They trickled out slowly, some still shaking off the cobwebs after a long night at the bar, and made their way to a far-out corner of the poolside restaurant at their touristy Orlando hotel.



As families at nearby tables planned that day’s theme park excursion over breakfast, the general managers and sporting directors from nearly every team in MLS were taking that off morning at the league’s combine in January 2018 to form a collective. Bleary-eyed and baking in the morning sun, the group talked about their desire to have more of a say in league matters. They worked through the ways in which they thought they could play a bigger role in setting the sporting agenda for all of MLS.



Eventually, they came up with something called the “chief soccer officer committee.” Composed of the top sporting executive from every team in MLS, the CSO committee is part-think tank, part-support group and part-official interface between the league’s GMs and...