Larry Berg to become next MLS commissioner after owners vote on Garber successor

Los Angeles FC co-owner Larry Berg has been voted the next commissioner of Major League Soccer.

Berg, 60, will become just the third commissioner in the league’s history. He and former Fox executive David Nathanson were the two finalists to succeed Don Garber, who is expected to remain in the job through the end of the calendar year, at least (his contract runs through 2027). MLS owners voted Monday, and Berg received the required two-thirds super majority to be approved as the next commissioner, sources told The Athletic.

Garber has served as commissioner since 1999 and oversaw the growth of MLS from 12 teams to 30 this year, along with an increase in franchise valuations that make MLS one of the most valuable soccer leagues in the world.

Berg and Nathanson made final presentations to MLS owners on Monday at the league’s headquarters in New York City. Only primary governors were in attendance for the vote.

Berg, a former senior partner at Apollo Global Management, will have to divest his ownership stake in LAFC as he takes on the new role. He will be charged with leading MLS into its next era of growth. League owners already voted last year to flip the calendar to align MLS, and its primary and secondary transfer windows, with the top European leagues. The new schedule will also put MLS playoffs in May, which will give the league’s best product a marquee television window. The league also approved plans to alter the competition format, including the regular season and postseason.

The league has several critical decisions ahead, however.

League owners heard a presentation last week at the MLS All-Star game around alterations to the roster rules and budget guidelines, which would alter how teams are allowed to spend money. The aim is to streamline rules and make it easier for teams to spend throughout the roster to make MLS more competitive with Liga MX and other global soccer leagues. Getting those changes across the line — and doing so in time for the calendar switch in the summer of 2027 — is critical, but will require negotiations with the MLS Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement.

The league will also soon go back to market for a new media rights deal. The current deal with Apple expires in the summer of 2029. MLS will be paid $200 million for its 2026 season and $107.5 million for the “sprint season” that will run from February to May 2027. The league will then receive $275 million per year for the final two seasons of the deal, which will be MLS’s first in the new summer-to-spring format.

Don Garber presents Larry Berg with a gift ahead of the 2021 MLS All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Next up: a transition of power (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA TODAY Sports)

MLS will try to convince a new partner — or potentially Apple — that it deserves far more money in the next deal. The league has claimed that viewership is up on Apple this year after coming out from behind the MLS Season Pass paywall, but Apple does not release numbers, so those claims are unverifiable. League owners and executives will likely point to record TV numbers for the World Cup to convince partners of the soccer audience that exists. But, to this point, the league has not done enough to show its product can pull in those types of audiences, and there is more competition than ever on TV, including Liga MX, the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League.

That Nathanson was a finalist is indicative of how important media rights are to MLS’s future. The league lags behind competitors in the value of its domestic deal and needs to significantly increase revenues there in order to grow the business. (Longtime San Francisco 49ers executive Paraag Marathe was another finalist, though he withdrew from consideration and subsequently announced he was leaving his role with the 49ers to focus more on Leeds United and Rangers FC.)

Berg is intimately familiar with the changes needed with MLS. He was elevated to be co-chair of the sporting and competition committee, a group of owners charged with tending to the on-field product. Berg pushed to drive efficiency around decision making at the committee level, which often took years to get decisions across the line.

While some may view Berg as leaning toward the more aggressive arm of the debate within MLS’s board of governors, which has major philosophical differences between factions of owners, the LAFC owner was seen as more moderate within the committee. While he did push for changes, including spearheading the under-22 initiative, Berg has not called for radical changes to the league, like spending without a salary cap.

Still, Berg has not hidden from the fact that evolution is necessary.

“I don’t think anyone believes that not changing is a potential outcome,” Berg said in my book, The Messi Effect. “People have different views on what should be changed, and I respect that, but I don’t know that anybody’s coming up and saying, ‘You know what? We got a really good thing going. We don’t need to change a thing. We’re gonna risk it all.’ No one is in that mode. We all understand we’re a challenger league. We’re growing and we have to keep doing things. What those things are —­ people differ.”