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MLS Comm. Replaced By NFL

August 3, 1999 / 4:55 PM EDT / AP

Doug Logan, the only commissioner in the 3½-year history of Major League Soccer, will be removed perhaps as soon as Wednesday, a soccer source said Tuesday.

Don Garber, the senior vice president and managing director of NFL International, is expected to be hired as his replacement, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The removal of Logan was first reported in Tuesday's Washington Post.

Logan was not in his office Tuesday and MLS canceled his weekly conference call with reporters. No reason was given.

"We are not commenting on the matter at the present time," league spokesman Dan Courtemanche said. "However, we do expect to have further details within the next 48 hours."

Flat television ratings and attendance have plagued the league since the beginning of its second year.

Logan had predicted a 15 percent increase in average attendance from the league's first year to the second. The average crowd actually fell from 17,406 to 14,619, a 16 percent drop.

It further fell to 14,312 last season but has rebounded to 15,174 through this past weekend's games.

The move would be the second major senior management shakeup in less than six months. Deputy commissioner Sunil Gulati was fired in February.

At issue was Gulati's decision last year to unilaterally exercise the league's option to renew the contract New York-New Jersey MetroStars midfielder Tab Ramos, a close friend of Gulati.

Gulati reportedly did not consult with MetroStars management, which angered Stuart Subotnick, one of the club's two investor-operators.

MLS operates under a "single-entity" concept, whereby individuals or companies invest in the league and receive the rights to operate a club. The league contracts with all the players, assigns the major stars to clubs in the name of competitive balance and gate attraction, and pays them from a central fund.

Based on the salaries the league negotiates with the players, each team must stay under a $1.7 million salary cap.

Gulati has been a major figure in American soccer for more than a decade, including having a key role in the organizing committee of the 1994 World Cup, the U.S. Soccer Federation and the formation of MLS.