2026 MLS Regular Season

Part 1 of The Athletic's annual survey of MLS Executives is out.
www.nytimes.com

2026 MLS Anonymous Executive Survey, Part 1: Key figures on league’s bests, worsts

For a fifth year running, we've asked top club officials for their candid thoughts on topics and themes around MLS. Here's what they said
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

22 execs responded.
  • 11 picked Miami to win the Cup again, and 14 picked them to win the Shield.
  • Miami also had the best winter move in Berterame and best offseason.
  • Thorrington at LAFC voted best CSO, and LAFC is the most desirable CSO job, and most desirable coaching position.
  • Best facility is Cincy, worst New England. Atlanta best training ground; SJ worst. DC Audi Stadium notable for getting 5 worst votes as a 7 year old SS stadium.
NYCFC relevant votes:
  • Freese 2 votes for best GK and 1 for next overseas move out of MLS.
  • Nico 1 vote for best attacker (x-Messi or Son).
  • Alonso Martinez 1 vote for best value contract.
  • Jansen 3 votes for best coach and 4 for most underrated. Second place in both.
  • Dunivant 1 vote for best CSO hire; Lee tied for first with 5 votes. Neither got any votes for best CSO.
  • 1 NYCFC vote for most desirable coaching job in MLS.
  • 2 votes for worst stadium (YS) good for 4th place.
No NYC votes for
  • win Cup or Shield
  • best winter move or best overall winter
  • best player x-Messi/Son
  • best defender
  • best midfielder
  • most underrated player
  • next No. 2 exec to become CSO
  • most desirable CSO job
  • best stadium or best/worst training ground.
Also for all the hype of Haak being the most coveted MLS free agent, zero votes for best or worst offseason move. To be fair, this probably says more about where intra-MLS free agent moves rank in comparison to international transfers in and out, than it does about Justin. There was no best/worst free agent move categories.
 
mgarbowski said:
Part 1 of The Athletic's annual survey of MLS Executives is out.
www.nytimes.com

2026 MLS Anonymous Executive Survey, Part 1: Key figures on league’s bests, worsts

For a fifth year running, we've asked top club officials for their candid thoughts on topics and themes around MLS. Here's what they said
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

22 execs responded.
  • 11 picked Miami to win the Cup again, and 14 picked them to win the Shield.
  • Miami also had the best winter move in Berterame and best offseason.
  • Thorrington at LAFC voted best CSO, and LAFC is the most desirable CSO job, and most desirable coaching position.
  • Best facility is Cincy, worst New England. Atlanta best training ground; SJ worst. DC Audi Stadium notable for getting 5 worst votes as a 7 year old SS stadium.
NYCFC relevant votes:
  • Freese 2 votes for best GK and 1 for next overseas move out of MLS.
  • Nico 1 vote for best attacker (x-Messi or Son).
  • Alonso Martinez 1 vote for best value contract.
  • Jansen 3 votes for best coach and 4 for most underrated. Second place in both.
  • Dunivant 1 vote for best CSO hire; Lee tied for first with 5 votes. Neither got any votes for best CSO.
  • 1 NYCFC vote for most desirable coaching job in MLS.
  • 2 votes for worst stadium (YS) good for 4th place.
No NYC votes for
  • win Cup or Shield
  • best winter move or best overall winter
  • best player x-Messi/Son
  • best defender
  • best midfielder
  • most underrated player
  • next No. 2 exec to become CSO
  • most desirable CSO job
  • best stadium or best/worst training ground.
Also for all the hype of Haak being the most coveted MLS free agent, zero votes for best or worst offseason move. To be fair, this probably says more about where intra-MLS free agent moves rank in comparison to international transfers in and out, than it does about Justin. There was no best/worst free agent move categories.
Click to expand...
They need to reveal who the person who voted for Austin FC to win MLS cup is
 
:oops:


lee.jpeg
 
Gene said:
:oops:


View attachment 14409
Click to expand...

The SKC situation is way beyond David Lee sluggishness. Lee is taking the heat for it but their's no way he's entering the season with such a barebones roster without buy in from Ownership. New owner as of January, that made big statements about winning and his ambitions. Unless Lee gets fired in the next couple of months there has to be more to this story. Is this the teardown and stockpile assests step of some multi-year plan or is David Lee really this slow?
 
