Berg Chosen by League Owners as the New MLS Commissioner

Major League Soccer has a new leader. Team owners across the league picked Larry Berg, who has owned LAFC, to take over as commissioner. He’ll be replacing Don Garber, who has held the job since 1999 and helped the league grow a lot bigger and more valuable over the years.

Before Berg can officially start, he has to sell off his ownership share in LAFC. The league doesn’t allow the commissioner to also own a team, so this was expected. It’s still a big personal decision for him though, since he’s been closely tied to that club for a long time.

Getting picked wasn’t easy. A few other names were in the running too, including someone with a strong background in sports media deals. Owners spent time listening to presentations from each finalist before making their final decision.

Right now, MLS is dealing with a lot of moving parts. One of the biggest is a plan to change when the season happens, shifting things closer to how soccer works in Europe. That means the playoffs could eventually happen in the spring instead of the fall as they do now. Along with that shift, the rules around how much teams can spend on players and how rosters are built are expected to change too. None of this is finalized yet, and it will require talks with the players’ union before anything becomes official.

TV and streaming money is another major topic. The league’s current media deal won’t last forever, and there’s already talk about needing a much bigger deal next time around. Other leagues around the world bring in more TV money than MLS does, so proving there’s a big enough audience will matter a lot going forward.

As for what kind of commissioner Berg might be, people who’ve worked with him describe him as practical. He likes pushing for progress, but he’s not known for wanting extreme or risky changes. He’s been involved in efforts to speed up decision-making and support younger players coming up through the league, but he hasn’t pushed for something drastic like getting rid of spending limits altogether.

What does seem clear is that Berg doesn’t think the league can just stay the same. Most people around MLS seem to agree that some kind of change is coming. The bigger question now is just how far that change will go, and that’s something Berg will have to figure out early in his new role.