As Major League Soccer embarks on its 30th season, we consulted a variety of experts to put together this snapshot of 30 people from the league’s past, present (and, surely, future) who have taken it from ambitious startup to thriving property. Certainly there would be room for many more, so consider this just a snapshot of the league’s movers and shakers during its first three decades.
The Architects
Alan Rothenberg (President, U.S. Soccer): Rothenberg fulfilled U.S. Soccer’s promise as part of its 1994 FIFA World Cup bid to launch a new professional soccer league in America. He devised MLS’s unique single-entity structure, secured its founding owners, hired its first employees and served as its first board chairman.
Mark Abbott (President and Deputy Commissioner, MLS): Tapped by Rothenberg as a young lawyer to write the league’s original business plan, Abbott laid the foundation that the league has built on ever since. As one of the league’s top decision-makers for nearly three decades, Abbott was critical to the league’s rapid expansion during the 2010s and early 2020s before retiring at the end of 2022.
The Originals
Randy Bernstein (Chief Marketing Officer, MLS): MLS’s first chief marketing officer built the league’s commercial program from the ground up, determining which categories would be controlled by the league and which would be open to individual clubs. He secured more than $100 million in sponsorship revenue before a single ball had been kicked.
Kathy Carter (VP/Corporate Marketing, MLS and President, SUM): An original member of the league’s commercial team from 1995-99, Carter returned to the league in 2003 as a top executive at the newly formed Soccer United Marketing. She took over as president of SUM in 2010, building it into a profit center for the growing league. She later served as CEO of LA28.
Todd Durbin (EVP/Player Strategy and Relations, MLS): Since joining MLS as an intern in 1995, Durbin has personally signed more than 1,500 player contracts and helped evolve the league’s competition guidelines as it grew from startup to major league. He is the only employee to work in the league office from its inaugural match continuously through its 30th anniversary.
Ivan Gazidis (Deputy Commissioner, MLS and President, SUM): Gazidis became MLS’s second full-time employee in 1994 and was among its lead soccer minds in the league’s formative years. As the first president of Soccer United Marketing, he was instrumental in diversifying the league’s business interests and built long-standing commercial relationships with the Mexican Football Federation and Concacaf. He left in 2009 to become chief executive of Arsenal.
Sunil Gulati (Deputy Commissioner, MLS): Gulati was instrumental in getting MLS off the ground, working alongside Alan Rothenberg and Mark Abbott on both business and competition-related matters. Following the successful 1994 World Cup, Gulati signed more than two-thirds of the U.S. national team roster to MLS contracts, helping the upstart league build on momentum from the tournament, along with several international stars. He later served as the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The Owners
Phil Anschutz (Founding Owner, MLS): The namesake of the MLS Cup trophy carried the league on his back through its darkest days, bankrolling as many as six teams at a time to keep the business afloat in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The team he still owns today, the LA Galaxy, is the winningest in league history and the most impactful in growing the league’s domestic and global stature, particularly through its signing of David Beckham in 2007.
Lamar Hunt (Founding Owner, MLS): A lifelong patron of soccer in America, Hunt owned as many as three MLS franchises at a time and financed the construction of the league’s first and third soccer-specific stadiums in Columbus and Dallas, respectively. He died in 2006, but his sons, Clark and Dan, have carried on his legacy and played major roles in shaping league strategy.
Robert Kraft (Founding Owner, MLS): Like Anschutz and Hunt, Kraft’s unwavering support of MLS through its early struggles was critical to the league’s survival. He and his son, Jonathan, who serves as president of the New England Revolution, were also major proponents of hiring Don Garber as the league’s second commissioner, a decision that changed the course of league history.
The Leader
Don Garber (Commissioner, MLS): MLS may not have made it to its third season, much less its 30th, without hiring Garber in 1999 after 17 years at the NFL. His decisive leadership and vision convinced the league’s three remaining owners to double down, ensuring MLS’s survival. He has since grown MLS into the country’s fifth major men’s sports league through the courting of deep-pocketed owners, a dedication to the construction of soccer-specific stadiums, gaining the support of influential media and corporate partners and diversifying the business through the creation of Soccer United Marketing.
The Team Builders
Tim Leiweke (President and CEO, AEG): As Phil Anschutz’s top lieutenant, Leiweke helped guide the league through its struggles in the early years. He spearheaded the construction of the league’s second soccer-specific stadium, now known as Dignity Health Sports Park, in Los Angeles. As the league stabilized, he built the Galaxy into MLS’s most iconic franchise and changed the course of league history with his recruitment of David Beckham. He later served as CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns Toronto FC.
Kevin Payne (President and CEO, D.C. United): Payne assembled the original investor group behind D.C. United, one of the league’s founding clubs, and built it into MLS’s original dynasty. D.C. United won three titles in the league’s first four seasons. Payne helped shape league strategy as a representative to the MLS board and oversaw the operation of six teams during a brief stint with AEG in the early 2000s.
The Judge
Michael Boudin (Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit): A lesser-known name in sports business circles, Boudin’s decision in the landmark antitrust case of Fraser v. MLS in 2002 provided the league’s single-entity structure legal legitimacy and brought a years-long court battle with the players to an end. The defeat for the players also led to the formation of the MLS Players Association the following year.
The American Icons
Alexi Lalas (Player, GM and Broadcaster): Coming out of the 1994 World Cup, Lalas was the face of U.S. soccer thanks in part to his bright red hair and goatee. As such, he was one of MLS’s most popular players at its inception. As an executive, he ran soccer operations for three teams, including the LA Galaxy when the club signed David Beckham. As a broadcaster for ESPN and Fox, he has spread the gospel of American soccer — often drawing the ire of viewers but rarely losing their attention.
