Doug Logan
| Doug Logan | |
|---|---|
| Commissioner of Major League Soccer | |
|
In office January 21, 1995 – 1999 |
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| Preceded by | First |
| Succeeded by | Don Garber |
Douglas G. Logan has been a leader in the sports and entertainment industries, best known for his role as the first commissioner of the fledgling Major League Soccer in the late 1990s, and as CEO of USA Track & Field from 2009-2010.
Logan was born in Cuba, moved as a child to the United States, and raised in a bilingual, multicultural family, Logan spoke Spanish as his first language. He fought with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, where he was decorated with two Bronze Stars. Logan drove a taxicab in New York City for three years and began his career in the entertainment business as a beer vendor in Yankee Stadium while attending Manhattan College.
Previously employed in his family’s business field of heavy construction and geotechnical engineering, Logan moved to the sports and entertainment industry when he re-evaluated his career goals in the late 1970s. Moving forward, he was determined “to earn a living from those things that I was most passionate about — music and sports.”
Logan was the promoter of the first commercial Arena Football League game in April 1985.
Logan was named the first commissioner of Major League Soccer, serving in that capacity from the inauguration of the league in 1995 to 1999. He led the league through its first season, averaging over 17,000 fans per match. Sports Business Daily named Logan and the MLS staff Sports Industrialists of the Year for 1996. During Logan's last year at MLS, the league lost $34 million. MLS was reported to have lost $250 million in its first five years under Logan. Logan is also a former Vice President of the US Soccer Federation.
Logan formed Empresario, LLC in 1999, a sports consulting and entrepreneurial firm serving diverse clients in North America, Central America, South America and Spain. In 2001, he was brought in as a consultant in the creation of a professional National Rugby League, much in the same vein as MLS, structuring the new league as a "single entity" system.
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