Of course if we really had a robust, independent, soccer press in this country, that'd be the sort of question that would get asked.
According to Sports business daily , MLS had a clause in original agreement with Providence to buy back shares after a certain # of years. MLS started talks on buy back at least a year ago. This is information most diehards didn't have. Well played Mr Garber.
I don't have a link. I was unaware all the non MLS owners had been bought out of SUM. I was not specifically referring to entities like Dentsu (the Japanese company) but more people who I thought had a small piece of SUM. Does this mean that people like Garber, Carter, Sunil and the other big wigs at SUM do not own any of SUM?
Oh my god, thank you. It was killing me. I know Rothenberg was out years ago. I'm pretty sure Horowitz is gone. I can't verify that Dentsu is gone, but I vaguely remember asking someone at an alcohol filled league function a few years ago and was told there were no more non-I/O investors in MLS. But it's been a few years and there was an open bar. I do not recall ever seeing/hearing anything indicating that any individuals had any ownership stake in SUM. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened. The last issue of the ECG was 11 years ago, so I'm not as obsessively following the front office stuff like I used to as editor of an MLS covering magazine.
I love this old man thread. People who lived through it. I've been wondering for a while whether Horowitz was still a part of the thing, but I don't recall ever hearing about Dentsu. The key point is that the youngsters like to look at the old days and point out all the "mistakes" - like, supposedly, Chivas. But really, it is amazing to see where it was back then and where it's come to now. Was Chivas a bad idea, or a good idea that was followed by a thousand smaller bad ideas that eventually culminated in total failure? Real Salt Lake seemed like a bad idea, and there used to be a lot of BigSoccer talk about our wish to relocate them, but they incrementally capitalized on small successes. As for the Beckham conversation, both sides of that story are right. The LA fans were right to deride him for his early performance and seeming disregard for the team (I remember arguing that Andres Herzog had been better for LA); but they, and the rest of us, seem to have come around to acknowledge that he was a key to their championship runs and his influence probably tripled the value of the league.
I found this: http://media.philly.com/documents/20150420_mls_motion_to_dismiss.pdf As of January 3, 2012 the members of Major League Soccer, LLC were: Anschutz L.A. Soccer, Inc. Chicago Fire Soccer, LLC Chivas USA Soccer LLC DC Soccer LLC Dynamo Soccer, LLC Earthquakes Soccer, LLC FC Dallas Soccer, LLC Kraft Soccer LLC (New England) KSE Soccer, Inc. (Colorado) OnGoal, LLC (Kansas City) Peregrine Sports LLC (Portland) Pennsylvania Professional Soccer LLC Red Bull New York, Inc. Seattle Soccer LLC Team Columbus Soccer, L.L.C. Utah Soccer, LLC Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (Toronto) Vancouver Whitecaps FC Free 2 Play LP (Montreal) Dentsu Holdings USA, Inc. Each of the teams owned 5.2344% and Dentsu the remaining 0.5465% Five and half years ago, Rothenberg and Horowitz were gone from MLS. I'm not sure about SUM.
EDIT: I think the Bloomberg info is off. It was a merger of two soccer entities in Nashville http://www.espnfc.us/major-league-s...g-for-mls-expansion-team-unites-with-usl-club So I'm mucking about the Delaware SOS site looking up LLC records. There are 3 1994 companies - Major League Soccer, Inc., Major League Soccer, L.L.C., and Major League Soccer, LP. Unfortunately Delaware doesn't appear to give free access to filing records, so just looking at the latest statement to see who the current LLC members are would cost money. (I don't care that much). So I started googling to see if someone did care and did publish the info. I found the entry on Bloomberg's site and it mentioned in a sidebar "recent activity" that MLS had "merged" with DMD Soccer, LLC. Here's Bloomberg's entry on DMD Soccer, LLC https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=416415444 That's interesting. I just googled "usl nashville dmd" and got this: http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/788889-nashville-sc-strengthens-ownership-group which dates the article to May 4, 2017 So, which is it? Did MLS or Nashville Soccer Holdings acquire DMD Soccer on 5/4/2017. It's possible Bloomberg got some information scrambled. If not, maybe Nashville is a better expansion bet than most of us thought.
Looks like MLS doesnt want situations like they had in Sacramento, where the successful USL team wanted something like 50 mil from the MLS investors. So MLS bought it early, as a subsidiary, and now Ingram is a stakeholder in that property. If they dont expand to Nashville, MLS can just sell off its share and leave it to Ingram or whoever.
https://floridadb.com/company/M95000000324/major-league-soccer-l-l-c/amp It looks like Dentsu still owned a piece of MLS, LLC as of last year. This list from early 2016 includes LAFC (which replaced Chivas USA), and it reflects Precourt having purchased Columbus), but 2017 expansion teams Minnesota and Atlanta are not present, nor is Beckham's group.
The 2012 version of the MLS operating agreement is interesting reading. Section 3.5.1 seems to indicate that the Canadian members are not subject to Capital Calls. I'm sure there's a legal reason for that. Several sections, and at least one appendix are "intentionally withheld". I'm guessing they weren't germane to the Nowak lawsuit and/or they contained more sensitive information. There also seems to be some funkiness with the Canadian company Major League Soccer, LP where Vancouver and Montreal (the Class J and Class K) members have their distributions funneled through MLS LP, but the Class I member (MLSE/Toronto) does not.
Here's a filing from last March. Dentsu appears to be the last holdout amongst the Class B shareholders.
Hmm. I just found the Jan 18, 2017 - 2017 Filing of the the last Annual Report. Atlanta and Minnesota are not yet included as members of MLS LLC.
There should be "super-rep" for posts like these. Nothing more valuable than raw, previously unrevealed, information.