SAN JOSE — Don Garber’s clout as MLS commissioner obviously allows but doesn’t require him to attend every game Lionel Messi plays.
Sure, he has made it to marquee ones “to check out the energy” at season openers, playoff tilts, and those games Inter Miami has played with the magical Messi at larger venues.
When PayPal Park’s 18,000-seat capacity gets maxed out Wednesday night for the first sight of Messi visiting the San Jose Earthquakes, Garber will be a gleeful guest of Earthquakes owner John Fisher.
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi (10) controls the ball as Minnesota United defender Anthony Markanich (13) defends during the first half of an MLS soccer match Saturday, May 10, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
“This is going to be a big game. A lot of attention is going to be brought to soccer, Major League Soccer and the Earthquakes with this match,” Garber told this news organization in an exclusive phone interview. “I can’t wait to be there. You know, I’ve spent a lot of time in the Bay Area in my time as commissioner. It’s going to be super awesome and cool.”
Garber’s Silicon Valley visit also includes meetings with Cupertino-based Apple, a pivotal partner not just in MLS’s growing outreach globally but in bringing Messi aboard two years ago as soccer’s most acclaimed player.
While Messi has not conducted an MLS press conference in nearly two years, Garber recently conducted a 30-minute phone interview with Bay Area News Group’s Cam Inman about the impact of Messi, Apple’s MLS Season Pass and other league issues. The following has been edited for brevity.
Cam Inman: What makes Messi such a compelling attraction to MLS?
Don Garber: “I know we’re living in a moment of history when you have the best player in the world playing in our league in real time. We say often it’s really a great honor and it’s super exciting to have Messi wear a pink MLS Inter Miami jersey. At the same time, our league is bigger than one player. And it is very much about capturing all of the energy and excitement for soccer in North America. I think about that and remind everybody of that every day.
“That being said, what could be better than living a part of history and being able to say – as so many fans have done in so many cities, on the road and certainly through every Miami game – we’ve experienced the best player in the world playing with great passion and scoring goals and having a great time?”
MLS soccer Commissioner Don Garber arrives at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Trophy Tour, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Inman: Is there a way, beyond ticket sales, to quantify how transcendent he’s been for MLS the past couple of years?
Garber: “The biggest measure is we’ve had this goal of being one of the top leagues in the world. That’s about having a really high quality of play and having passionate fans, great stadiums and capturing the imagination of a growing soccer market. We’ve been able to achieve that and Messi has taken that story so many steps further.
“There is not a place you go anywhere in the world where you don’t feel that there is awareness of Messi playing Major League Soccer. I was in a remote fishing camp in Colorado last summer, and one of the guides was not wearing a fishing shirt but he was wearing a pink Messi jersey. I just thought that was hilarious. He grew up in Argentina and he said, ‘This is my idol and I am so proud he is here in my country,’ playing in what he described as ‘his league’, which is really awesome.
“Certainly globally more people are aware of MLS, more people are aware of the great environments we have in our stadiums, and really are aware of the development that has taken place in our league. I hope he stays with the league for years to come and can be a part of helping to grow our league as the World Cup comes in ’26 and the Club World Cup comes with Messi in it in 2025.”
Inman: You could say he’s so globally recognized that the Vatican named a pope after him yesterday with Pope Leo.
Garber: “(Laughing). One of our owners had a child and named his kid Leo. I said, ‘Why would you name your kid after a player on another team?’ He said, ‘I didn’t name him after Messi, Don. That’s my grandfather’s name.”
Inman: MLS celebrated its 30th season last month in San Jose. It’s pretty amazing looking at the longevity of the league. The league has tripled (to 30 teams). With every pro league, so much is based off broadcast revenue. So when you hooked up with Apple a couple of years ago – obviously Apple is from the Bay Area and grew up in Cupertino, the same place I did, just down Bubb Road – how do you look at that contract and that relationship? How has Apple helped MLS and vice versa?
Garber: “When we were thinking of what would be an innovative and globally important way to move forward in the media space, we thought about a digital-first offering that would cater to fans. Our research showed that more than 85% were consuming global soccer digitally, that were very engaged socially with content that goes beyond the game, and that wanted easy access, not just to a game of the week but to every game.
“Apple was the perfect partner and we were fortunate to reach a deal with them. They are not just a great technology company, but through their services business, they really touch a global audience of a billion people who are engaging with their digital devices, be it a phone, a tablet or their television set. We’ve been able to create a product in MLS Season Pass that we think has broken the mold for how consumers and fans engage with their favorite teams and their favorite league.”
