The Major League Soccer board of governors has voted to install LAFC co-managing owner Larry Berg as the league’s next commissioner, according to a source familiar with the vote. Sportico was first to report the news.
Berg will succeed Don Garber as the head of the 30-year-old league, with a term starting after Garber officially steps down. He will be the third commissioner in MLS history.
Garber, who has served as commissioner since 1999, has a contract with the league that runs until the end of 2027, but it is not yet known whether he will vacate his position after the 2027 “sprint season,” in the middle of the 2027-28 season after the league’s calendar shift, or at the conclusion of that first fall-to-spring campaign.
The vote took place among all MLS owners at the league’s HQ in midtown Manhattan in a closed-door meeting, after presentations given by Berg and David Nathanson, the other candidate for the post, earlier in the day. Nathanson’s background was largely in sports media, having prominently worked with Fox, while also having invested in the Seattle Sounders, Angel City FC (NWSL) and the Seattle Kraken (NHL).
Berg comes from a private equity investment background, currently as a senior advisor at 26North and having previously been a partner at Apollo Global Management and the chair of McGraw-Hill Education. He initially invested as a limited partner in MLS’s second attempt at launching a second club in Los Angeles in 2014, and became one of the club’s managing owners in 2016 after an internal buyout.
Los Angeles FC first took the field in 2018 with former US manager Bob Bradley as coach and then-Mexico international Carlos Vela as headliner. The club quickly became one of the league’s model operations, perennial contenders on the pitch and a respected operation in many other departments. Sporting director John Thorington, one of the club’s first hires, was named MLS sporting executive of the year in 2024, while LAFC was named MLS operations club of the year in 2023.
LAFC have consistently been among MLS’s first or second most valuable franchises since debuting, with Forbes estimating a valuation of $1.32bn as of May 2026. His experience of building a well-supported club in a major market will be crucial as MLS tries to make greater inroads in other cities like New York and Chicago. As commissioner, he’ll take cues from all of MLS’s owners, including those in smaller markets who haven’t historically invested in their rosters to the same extent as LAFC.
Berg has been a vocal supporter of MLS’s trajectory, stating in February 2020 that he believes MLS would “pass baseball and hockey to be the number three sport in the U.S. behind football and basketball” by the end of the current decade. Berg cited the league’s burgeoning academy system as evidence, as well as the intrinsic pull of living in the United States.
“I think we’re already a league of choice to a certain extent,” Berg continued in that 2020 media day, “but whether we can be a top five league or top three league will really come down at the end of the day to money and our ability to compete for players.”
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The most prominent example of another American sports commissioner who had previously served as team owners was Bud Selig, who owned the Milwaukee Brewers before becoming Major League Baseball’s lead executive in 1992, although he was initially appointed on an acting basis.
Berg is currently one of four primary owners of LAFC, according to the club’s website, with Bennett Rosenthal the lead managing partner. Brandon Beck shares a job title with Berg as co-managing owner, while Peter Guber serves as executive chair and owner.
