Garber doesn’t rule out relegation in MLS but makes clear it’s years or decades away

By Canadian Press on December 4, 2025.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber won’t rule out adopting relegation and promotion while making clear such a decision is years or decades away.

MLS launched in 1996 with 10 teams and currently has 30 in a closed system. The latest team, San Diego, paid a $500 million expansion fee to start play in 2025.

Garber has said relegation and promotion doesn’t work for MLS because of the huge amounts of money owners have spent on stadiums, training complexes and youth academies.

“There’s no real point of saying never because I don’t know what the future would look like. I certainly never thought we would adapt to the international calendar,” he said Thursday night during a news conference at D.C. United’s Audi Stadium in conjunction with the World Cup draw.

“Maybe as the development of the lower divisions continue to grow, as they’ve been doing so well over the years, there will be a proper ecosystem, I’m not sure. Frankly, I don’t believe that ecosystem can exist today, but who knows?’ he added. “I’ve learned never say never. That doesn’t mean we’re having promotion relegation any time soon.”

The United Soccer League said this year it plans to start a top tier league in 2027-28 and a promotion/relegation system. What is now USL’s League Championship has been sanctioned as the second-tier division since 2017 and has 24 teams. The third-tier League One started play in 2019. USL League Two is a semipro level that includes 144 teams in 19 regional divisions and four conferences.

Succession planning

Garber, who turned 68 in October, has been commissioner since August 1999 and in 2024 agreed to a contract through the 2027 season.

“MLS has almost been operating as a startup for 30 years, so we never gave any thought to succession planning, at all,” he said. “High-performing companies need to do that. So the start of this process is to have a proper succession process not just for the next commissioner but for the next leader of our commercial business or the next leader of our sporting business.”

Garber said he hasn’t thought about staying beyond 2027.

“Right now I’m focused on the next couple of years and I’ll think about that and have a conversation with the MLS ownership at that right time,” he said.

MLS owners voted last month to switch starting in 2027-28 to a summer-to-spring schedule similar to the calendar of most European leagues. It has had a yearly season running from February to December in most recent years.

“Certainly I wasn’t thinking about the renewal of my last contract with an eye towards the calendar change because we had no idea back then that we’d be doing it,” he said. “But we’ll figure it out.”

Vancouver stadium

Ahead of Vancouver playing Inter Miami for the MLS title on Saturday, Garber was critical over a lack of progress in stadium planning. The Whitecaps would like to move from B.C. Place, where they are a tenant, to a new stadium.

“The MLS team, its owners, its fans, its players have done everything to earn the support that they’re not getting today from the city and from the province and that’s an untenable situation,” he said. “What we have there has to change. And right now, we’re not necessarily on a path to do that. … We had a very positive meeting with the mayor. We’re looking at getting a better lease at B.C. Place right now. There’s been no movement on that and it’s been a month.”

“We are in the business of delivering for those people that really, really want to have an MLS team that they can love and embrace. And that’s not just fans. They’ve done that,” he added. “You need to have cities and provinces do that, and we’re still waiting to see whether they’ll be able to deliver. And if they don’t, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”

Vancouver’s owners announced in December the club was for sale. Greg Kerfoot has owned the team since 2002, 11 years before it started play in MLS. Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett and former NBA star Steve Nash joined Kerfoot in 2008.

Mallett suggested in August that the group’s strategy may have shifted to adding a new partner.

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AP Sports Writer Anne M. Peterson contributed to this report.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The Associated Press