Jay Sugarman wants the Union to get more respect, and knows winning MLS Cup will make that happen

NEW YORK — Here’s something that Union principal owner Jay Sugarman has in common with his team’s fans.

He, too, has spent much of this year seeing Lionel Messi, Son Heung-Min, and Thomas Müller dominate the headlines, even though his team topped them all in the standings.

And he, like those fans — well, let’s keep things polite in the C-suite — would like to see the spotlight spread out a little more.

“Any press for MLS, I’m good with,” he said. “Messi’s been fantastic for this league. Son’s been fantastic, Müller’s fantastic. We don’t want to take away their press. We just want more coverage for a different kind of story.”

So Sugarman decided to put himself out there this week. The Union invited a group of media outlets, including The Inquirer, to MLS headquarters, and Sugarman held court, as he spent an hour talking about the success of his team.

“We’ve got to show it on the field,” he said. “But so far the results, you know, I think are worthy of people paying attention. And saying, whether it’s a player or a fan: ‘Hey, I kind of like that team. They work really hard, they don’t ever give up, they’re a tough team in a tough city, and they bring it every game.’”

Sugarman praised manager Bradley Carnell’s work this year, and Ernst Tanner’s work over many years. He praised the players for their feats and the culture they’ve all built together.

» READ MORE: Bradley Carnell gets to celebrate the Union’s success for himself, too

He laid out a series of impressive statistics: the fewest goals conceded this year, and the most total shots taken, corner kicks won, tackles, interceptions, and counter-press regains — those moments when high-pressing forces turnovers.

“It was a bit eye-opening to see how many categories we could track to say, when does a defense become offense?” Sugarman said of conversations he had with Tanner about this very subject.

This all came as the Union recorded the league’s worst pass completion percentage, the lowest number of touches in their own half, and the second-lowest number of one-on-one take-ons. But they also had the most goals scored from crosses.

Sugarman then ran all this through the eye test.

“It means we’re putting the ball in places where the defense has to put it out of play — that’s their best choice,” he said. “But where we do pass to, where we do touch the ball, is usually pretty dangerous, and it leads to dangerous things, crosses, shots, corner kicks, throw-ins deep. Anything in that deep attacking zone, I think Ernst would tell you, is a good place to be.”

» READ MORE: The Union clinched their second Supporters’ Shield thanks to three key veterans

Then he offered something that many outsiders have felt instinctively, but might have never expected the team to admit.

“We don’t rely so much on guys creating their own shot,” Sugarman said. “We don’t expect people to dribble through defenders. … We’re not about individual moments of brilliance breaking down a defense. But we will get into dangerous places, and our team working together will create opportunities.”

The payoff for all of this has come in the statistics that matter most.

The Union have totaled the most standings points of any team in the league since 2020, and the second-highest total since Tanner’s first full year in 2019. They’ve won two Supporters’ Shields for the league’s best regular-season record, made the playoffs every year but one along the way, reached two conference finals, and came a breath from winning it all in 2022.

» READ MORE: Why it mattered so much that the Union clinched the Supporters' Shield before their regular-season finale

Sugarman believes in an organizational philosophy of continuous improvement, and there has been a lot in recent times. He also knows as well as anyone that the hardest part of improvement in sports is the last part.

So here came, and not for the first time, a moment when something spontaneous he said made the biggest impact.

A reporter from a sports business publication asked Sugarman how the team’s success on the field has translated to the team’s bank accounts.

“It’s a lot more fun to be part of a successful club,” he said to start his answer. “So we know that’s a helpful part of the conversation with sponsors and fans.”

» READ MORE: The Union’s Frankie Westfield was one of the U.S.’ breakout players at the FIFA under-20 World Cup

The rest had nothing to do with spreadsheets.

“Our goal right now is to win a [MLS] Cup,” he said. “You can feel it in the players, you can feel it in the coaching staff, you can feel it at the ownership level. It feels like the one thing we haven’t quite gotten our hands on.”

Now the heart of the matter was truly on the table. For as much as this year has been better than expected, there’s been real pressure on the Union to turn these many years of success into trophies.

It’s why there have been stern demands to win a U.S. Open Cup. It’s why, once that quest failed this year, the pressure skyrocketed to win the Supporters’ Shield.

» READ MORE: The Union’s return to the playoffs is a milestone moment for Bradley Carnell

It’s why the air was so thick as kickoff approached on the night they clinched it, earlier this month against New York City FC. And it’s why there was such an explosion of joy around Subaru Park when that final whistle blew.

“Everybody knows this is the best sports town, maybe the toughest sports town,” Sugarman said. “We said, maybe our MLS tagline should be ‘the toughest team in the toughest city with the toughest fans.’ They want, they demand, success — we knew that going in. So we can’t deliver anything less than that for them.”

He was still willing to defend his long-term vision for reaching success, even as he knew those same fans want it faster. But that’s for another moment.

This moment — this month, this week, this Sunday evening playoff opener against the Chicago Fire at Subaru Park (5:55 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes, and Apple TV) — is about right now.

“It’s great that we’re going to be at home. Our fans are going to give us that extra 10%,” Sugarman said. “I think this is the year that everybody feels like we need to do everything we can.”

He caught himself for a breath, but not much more.

“It’s hard to put the kind of pressure on to say we must do it,” he said, “but this feels like the moment where — I’ve watched the joy on this team when they win. It is infectious. When they get rolling, I think it’s going to be hard to stop this.”

Now to see if that really happens.

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