Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber told The Associated Press in an interview at a soccer convention in Manchester, England Wednesday he'd like to one day see owners of teams in the English Premier League invest in a current MLS franchise or start an expansion franchise.
Some EPL teams currently have American investors, such as Manchester United (Malcolm Glazer), Liverpool (George Gillett, Jr. and Tom Hicks), Aston Villa (Randy Lerner) and Sunderland (Ellis Short), and Stan Kroenke has a majority interest in Arsenal and owns MLS' Colorado Rapids.
"We think it would be smart for (MLS) to have an international team sitting around our board (of directors) table and helping to influence the way we think and perhaps connect us even more close with the international community," he said during the SoccerEx convention.
"We could learn a lot about youth development and coaching and the technical side of things," Garber said. "On the technical side, we still need help and I like to think we are not creating an American version of the world game. I would like to think we are part of the world game, and in order to do that we need to have more deep association with the global football community."
"Just like it's good in my view to have American sports team owners in England, it would be good for MLS to have an English club investing in our league," Garber said. "I would love to see an opportunity for an equity investment. It would be good for us."
Garber said the price tag for an MLS expansion team is $40 million in the next round of bidding.
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