Landon Donovan (player): The top player on every list of MLS’s all-time greats, Donovan served as an American face of the league for over a decade. His World Cup performances for the U.S. men’s national team, most notably in 2002 and 2010, provided MLS with much-needed credibility on a global stage and legitimacy as a destination for top U.S. talent. He is also the league’s winningest player with six MLS Cup titles, and retired in 2016 as the leader in goals scored with 145 (he is now third on that list).
The Sponsors
Tony Ponturo (VP/Global Media, Anheuser-Busch): Ponturo granted MLS instant credibility when he made Budweiser the league’s first corporate partner ahead of its launch. Anheuser-Busch stayed in the fold for two decades, much of that time as a backer of Soccer United Marketing’s entire portfolio.
Chris McGuire (VP/Sports Marketing, Adidas North America): When MLS launched in 1996, it had marketing relationships with several sportswear brands, including Adidas, Mitre, Nike, Puma and Reebok. McGuire, who joined Adidas in 1999, was the driving force behind the brand becoming the league’s exclusive kit provider in 2005, a relationship that lives on heading into the league’s 30th season.
The Media Partners
John Skipper (President, ESPN): A soccer evangelist throughout his tenure at ESPN, Skipper was the first media executive willing to place a bet on MLS as a TV product in the form of a rights fee: an eight-year, $64 million deal from 2007-14. By the time that deal expired, Skipper had risen to president of ESPN and he bet on MLS again, joining with Fox and Univision to pay a combined $90 million a year for the league’s TV rights through 2022.
Eddy Cue (Senior VP/Service, Apple): When MLS took its entire media rights inventory to the open market after the 2022 season, Cue saw an opportunity to change the way live sports are sold and consumed. The resulting 10-year, $2.5 billion partnership beginning in 2023 made Apple TV the global distributor of every MLS match and tied MLS’s future to the tech giant’s streaming business in a first-of-its-kind deal.
The Player Reps
Bob Foose (Executive Director, MLSPA): Foose has led the MLS Players Association since its establishment in 2003, negotiating four collective-bargaining agreements during that stretch without any work stoppages. The union has made meaningful gains under Foose’s leadership, including the establishment and expansion of free agency and the growth of overall spending on player salaries.
Rich Motzkin (Executive VP/Global Soccer, Wasserman): Motzkin saw opportunity in representing American soccer players after the 1994 World Cup and has since become the country’s most influential soccer agent. His business was acquired by Wasserman in 2006, and his career client list includes players such as Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Donovan and Lalas, as well as Bruce Arena, who has coached five MLS teams and won five MLS Cups.
The Game Changers
David Beckham (Player; Co-Owner, Inter Miami): When the opportunity for the Galaxy to recruit Beckham arose, MLS introduced the designated player mechanism, paving the way for teams to sign highly paid global stars and forever raising the level of play. When he joined LA Galaxy in 2007, the combination of his sporting prowess and celebrity status gave the league more cultural cachet than ever before. He retired in 2013 but returned to MLS as a co-owner of Inter Miami CF when that club launched in 2020. Three years later he helped recruit the heir apparent to his throne as MLS’s most iconic star, Lionel Messi.
Lionel Messi (Player): When Messi, the most revered sports figure in the world, agreed to sign with Inter Miami, it had an immediate impact: It brought the league unprecedented global attention and credibility, materially changed the annual budget of any team fortunate enough to host Inter Miami at home and quadrupled Inter Miami’s revenue within a year. It also prompted philosophical discussions among power brokers about the future of the league, the effects of which could long outlast the Argentine legend’s career in America.
The Growth-Drivers
Larry Tanenbaum (Chairman, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment): Canada wasn’t on MLS’s radar for expansion in the mid-2000s until it received overtures from Tanenbaum and MLSE. The league became binational in 2007 with the addition of Toronto FC, which has been core to the league’s identity and business strategy ever since. The club was also among the best early examples of the supporter culture that defines the MLS experience today.
Adrian Hanauer (Owner, Seattle Sounders): Led by Hanauer, the Sounders raised the bar for the rest of MLS upon joining in 2009. Routinely playing before raucous crowds of more than 40,000, the Seattle faithful showed that fan culture in North America could rival that found in more traditional soccer nations. The club has missed the playoffs once in 16 seasons, won two MLS Cups and is the only MLS team to win the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Jonathan Nelson (Executive Chairman, Providence Equity Partners): Providence’s 2012 investment of $150 million for a 25% stake in Soccer United Marketing provided the league with a critical cash infusion at a pivotal time in its growth trajectory. The outside buy-in, and Providence’s eventual tripling of its investment, also served to legitimize MLS and SUM in the eyes of other potential investors.
Arthur Blank (Owner, Atlanta United): Blank’s insistence on putting an MLS expansion team in a new NFL-sized stadium was a tough sell to a league pushing soccer-specific stadiums, but it proved to be a wise move. Atlanta United has led the league in attendance every year since 2017, averaging upward of 45,000 fans per game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and regularly setting single-match attendance records.
Gary Stevenson (Deputy Commissioner, MLS; President, Soccer United Marketing): A sports media veteran by the time he joined MLS in 2013, Stevenson negotiated the league’s 2014 broadcast deals with ESPN, Fox and Univision that quintupled annual media rights revenue to $90 million a year. He was also the strategist behind the plan to free up all MLS media rights inventory ahead of the 2023 season, which unlocked the league’s monumental streaming deal with Apple.
Jorge Mas (owner; Inter Miami): Mas’ pursuit of Lionel Messi was audacious and ambitious, yet cool and calculated. When the opportunity presented itself in 2023, Mas was willing to invest more than $125 million in salary, bonuses and team equity over three years to bring the world’s best-known soccer player to MLS. The move instantly raised the profile of the league and made Inter Miami a global brand.
