Everybody works for the same company, you can http://www.bearsofficialnflprostore.com/Authentic-Marquess-Wilson-Jersey never leave no matter how bad you are, you spend eight months deciding who wins only to play for two more months to decide somebody else has won and you do all this while every other player in the northern hemisphere is on the beach. "It is the most intriguing, head-scratching league in world football," admitted Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber when I pointed out that his league is a bit… well, different. Garber, aka 'The Soccer Don', has run MLS since 1999, having left a good job at American football's NFL. The head hunter involved on that one really earned their corn as the NFL was at that time the only football league the USA cared about, dominating the national conversation in a way our Premier League can still only dream about, and MLS was…different. Rebooting the game in the US after the demise of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1984 was a condition of the successful bid to host the 1994 World Cup. US Soccer won that beauty contest in 1988, and the fact MLS did not Philip Rivers Elite Jersey start until 1996 - long after the good vibes of the USA's decent showing in 1994 had worn off - should tell you that broadcasters, investors and sponsors were not climbing over each other to get a professional league up and running again. Or perhaps they were just waiting for somebody else to do all the heavy lifting, so they could swan in and apply the finishing touches? That is certainly one interpretation of a grim first five years for MLS: collective losses of $250m (£180m), teams rattling around gridiron stadiums far too big for them, gimmicky rule-changes that upset long-standing fans and a lacklustre product on the pitch. Nobody wanted to televise it, sponsors shied away, the best American players escaped to Europe and the rest of world football barely noticed. But then - in lots of small, almost imperceptible ways - everything started to get better to the point where MLS can bring down the curtain on its 20th season on Sunday knowing it has never been more popular, relevant or secure. "I think we get a bit more respect outside the US than we do from pundits here - I call them soccer snobs," laughed Garber. "Our ratings are growing and it's our first year having global live match distribution, so we've got a lot of growth in front of us. "I think people are intrigued by our structure, this http://www.nflbrownsofficialshop.com/Authentic-Cameron-Erving-Jersey unique system we have with salary caps, union agreements and strict revenue-sharing, this partnership among owners who are competitors on the field. That has created a lot of buzz and it's something for us to be excited about." Garber is right, there is buzz and excitement, and the achievement of getting here, only 13 years after it looked like the league might fold, must be noted.