league to capture the afterglow of this summer\u2019s World Cup, and ensure all the new soccer fans it created come to MLS specifically.<\/p>\n
\u201cMillions of people across North America experienced that passion firsthand: they fell in love with the drama, the atmosphere, the supporter culture, and the emotion that makes soccer unlike anything else,\u201d he said. \u201cThat creates an extraordinary opportunity for all of us. The question isn\u2019t whether people are paying attention to soccer \u2014 they are. The question is what we do with this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 There are plenty of fun stories to tell about Larry Berg\u2019s roots in soccer. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,4788,141,140,2062,76046,110],"class_list":["post-366945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-soccer","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}