DENVER – With four inches of snow blanketing the Denver area on Wednesday morning, the 2013 ‘Snow Game’ comparison was inevitable. And it’s the kind of scene that MLS Commissioner Don Garber hopes will be on display when the All-Star Game returns to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City Colorado, on July 29 (9 pm ET on Fox Sports 1, UniMas, TSN and RDS2).
There’s no chance that the league’s marquee summer event will see that kind of weather, of course, but Garber explained that the attitude shown and atmosphere created in that March blizzard are exactly the kind of traits MLS wants to show when its All-Star team takes on the world’s best.
“It was a game that we showed our competitor, Costa Rica, that when you come into our house and you play a game in one of our markets, you better bring your A-game and you better bring your snowshoes,” Garber said in his opening remarks at the press conference announcing “Things can happen when you’re playing here in Colorado.”
It’s also a clear sign that the All-Stars are unlikely to abate when their to-be-determined opponent comes through to play what they typically hold to be a preseason friendly. The competitive nature of what is technically an exhibition game came to the forefront in the 2014 All-Star Game, when Bayern Munich head coach Pep Guardiola famously took issue with the MLS players’ physical style to the point where he refused to shake All-Star coach Caleb Porter’s hand after the game.
“We believe it’s the most competitive All-Star Game in all of sports,” Garber enthused. “While it is an exhibition where our folks halfway through the season come out and try to put on a good show for our fans, it is a competitive match.
“We will play against an international opponent, and as our All-Stars told the coach of Bayern Munich last year when we won that game 2-1 and the coach was a little concerned that the game was competitive, and our players said, ‘Hey, we’re here to win, we’re here to show the rest of the world that we can play this game.’”
Garber indicated that the announcement of an opponent would come down in “a couple months.” Since the game returned for good to its current format in 2005, the opponent has always been a European team. Previous foes have included European powers such as Chelsea, Celtic, Manchester United, Roma, and most recently Bayern.
With the announcement of Colorado as the host for the 2015 All-Star Game, the foreign team that immediately leapt to most observers’ minds was Arsenal, where Rapids owner Stan Kroenke is the majority shareholder. But Colorado Rapids Alternate Governor Josh Kroenke, Stan’s son, indicated at the announcement that the English Premier League side may already have a summer trip to China in the works.
Beyond the Arsenal connection, the list of recent opponents should give a pretty clear indication of what kind of team MLS intends to bring in this summer. Nonetheless, Garber said, there are a number of variables that go into it.
“Five years ago, 10 years ago, clubs were not going through this offseason touring regimen that they go through today. And then obviously it starts with the popularity of the team and its brand recognition,” Garber explained. “We want to drive a global audience…[and] the better, the bigger the opponent, the more we’ll drive an international audience.
“Some of the clubs that have been traveling are looking to create connections either with our teams or our league or in this market and that plays into it. That’s why we can’t announce it today – it’s a process.”
