We don’t often reference other authors in our SBJ column, but a late July story by The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio in The New York Times grabbed our attention like a quiet earthquake rumbling through our respective backyards.

In that piece — “‘Seismic’ MLS Changes Would Align the League with the Rest of the World” — Tenorio laid out “three tiers of major changes” MLS Commissioner Don Garber potentially will pursue for his owners, players and fans. Any one of them would be hugely significant, but to attempt them all at once, following the arrival of the 2026 FIFA World Cup to North America, is herculean.

Missed that story and now curious? Well, here they are (paraphrasing Tenorio’s excellent work):

All of the above would bring about what Garber called MLS 3.0, or the third iteration of a league that humbly launched its first season two years after the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Tenorio’s work grabbed our attention, particularly given our recent book on MLS — where we researched the league’s recent success and also suggested that MLS is primed (with some of the aforementioned tweaks) to rival the greatest soccer leagues on the planet.

Interestingly, our book caught the attention of many in Europe — England and France, in particular — who pushed back on our premise that an updated format, schedule and........

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