‘This market wants to see trophies’: MLS commissioner says Union’s success is ‘going to have to deliver a championship’

When MLS commissioner Don Garber came to Chester last Thursday to help the Union christen their expanded facilities, he brought an analogy with him.

“I think they think of themselves like the Oakland A’s, who’ve won championships,” he said. “How do they use technology and data, and how do they use good development to be able to outsmart their opponents? And I admire what Jay [Sugarman, the team’s principal owner] and Ernst [Tanner, the sporting director] have done to stay true to that mission, and I’m just really impressed. It’s astounding to me.”

Garber meant the Athletics of decades past, the ones that won three World Series in the 1970s and another in 1989 on a run to three straight Fall Classics. He certainly meant the “Moneyball” eras of the 2000s and 2010s, too, all those times they reached the playoffs with a small payroll and a disliked stadium.

But he knew the analogy didn’t fully work. He certainly didn’t mean the A’s who racked up 102, 112, and 93 losses from 2022-24. Or the A’s who scarred Oakland fans by leaving for a minor-league park in Sacramento while waiting to end up in Las Vegas. (Coincidentally, two of the key players in that have MLS ties: team owner John Fisher also owns the San Jose Earthquakes, and former president Dave Kaval once held that team’s same role.)

This was duly pointed out, and he agreed.

“I used the A’s because the A’s, they’re not about spending the most,” Garber said. “They’re about, throughout their history — not necessarily the last couple years — throughout their history, thinking about how to use data, technology, and a plan to try to perform. And I only use it for that reason. I’m not comparing them off the field.”

» READ MORE: Jay Sugarman calls the Union’s first 16 years ‘the warmup.’ Can he now deliver the trophies he wants?

There is no question that the Union don’t spend the most. Their player payroll is perennially among MLS’s lowest, this year second from the bottom. And there is no question that they have achieved success far beyond their financial standing.

Since the start of 2019, the Union have piled up the second-most standing points of any team in the league. They have the second-highest points-per-season average of what’s now 30 clubs on the circuit, one of just two teams with a number above 50.

Yet the trophy case is still mostly empty. The 2020 Supporters’ Shield is the only tangible thing the team has to show for its success.

Garber sees this as clearly as Union fans do, knowing how badly MLS needs its big-market teams to be successful so the league can grow. Philadelphia, Chicago, New England, and both New York teams have long failed to carry the weight they do in other sports.

The Union are closest to fixing that. Will it happen this year, with the team second in the Eastern Conference and league-wide heading into the All-Star break? Garber would like to see it.

“Eventually, that’s going to deliver more than a Supporters’ Shield,” he said. “It’s going to have to deliver a championship, particularly in this market. This market wants to see trophies, and I know they’re very focused on trying to deliver those trophies.”

» READ MORE: The Union’s new sportsplex was Tim McDermott’s dream. Reality could look a few different ways.

Garber knows many Union fans are skeptical, and that their view is well-earned. His words will no doubt be framed by many Union fans and used to hold the team to the commissioner’s standard.

But his optimism doesn’t just come from his knowledge of the Union’s operations. He and Sugarman have been close friends for a long time, and it’s not just something portrayed on camera.

“What this team has done with a stadium that’s not in the urban core [of Philadelphia], but it’s been able to create its own identity and its own personality, its own business plan around a campus and a complex, I think is smart,” Garber said. “Rather than just say, ‘You know, we’re going to do what everybody else does.’ If you spend time with Jay, Jay’s like a scientist. He’s thinking about things differently, and I think he’s a great teammate with Ernst.”

Garber’s unprompted mention of Subaru Park’s location brought the rest of MLS into the picture. Nothing symbolizes the league’s growth over its 30-year history than its facilities. Stadiums have changed from NFL venues to suburban sprawl to city jewels, while teams’ training facilities and youth academies rival Europe’s standards.

The Union and Garber know that new stadiums are going up in the heart of cities like Miami, Chicago, and New York, and Boston might join the list in coming years. They will make Subaru Park an exception, not the rule.

» READ MORE: The Union want their new multisport facility to be for the Chester community as much as the team

But Garber respects the campus that the Union have built in Chester, and its potential to continue the team’s outstanding track record of developing American talent. Creating homegrown stars is another key piece of the league’s ambitions, and a required one if it’s to truly rival the world’s best.

“How do you ensure that it’s not just bricks and mortar?” Garber said. “That it’s a laboratory for innovation, that it’s helping to develop great players that might now not be training at the highest level — might feel like they have to leave our country to get that training, and develop to be a great global soccer star. And really importantly, connect the dots from the bottom: academy through MLS Next Pro [the reserve league] to the first team.”

Next year’s World Cup here can accelerate lots of things for the sport in this country. But there’s a growing fear among observers that the league isn’t doing enough beforehand to make what comes after as great as possible.

It’s no surprise that Garber’s view is more positive. This week will tell us what the rest of the league sees, through a Board of Governors meeting amid All-Star festivities in Austin, Texas.

» READ MORE: The Union won’t say how they’ll vote on MLS’ calendar change, but they’re hinting they’re for it

“The World Cup isn’t really just one singular opportunity,” Garber said. “It really is almost like a seismic explosion of opportunity for everybody that’s involved in the soccer ecosystem here in our country.”

He said the league would “go through a plan coming into our board meeting of how our teams can have the proper marketing, the proper advertising, the proper programs to be able to connect in the community, like fan fests. And ensuring that whether they’re in a World Cup city and being able to connect with the host committee, or outside of a World Cup city, being able to be the centerpiece for World Cup excitement.”

This summer’s Club World Cup was a dress rehearsal, with three MLS teams in the field and games in 12 cities — all of which have MLS teams.

“Rather than think of that as something that would be distracting, we’re leaning into these things that are happening that are bringing a lot more attention to professional soccer at the highest level,” Garber said. “When all those big clubs leave, the Philadelphia Union are right here in town. And their job is to be sure that they can capture the interest of those people through data, through proper marketing, through facilities that are going to provide a great live experience, but also for a team that could excite them.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia shone in the soccer world like never before during the Club World Cup

MLS was born out of the 1994 World Cup’s impact on the United States. Next year’s impact could be just as big, and possibly bigger if harnessed right.

“I’m very pleased with the amount of energy that FIFA has put into how they ensure that the league and our clubs strategically benefit from the World Cup,” Garber said. “That it’s not just a moment of excitement and then it’s gone, but it creates an ongoing lift.”