Also, as odd as the David Lee vote may appear to us, I think it destroys the theory that the Bogert's anonymous sources who spoke well of him must have been Lee or his NYCFC minions. He's well regarded within the league.
 
mgarbowski said:
Also, as odd as the David Lee vote may appear to us, I think it destroys the theory that the Bogert's anonymous sources who spoke well of him must have been Lee or his NYCFC minions. He's well regarded within the league.
Click to expand...

From an outside perspective the sales of Santi, Gabby and Taty are impressive given the profits. Our academy is also highly productive, not sure why Lee would get credit for that but he probably does. Lee also timed his exodus before the bills came due for the majority of his failed expensive signings of Magno, Jovan, Fernandez and Ojeda. Unless Fernandez breaks out in Argentina or Ojeda has a big 2026, the profits from the sales listed earlier are going to be largely wiped out by the losses on big money transactions at the end of Lee's tenure.
 
moogoo said:
I have to say Boehm's weekly wrap up article is kinda meh compared to Doyle's, which I found more entertaining, comprehensive, and insightful.
Click to expand...

Agree. A tough read in general:
As you may have noticed, Saturday’s glamor fixture was inevitably reigning MLS Cup presented by Audi champions Inter Miami’s visit to LAFC, who hosted this one at the venerable Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, drawing a festive opening-day record crowd of 75,673, the second-largest gate in league history, to witness an emphatic 3-0 home win.​
www.mlssoccer.com

LAFC outduel Miami, RBNY's youth movement & more from Matchday 1 | MLSSoccer.com

Welcome back.
www.mlssoccer.com www.mlssoccer.com
 
MumonA said:
Agree. A tough read in general:
As you may have noticed, Saturday’s glamor fixture was inevitably reigning MLS Cup presented by Audi champions Inter Miami’s visit to LAFC, who hosted this one at the venerable Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, drawing a festive opening-day record crowd of 75,673, the second-largest gate in league history, to witness an emphatic 3-0 home win.​
www.mlssoccer.com

LAFC outduel Miami, RBNY's youth movement & more from Matchday 1 | MLSSoccer.com

Welcome back.
www.mlssoccer.com www.mlssoccer.com
Click to expand...

seriously, tell us you're a company man without telling us you're a company man. geezus..
 
moogoo said:
seriously, tell us you're a company man without telling us you're a company man. geezus..
Click to expand...

You want him to quit the last paid MLS writing gig? Using a company stylebook does not make you a company man. It's the job. I was more disappointed that Boehm just wasn't that interesting, and ignored our game. To be fair, Doyle's blurb on our game was basically that it was boring, and where the hell was Reid?
 
mgarbowski said:
You want him to quit the last paid MLS writing gig? Using a company stylebook does not make you a company man. It's the job. I was more disappointed that Boehm just wasn't that interesting, and ignored our game. To be fair, Doyle's blurb on our game was basically that it was boring, and where the hell was Reid?
Click to expand...

using a company stylebook is fine and you're right, doesn't make him a company man. but making it sound so atrocious is his choice. Doyle would use the same stylebook but didn't come off the same way.

I would agree our game was boring overall. Galaxy did not threaten much and while we dominated possession, it didn't create any real chances as our stats show.
 
mgarbowski said:
You want him to quit the last paid MLS writing gig? Using a company stylebook does not make you a company man. It's the job. I was more disappointed that Boehm just wasn't that interesting, and ignored our game. To be fair, Doyle's blurb on our game was basically that it was boring, and where the hell was Reid?
Click to expand...

I mean in Doyle's defense, 65% possession, man up for most of the second half, and 1 shot on goal is about as boring as it gets.
 
mgarbowski said:
You want him to quit the last paid MLS writing gig? Using a company stylebook does not make you a company man. It's the job. I was more disappointed that Boehm just wasn't that interesting, and ignored our game. To be fair, Doyle's blurb on our game was basically that it was boring, and where the hell was Reid?
Click to expand...

As much as I value Doyle's analysis, that's why I'm not paying for it. If I'm only guaranteed a sentence or paragraph on my team every week, I'm not paying for that. The occasional times he deep-dives on us aren't worth the 20 times a year he'll just write a paragraph and move on.
 
I would say the votes for Lee are simply because he was sporting director of a club that won MLS cup recently and has consistently fielded a good team for years. And produced quality academy products. We as fans got very frustrated with things, and understandably so, but I can definitely see how from the outside it’s practically a coup for SKC to get him, especially given where they’ve been recently.
 
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