Garber: Promotion/relegation not happening anytime soon in MLS

TORONTO -- The 15th MLS Cup final takes place here on Sunday between Dallas and Colorado (ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET), and on Friday morning I sat down with MLS commissioner Don Garber for what has become an annual one-on-one chat about the league and soccer in America. Here's our conversation (edited for length and clarity):

SI.com: Your cup final is this weekend. We're almost at the end of 2010, which has been a big year for soccer in America. When you look back at how you experienced 2010, what are the moments that you'll remember?

Garber: Clearly this was the best year for soccer in America in my tenure [since 1999]. Kicking off with a brand new team in Philadelphia in a beautiful new stadium with the Vice-President of the United States coming out to the opening game. The opening of Red Bull Arena, which has exceeded my expectations of what an MLS stadium can be. Leaving for South Africa and our team literally waking up this country to the sport, particularly after Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria. Bill Clinton coming out and celebrating along with millions of people in this country. Landon and Edson Buddle and others coming back and the league being able to ride a bit of the World Cup wave. And then leading into great playoffs for us and two teams that have never won the championship in the final. If we continue to have years like this for the sport and for MLS, it will be a very positive thing for all of us.

SI.com: You've got two teams in the final, Dallas and Colorado, that have been good on the field this season but have had trouble over the years drawing fans locally. How much could reaching the final help those teams?

Garber: Teams need special moments, things that establish a new history. For both of these teams, their trip to the championship will provide that. Both already are ahead of their season-ticket sales from where they were last year. The media coverage in both markets has been terrific. The crowd in Denver for the championship game was one of the best crowds in their history. One of the challenges that we have in MLS is that we still are in the early phase of our life span, and teams don't have enough of these special moments that create these lasting memories and rally an entire community around the club. This Cup should be able to do that for both Dallas and Denver. I would expect both of them to have better results at the gate next year.

SI.com: This is the 15th MLS Cup final, which is an accomplishment. My personal feeling is there should be Roman numerals in MLS Cup XV, Super Bowl-style, to remind people that this league has been around a while. What do you think?

Garber: I love the Roman numeral idea. Unlike everybody else in the industry, we don't look at the 15th Cup as an accomplishment because we always knew we'd have one -- and a 20th and a 25th and a 50th. But part of what we have been thinking about from a marketing perspective is to start celebrating a bit more what we are and what we've been able to achieve. I think [Roman numerals in the MLS Cup final name] is a great idea. We should do that. Why not?

SI.com: This is the fourth season of the designated player (DP) in the league, and this will be the fourth straight season a team without a DP will win the MLS Cup final. Do you think the DP rule needs further tinkering to make sure teams that take a risk and put their money out there aren't punished on the field?

Garber: There's a view among some people that you're at a competitive disadvantage by signing designated players. I don't believe that to be true. Remember, you could have three maximum-salary players who are not Designated Players who in essence would provide your team with the same budget structure as a team like New York that has three designated players. I think it's more how those players fit into your team dynamic. Are those players there year-round, or are they leaving for national-team duty? Many of our designated players have been injured. In the case of New York, they came halfway through the year so it's hard to look at that as a case study. The beauty of the designated player rule is it forces teams to make decisions. And within our structure, which many people think is too restrictive, this rule provides more opportunity to be penalized if you make a bad decision and rewarded for making a good decision.

SI.com: Dec. 2 is a big day for soccer in the United States. FIFA is choosing the hosts for World Cups 2018 and 2022. What do you think the U.S.' chances are to land 2022?

Garber: I think we should have a great chance of bringing the World Cup back to the United States. We're working very hard as a bid committee and as a country to make that happen. Sunil Gulati [the U.S. Soccer president and bid chair] has been working his whole life to get to this moment and has great relationships with FIFA and the Executive Committee and has been fully focused for some time. [With[ the addition of Bill Clinton and the other members of our board, from Phil Anschutz to Robert Kraft to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Bloomberg, I believe we have all the elements from a political perspective in place and perhaps have learned some lessons from the missteps of the Chicago Olympic bid.

We also have a country that loves this game. Our whole brand positioning of The Game in the U.S. is a validation of how far this country has come as a soccer nation. We have the best facilities in the world. It's obviously a huge commercial market. It's a great place for people to visit. I sit on the board, but it's my personal view that I hope we're able to bring it home. It's in the best interest of the sport if we're able to get the World Cup back. And should we do that it gives us a 12-year runway to build this sport even further, to capitalize on the momentum we already have and take it to the next level in every way: from fan, player and facility development to marketing, branding and promotion. There are very few things that we can do that can build the sport over the next 12 years as much winning the bid to host the World Cup.

SI.com: Will you be in Zurich for the announcement?

Garber: Absolutely. I've been working on the presentation. I spend a lot of my time on it. I've been traveling around the world with Sunil and Carlos Cordeiro [the vice-chair of the bid]. It's important. The league has a lot to benefit from, so we're actively involved. I'll break the news now: MLS and Soccer United Marketing are making a nearly $2 million donation to the World Cup bid committee. It will be the largest single financial donation to the World Cup bid.

SI.com: You've got an MLS Board of Governors meeting this weekend. What's the most likely setup for conference alignment and the playoffs in 2011?

Garber: We're spending more time than ever before looking at our competitive format. We have more teams coming in next year and another team the year after that. Clearly our playoff system didn't work the way we would have hoped this year, and I don't want to replicate that again. We'd like to find a solution to having two teams from the West playing in the Eastern final. We're also continuing our focus on making the regular season more valuable. So how do you incentivize clubs through their performance in the regular season to be better-positioned in the playoffs? We've got enormous scheduling issues next year because CONCACAF's new World Cup qualifying format is going to put more qualifiers in the middle of our season, some potentially in the middle of our playoffs. So we've got some big issues.

I can't really give you any specifics for 2011 yet because we still haven't finalized our own thinking as to where it's going to come out. We're focused on ensuring that we have a compelling playoff format that's logical and that is exciting for our fans, teams and broadcasters, and a regular season that feeds into the playoff system in a way that is logical and important.