Inman: How are the ratings, because those aren’t publicly shared? Is that a big sticking point?
Garber: “It’s not necessarily a sticking point because it’s so new. … When you’re dealing with a global audience and dealing with 12 games on a weekend, all that are offered for the most part on a same day, the industry really hasn’t fully figured out a way to properly measure that. We measure it in ways that we know our audience has grown, and that’s coming from me.
“We know how many people are engaging with our games, and it’s larger than in the past. Remember, most of our games were local (broadcast) in the past, when we had only one or two games a week nationally. We now have 600 games a season, all distributed globally. Very, very importantly, we do know they’re spending way more time watching these games and engaging with them.”
Cristian Espinoza #10 of San Jose Earthquakes celebrates with Cristian Arango #9 and Beau Leroux #34 after he scored a goal against the Portland Timbers in the first half at PayPal Park on May 03, 2025 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Inman: Most MLS games are late kickoffs. There’s usually one or two day games on a Saturday. Does that positively impact viewership? Growing up here (in the 1970s and ‘80s), the Earthquakes offered day games. Are there complaints that there are too many night games rather than day games?
Garber: “That’s really interesting. You’re the first person that asked that. We had 60 different start times when we were on our previous media deals, because we were scheduled based on where our former media partners were able to put our games, as opposed to us scheduling our games the way our teams and fans wanted.
“Our attendance has gone up and our audience has grown because of that concentrated schedule (with almost all kickoffs at 7:30 pm. local time). That being said, we are playing around with it. We did have more afternoon starts this year to see how that would work. We now have a Sunday night game of the week; we’ve played around with some of those in the afternoon.”
Inman: I have a friend who had a cup of coffee in the MLS but played a lot in the A-League, and he wanted to know if MLS will ever go towards a relegation/promotion format the way other leagues do in soccer?
Garber: “Not anytime soon. It makes no sense for us to build stadiums and invest in infrastructure driven by revenue expectations that you can both plan for and finance against. That being said, life is a long time. When the Clash were starting in MLS, I don’t think anybody ever expected there’d be 30 teams and the World Cup would be in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. We’re always thinking of ways to ensure our league can be more popular and more globally relevant.”
Inman: What’s the impact of the World Cup on MLS and your task to build interest, although I don’t know if that is necessary when it’s the most globally recognized event?
Garber: “I just jumped off a U.S. Soccer board call. We spent quite a bit of time talking about the upcoming World Cup in 2026, the Club World Cup in 2025, and then the Women’s World Cup in 2031, which we hope is in the United States and this region.
“The World Cup really is the rocket fuel that will power all of us to greater levels of awareness and engagement. When you have the best and the most popular tournament in the world, and the best clubs in the world coming in and competing in an environment that I think will just defy the expectations of any sport fans or anybody in the public that just loves big events, it will lift all boats.”
Inman: That showed in ’94 with MLS getting its start after that World Cup and carrying that momentum, right?
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Garber: “Exactly. I attended the World Cup final in 1994. It was the first big soccer event I had ever attended. You never know where things can go and life takes you. I never expected, as I sat and watched Brazil play Italy to a 0-0 tie and a heartbreaking penalty shootout that Italy lost, that I’d be sitting here 26 years later running Major League Soccer.”
Inman: Does the league have to give any guidance to players who have to leave on international duty with stricter border controls?
Garber: “No, not at all.”
Inman: Locally, with John Fisher owning the ‘Quakes, I’m sure you’re aware how negatively he was looked upon for owning the A’s and moving them out of Oakland. Different league, different team, so what is your view of John Fisher owning the Earthquakes?
Garber: “John doesn’t get enough credit for the things he’s done to bring the team back to San Jose when it moved to Houston in 2006. He’s built and privately financed a stadium. He believes very much in the club and is doing everything he can over time to ensure that the Earthquakes matter, that they deliver value for their fans and he’s done the best he can over the years to put a good team on the field.
“If you look at what’s happened most recently, they broke a club record for their transfer fee over the last two years, what they’ve done with Carlos (Gruezo) in 2023 and Hernán López in 2024. To have Bruce Arena, who arguably is the most legendary coach in U.S. soccer history, to both be their coach and sporting director … They hired this really terrific player in Chicho Arango (in a trade with Real Salt Lake) and they brought in Josef Martinez. This year, and the last couple of years, there’s a lot to be excited about with the Earthquakes, for sure.”
