MLS commissioner says Sounders helped create memorable World Cup scene

Don Garber has issued plenty of platitudes toward Seattle in the 19 years since the city was awarded a Major League Soccer expansion franchise that became the Sounders.

Maybe it was being caught in the moment of a World Cup match day unlike the city has ever seen, but the MLS Commissioner was as effusive as he's ever been in his praise of the city and franchise on Friday morning.

"MLS isn't what it is without the Sounders and that's what I'm seeing outside," Garber said before the United States faced Australia. "There's just joy in the streets. I'm not quite sure we'd have that joy if it wasn't for the Sounders here, in my opinion."

Downtown Seattle was awash with soccer fans and Garber took notice as he continued to bounce around the country during the opening days of the FIFA Men's World Cup. Garber was in Vancouver, B.C. for Canada's match with Qatar on Thursday before making his way down to Seattle.

Garber said he's sensed the growing excitement about the U.S. after its 4-1 thumping of Paraguay in its opening match and how it's transcending beyond just soccer supporters. Garber noted while he was here in Seattle seeing "a bunch of big guys getting out of a bus," wearing U.S. soccer gear.

It was the Boston Red Sox, who are in town to face the Mariners.

"Why would a baseball team support a soccer team? That's what we have going on here now. That's what the World Cup did," he said.

Garber was also asked about the situation in Vancouver and the uncertain future of the Whitecaps in the city. Garber said he is more optimistic than he was a couple of months ago about the future of the team there, saying the threat of the team potentially leaving seems to have awakened the government and the corporate community to the brand value of the Whitecaps franchise.

But he put the onus back on the political leaders to help create a solution for both team ownership and the stadium situation there.

"I think they want to find a solution," Garber said. "I think the politicians there need to have the political will. This requires somebody to step up and say, ‘I'm going to do this.'"

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This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 4:50 PM.