After meeting with the New York Red Bulls coaches, players and staff, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber held what was at times a spirited nearly 90 minute discussion Thursday with New York area reporters about all things MLS at the Red Bulls offices.
As he did in Los Angeles last week, Garber touched on several different subjects, from the league's plan for expansion, the possibility of the schedule better fitting into the FIFA calendar and starting a Champions League-type competition with the Mexican league.
One topic that especially hit home for the New York Red Bulls, whose president and general manager Alexi Lalas sat in the corner listening to the round table discussion, was the addition of academies.
The Red Bulls are the first team in the league to start an academy and have a player this year -- 16-year-old Johnny Exantus -- they believe could play on the senior team now. But with the rules that are currently in place, Exantus, who is known as "Johnny X", would have to enter the MLS SuperDraft or be put into a weighted lottery instead of going directly to the Red Bulls.
That rule will change in the near future, Garber said.
"If a team invests in player development through the creation of academy, those players that they develop will be the rights to that team, still being signed by the league but that player won't have to go into the draft," Garber said. "So imagine Kevin Garnett, who is from Brooklyn and is developed by the Knicks, being the rights for the Knicks and not play for the Minnesota Timberwolves."
The announcement for the academy plan is expected in the next week or two.
"If you've got a player in your development program for two years and you've satisfied all the minimum standards that we will lay out, that player will become a 'home grown player,' " MLS Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis said. "The clock on those home grown players starts now, this year."
Garber also discussed the addition of Red Bull Limited, the second foreign, single-entity owner in the league.
"This is a landmark transaction for soccer in America and probably for professional sports. Clearly it's innovative and something that was not taken lightly, having a corporation buy a soccer team and rebrand it was thought long and hard about," he said. "But we looked at the brand, they're leading marketers, we look at the fact they believe in the sport, they've been engaged in it in Europe, they believe in the ability to capture the youth market and deliver it to Major League Soccer and ultimately to the New York Red Bulls is something that got us to believe it was a leap we needed to make."
And, as he's said in the past, Garber said a second New York-based team is important, although that won't happen until 2010 at the earliest. He cited the three sold-out matches in The Home Depot Center derby between the Galaxy and Chivas USA as something that could happen in the New York area.
"We do believe we need the rivalry in this market," Garber said. "We need to get the [Red Bull Park] stadium open, we need to get the Red Bulls up and operating and back to the level of fan following we had in the early years. And once we get them on firm footing, then we hope to be able to add a second team."
And part of the growth of MLS and its rivalries in the Northeast will include the Philadelphia-market team out of Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. A stadium plan, which will be a replica of The Home Depot Center on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills, was announced two weeks ago. As for an owner, Garber said there have been several potential suitors.
"Fortunately a number of people have expressed an interest in owning a team in that market, particularly with the deal that has been put in place by the state and Rowan University," he said.
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
