MLS will have a new commissioner starting in 2027, but don’t expect the league to adopt the promotion and relegation system seen in league systems throughout the world anytime soon.
Larry Berg, a co-owner of MLS club Los Angeles FC and the league’s incoming boss, said in his introductory press conference on Tuesday that he doesn’t think that the long-mooted idea of bringing “pro/rel” to the North American league is “appropriate”.
“I can understand the appeal for the fans, [but] I don’t think it’s a great way to build a league, I don’t think it’s a way to get stadiums built, get training facilities built, and to have owners invest in rosters and all the other things you need to do,” Berg said. “So the great thing about promotion/relegation for fans is that the jeopardy is quite severe. But I think there are other ways to create jeopardy during the regular season, [and] again in the playoffs, during the playoffs to get to the next round. That’s what we want to focus on.”
MLS, which began play in 1996, is unique among global soccer leagues because of its single-entity structure, which see the central league office holds the ownership rights of all the teams and player contracts. This structure was a key role in reducing risk and attracting the league’s first investors. Promotion and relegation, too, was not implemented both because there were not enough teams to make it viable, and also because of the risk it posed to team owners, who not only controlled their own team’s operations but also acted as investor/operators for the league itself. The US has a second division league – the USL Championship – but the two organizations have not shown any inclination toward working together since MLS teams pulled their reserve teams out of the USL after the Covid-19 pandemic.
MLS has grown from as little at 10 teams at the turn of the century to 30 in 2026 – a rapid period of expansion that has raised the possibility that the league may continue to expand and enact an internal version of pro/rel; an MLS1 and MLS2, if you will.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for our league,” Berg said. “I think [outgoing commissioner] Don Garber has said before, ‘never say never,’ but I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.”
The comments stood as the most direct policy statement Berg made in his first public appearance as the commissioner-elect, which came in front of a small theater full of MLS employees and a handful of journalists. Garber, along with succession committee co-chairs Jimmy Haslam (co-owner of the Columbus Crew) and Bennett Rosenthal (co-owner of LAFC), also attended the press conference.
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Berg was elected to the post in a meeting of MLS owners on Monday, concluding a process that Haslam said started with “125 different men and women”.
“Some were in sports, some were in media, some were in technology, some were ‘just in business,’” Haslam said.
That search eventually narrowed down to Berg and David Nathanson, a former Fox Sports executive. Berg, in addition to his co-ownership of LAFC, also holds a minority stake in Italian Serie A side Roma and Welsh side Swansea City, who competes in the English league system, last reaching the Premier League in the 2017-18 season.
Berg also has a long history in private equity, working for 30 years at Apollo Global Management and last serving as a senior partner at 26North. Asked by the Guardian if his private equity background would influence is approach to the job of commissioner, Berg said he thinks it will be an advantage as he looks to speak to the “experts in the room”.
“I do think there’s a lot of characteristics in private equity that apply to other things, which is not a surprise. It applies to everything,” Berg said. “It’s about a sense of urgency. It’s about rolling up the sleeves, being in terms of asking big questions, aligning people for a common goal … at the end of the day, this is a governance job with 30 owners and a lot of constituents.”
