Landon Donovan Says World Cup Will Lead MLS Owners to Spend More

Former U.S. men’s national team star Landon Donovan—who played 15 seasons in Major League Soccer, won six titles, and remains the league’s all-time assist leader—believes MLS has improved but still has a perception issue among fans.

“It’s starting to change. And it’s not going to change overnight,” Donovan told Front Office Sports on the latest episode of Portfolio Players. “If you look around the league, there are now lots of players who are in their prime. They’re not mega megastars like Messi, but they are good players, and the league has gotten a lot better. The problem is the perception still remains that the league is what it was before.”

Donovan believes MLS commissioner Don Garber has done a “really good job” of navigating the challenges of the top U.S. men’s pro league, which has always been dogged by a perception that it’s where the best global stars come to play out their final years. Donovan says, “20 years ago, they’re not coming here when they’re 25, they’re going to stay in Europe where all the money is, all the attention, the best competition.” Now, he argues, “it’s starting to change. And it’s not going to change overnight.”

And he believes the World Cup coming to North America in just one week can bring a long-term boost to MLS by compelling team owners to spend more money. 

“This summer, I think owners of MLS teams are going to have these games in their stadia and they’re going to look at it and say, ‘Oh my God, look at this. I want this. And I want these kind of eyeballs.’ They have the ability to spend the money to bring in players of this quality. Can you lure guys like Messi or guys like Erling Haaland, people at the top of their game, and bring them here and continue to make the league better and better?”

Donovan also touched on a variety of other hot topics in soccer, including the USMNT’s chances in the World Cup, the rapid growth of the NWSL, and MLS’s controversial Apple TV deal.

Can USMNT Go Deep in World Cup?

“I think it’s very realistic. … Not only do we have a chance to get out of our group, we should finish first in our group, which then pairs you in the next round with a third-place team from another group. That game, we should win. And then you go from there, then you start hitting the big boys. It is very possible that we do very well.”

Investing in Lincoln City Football Club

“An agent that I knew … brought Lincoln City as an investment to me and said, ‘Do you know anybody?’ And I had gotten to know the [Padres minority owner] Jabara family in San Diego, who have a very small piece of the Padres, and [Harvey Jabara] said to me, ‘Hey, if there’s ever something that comes across your desk, can you bring it to me and let me know?’ He started doing the due diligence, met the owner, got to know the club, and he fell in love with it. He invested, and then he said, ‘Can you invest some with me?’ I love it because I have the opportunity to have conversations—I’m not having any meaningful impact—but give some insight that sometimes helps them, definitely helps Harvey, because he’s a baseball guy.”

The Growth of the NWSL

“In my opinion, the best investment you can make anywhere in sports right now is the NWSL. Because it’s still relatively inexpensive and the trajectory is incredible. It reminds me a lot of where MLS was a decade ago, reminds me of the ’70s and ’80s when the NBA and NFL were—if you got in at that time, your investment is certainly worthwhile.”

MLS’s Apple TV Deal

“I had a really good conversation with Don Garber. … He said, ‘Look, when we do something that’s new, that’s novel, we do it, and then we evaluate and we see if we made mistakes, what we did well, whatever. Putting it behind a second paywall proved to be the wrong idea. And we had to adjust, we saw what the market said, and we listened.’

“I don’t think MLS is mature enough yet to go away from the NBCs and the Foxes and ABCs and linear television. I think we still need that exposure. Even the NFL still does it. The NFL could go all streaming if they want … but they’re smart enough to know we need the big media engines to help keep promoting our sport. And MLS, of course, needs to do that, too.”