‘Our greatest opportunities are still ahead’ - Five takeaways from Larry Berg’s opening MLS press conference, from media rights to promotion and relegation

MLS’ growth has been remarkable, but even a league featuring the best player in the world eventually needs a new direction if it wants to continue progressing year over year.

“Major League Soccer has achieved tremendous success, but I believe our greatest opportunities are still ahead,” Berg said in a statement.

“Over the last 30 years, we’ve done a lot of things right,” he added Tuesday. “The infrastructure part was A+. We have the foundation. We have the stadiums, we have the training facilities, we have the academies, we have MLS NEXT Pro.

“If we can put on top of that some forward thinking and some other things that make us more exciting and more competitive, then I think we’ll be in great shape.”

Berg clearly understands that he is inheriting a far stronger league than the one Garber took over in 1999. His challenge will be determining what MLS must do next - and where it needs to evolve - to reach another level.

When asked about MLS’ next media rights agreement, Berg played the “it’s my first day” card and handed the question to Garber. It was an elite move - and probably a fair one, considering he had been selected as the league’s incoming commissioner only a day earlier.

Garber responded by praising Apple for televising every one of the league’s 600 games and distributing them globally.

Berg eventually chimed in, emphasizing that the league’s next agreement must be built around collaboration.

“Since we have a little time before the next media deal, it’s about finding media partners that want to co-create the future with us,” Berg said. “It’s about co-creating: What’s interesting to them? What’s interesting to us? How can we change certain things for their benefit?”

Berg did not offer many specifics, but his answer suggested MLS will remain open-minded about how its next media partnership is structured and what changes may be needed to expand the league’s reach.

Berg began playing soccer when he was eight years old and deepened his love for the sport by watching the U.S. Men’s National Team. He understands how vital youth development will be to the league’s next stage of growth.

“Quality on the field is obviously number one,” Berg said. “The more we grow fandom, the more resources we have to improve the quality on the field, and the more the quality on the field grows, the more fandom we’ll have.”

But what comes first?

For Berg, improving the quality of play means creating more opportunities for young players and making the league’s development system more productive. Doing so would also help strengthen the United States and Canadian national-team player pools.

“I want to see our youth academies and our MLS NEXT Pro be that much more productive,” Berg said.

Garber has previously said “never say never” when discussing promotion and relegation, but Berg - who has been involved with ownership stakes in European clubs before - offered a far more definitive assessment of whether the system would work in MLS.

“I can understand the appeal for the fan, [but] I don’t think it’s a great way to build a league,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a way to get stadiums built and to get training facilities built and to have owners invest in rosters and all the other things you need to do.

“So I don’t think it’s appropriate for our league. I think Don has said before, ‘Never say never,’ but I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.”

The debate is unlikely to disappear among supporters, but Berg left little room for interpretation: Promotion and relegation will not be part of his immediate vision for MLS.

The World Cup showed the world that the United States is a soccer country. For leagues such as MLS, it has never been more important to ensure that the domestic game and U.S. Soccer are working in lockstep.

The opportunity extends beyond riding the wave of this summer’s tournament. The United States will also host the women’s World Cup in 2031, while Los Angeles will stage the 2028 Olympics.

“We built a soccer nation,” Garber said. “And seeing what took place this past summer, where the world came to our country to take advantage of and experience all the things that we’ve all done to build what was the excitement around the most incredible World Cup in the history of sport, there couldn’t be a better time for someone to take it from here.”

U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson attended Tuesday’s press conference and spoke to select media members afterward.

“I think there’s a great opportunity over the coming months for us to talk more about what needs to be true for soccer in this country,” Batson said. “The way we view it is, this summer kicked off the American soccer movement. We’re seven weeks into the next five years.

“There’s a belief that America has the ingredients to be one of the world’s great soccer countries. We just have to put it together. And one of the reasons I’m here today is the only way we’re going to achieve our soccer dreams is by working together.

“Whether it’s pro clubs and leagues, whether it’s local governments, whether it’s youth organizations, whether it’s college soccer, we have all these great things going for us, but we actually have to work together on it.”