Don Garber

Through its first 5 years of existence, Major League Soccer lost roughly $250M and the 6 original owners were on the brink of folding the league. Cue first time commissioner, Don Garber -- an executive without any soccer experience, with a vision to change the industry forever. That was in 1999. Today, franchises are selling for $325M each, MLS has major media partnerships with ESPN, Fox and Univision, and national sponsorships with Adidas, AT&T, AllState, Audi and Home Depot, to name a few. It's been a long, rough and windy road, and on the show Commissioner Garber and I discuss how he got here. From changing material rules on the pitch, to creating designated player exemptions that led to the acquisition of global superstars like David Beckham and Zlatan, to coalescing North American soccer properties to form Soccer United Marketing, to investing in ground-up stadium builds...we cover it all. This is one of those shows...if you're a young professional or major industry executive, listening to Don Garber will provide you with tips and insights on how to build or shape your career into one that's both effective and fulfilling.

You can listen to Don Garber online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Don Garber is an episode from Suiting Up with Paul Rabil.

This episode is 69:40 long.

This episode was published on Apr 19, 2021.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Suiting Up with Paul Rabil when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.