Commissioner Don Garber claimed that MLS is "the seventh-highest attended professional soccer league in the entire world" in his annual state of the league address ahead of the 18th season.

In a break from the traditional teleconference format, the Commissioner spoke in front of an invited audience at Google HQ in New York, in a Google hangout event that included questions from journalists and fans both in the building and online. The event was streamed live on YouTube.

Other than the format, a self-conscious nod to the league's desired demographic of 18-35 year olds, there were few surprises in the commissioner's address, with the New York stadium, expansion, the new partnership with the French Federation, PRO and general discipline, getting an expected airing.

As he often does at these addresses, the commissioner used his opening remarks to wheel out a set of statistics, designed to illustrate the rude health of the league. While a couple of the stats erred on the side of generosity (the "600 players" employed by the league doesn't quite tally with 19 teams - even assuming all their 30 man rosters were full), there were several key indicators that have been verified elsewhere and that do seem to suggest a new era for the league. For example, Garber's comment that 12 of the 19 coaches currently employed had once played in the league, seems to suggest a healthy critical mass.

Garber also raised eyebrows with his remark that in terms of attendance, the 6 million people who attended games last season, at an average of just under 19,000 per game, makes the league the seventh best attended one in the world. Later, in answer to a question about whether the league was respected elsewhere in the world, he cited his experiences speaking with French officials this week at the launch of a new training initiative there (19 coaches, mostly reserve team, youth and technical coaches will be involved in an ongoing exchange program with France's famous Clairefontaine center) and pointedly mentioned that the league was now ahead of Ligue 1 in terms of average attendance.

Understandably, given the location, and the fact that the project increasingly seems to be the commissioner's main obsession, the proposed NY stadium at Flushing prompted repeat questions, though the response seemed to suggest a holding pattern, with Garber trying to avoid being pinned down on the timeframe for a decision on whether it was viable to proceed, despite attempts to prompt him: "Definitely not three years." Later, after describing the slow process of negotiating stadium building in New York, Garber conceded, "We're hoping to get something done this year, but if that doesn't happen we probably want to take a step back and see if there's another market we want to move in to."

That market could well be Orlando. The USL Pro side have been vigorous campaigners for a franchise that would restore an MLS presence in Florida after the league's 2002 contraction, and the commissioner noted that the backers of the team look to be getting closer to securing their mooted $110m soccer-specific stadium (though it still faces public partnership issues of its own) — "if they're able to achieve that, it makes them an even more viable candidate than they are today."

The commissioner was careful not to commit though, and was sure to cite Orlando, Miami, Minneapolis and Atlanta as ongoing participants in discussions. When I asked him if teams that had chosen to develop in NASL, rather than USL Pro (the lower league MLS just partnered with for reserve team play), faced a rockier road towards ultimately gaining an MLS franchise, he was careful to delineate that the partnership was purely for technical development of players. Yet it's arguably a partnership that might not have come about had the second tier NASL shown any inclination to negotiate on reserve team partnerships. In bypassing them, the geographical and strategic spread of players who will now have more or less direct links to MLS changes. Put it this way, it probably doesn't hurt Orlando City's case that they are currently playing in the third tier USL Pro.

The new sense of friction when it comes to the NASL, is of course, partly due to the team who will be joining that league later this year - the New York Cosmos. Last year Garber referred to the "ghost" of the old NASL still haunting the corridors of MLS, as a cautionary tale that defines the younger league's character and prudence. Famously, the original version of the NASL collapsed in the wake of the boom times of the Cosmos coming to an end. Now, even as MLS overtakes the NASL as the longest running first division soccer league in American history at the start of its 18th season, the Cosmos are back. Not only that, but they are speaking pointedly of their business decision to go with a league that offers no restriction on their business model and commercial rights negotiations.

On most issues related to the Cosmos and NASL, Garber was inclined to defer to the position of you'd have to ask them that, when questions got too specific, including the issue of whether or not the Cosmos were still part of the discussions on becoming the next MLS franchise - something the club's recently unveiled stadium plans (yet another potential site in the New York area) and NASL commitment appear to have made structurally unlikely at best.

On the subject of further support structures for the US and Canadian game, the commissioner cited the first year of the new Professional Referees Organization (PRO) and the innovations their head Peter Walton is bringing in from what has been a mostly benchmarking first year. The number of full-time referees will increase from 3 to 9, while PRO will conduct 18 three day training camps throughout the year. There will also be a renewed disciplinary focus on the practice of surrounding the referee after controversial decisions, with coaches and clubs being tasked with controlling their players.

Throughout the evening giant video screens dotted round the room would be relaying webcam shots of journalists and fans beamed into the Google hangout screen from around the country. Given the presence of a wealth of Google technicians, most of these interactions ran pretty smoothly, but one question, from Kevin Zelko of Seattle supporters group Gorilla FC, got rather broken up as it was relayed. No matter, as the key phrase "Cascadia Cup" was all the commissioner needed to hear to know he was being challenged over the league's miscue in attempting to trademark the name of the challenge trophy set up by fans of the three MLS teams in the Pacific North West. It's unclear whether Garber's political answer soothed Mr Zelko —his face was a temporary blur of pixels — but the commissioner suggested he seek him out during his tour of West Coast venues this weekend and assured him a compromise would be reached.

His mention of the weekend's games reminded us that after the personnel turnover, jersey launches, web innovations, rule tweak proposals and keynote speeches are over, the soccer starts again on Saturday. Don Garber's league is still here, and now out on its own for American longevity:

Over the past 17 years we've been working very hard to establish a very solid foundation for the professional game. We've done it in a very patient and strategic way. I think there have been many who have tried to push us to go faster than we were ready to... We feel pretty good about where we are today.

Garber also said he was "supportive" and "very sympathetic" to Landon Donovan's desire to take a break from the sport before returning to the Galaxy at the end of March.

"This young guy has been holding the responsibility as the leader of the sport on the field since he was 15, 16 years old. None of us have had to do what Landon has had to do. … Think about it. It's unprecedented for a single athlete in a professional sport."

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