When the Major League Soccer champions were crowned last December, Lionel Messi was not on the podium. He, Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and the rest of the Inter Miami galácticos had been dispatched in the playoffs. Instead, the new kings of US football were the old aristocrats of LA Galaxy, back on top after a 10-year absence, but without a household name in their ranks.
The team that brought you Beckham-mania, staged the Captain America show and gave a number of people Zlatan-itis had retaken the summit of the US club game with a roster of unheralded talent. But the twist was more profound than that: this 180-degree turn on strategy was brought about by fan activism, after supporters went on strike to force the club to change their approach.
“We had a period where we struggled a bit,” says Tom Braun, the Galaxy president of business operations, whose job it was to take fans’ frustrations on board. “After a decade, I think our fans got a little … they pushed us in a good way. They pushed us to be better.”
Braun was promoted into his role two years ago after a period of remarkable upheaval at Galaxy. In 2022 the then president, Chris Klein, had been suspended by MLS for breaching salary guidelines, seemingly in order to squeeze more star names into his squad. Galaxy’s response was to renew his contract and what had been a protest, including the time-honoured activity of trailing a banner from a plane calling for Klein’s dismissal, expanded into a fan boycott. Galaxy’s five distinct fan groups came together to insist they would not return to watch the team until “change is made at the highest level”. That season, average attendance at the Dignity Health Sports Park fell by more than 10%.
With dwindling support and the team at the bottom of MLS’s Western Conference, Klein was dismissed in May 2023. Braun then stepped into the front office and sought to re-establish relations with supporters. The strategy was known as “fight for the fan” and the fight was necessary. But the route to winning back trust was not paved with big announcements, Braun argues, but a concentration on the small things.
“We created a fan council, which is roughly 17 people, from season-ticket members to single-game buyers, to people that might have different accessibility needs to get their vision,” Braun says. “They wanted to create a better fan experience across the board. So we enhanced [the pre-match entertainment offering] Soccer Fest. We’ve brought in DJs. We’ve increased ingress so you get in better and faster. We changed out all the seats in our stadium. We improved restrooms, which isn’t always the fun thing to talk about but it was important to our fans. So we heard them and we made those changes.”
The changes were made, and the fans came back. Ticket revenues rose by 38% on the previous season, but more importantly the returning support created an indomitable atmosphere inside the ground. Galaxy went unbeaten at home in the regular season in 2024, with 13 wins and three draws.
Fans also identified with a team that had moved away from star names. In 2023 Galaxy’s three designated players were the one-time Manchester United striker Javier Hernández, the former Bayern Munich winger Douglas Costa and the Barcelona youth graduate Riqui Puig. In 2024 Hernández and Costa were moved on and Puig was joined by the more unheralded prospects Joseph Paintsil and Gabriel Pec. “We had a history of signing recognisable big-name talent,” Braun says. “Now, while we still have that in players like Marco Reus, we’ve also signed younger players that are proving to be talented. Right now, the Galaxy is in the business of star making, not star taking.”
Galaxy are hardly the only MLS club to have re-evaluated their recruitment strategy. The average age of players in MLS fell for the second consecutive year to 26.13 in 2024, when 150 players aged 22 or younger made at least one appearance. The trend for greater youth emulates the direction of travel in Europe and Braun says it is a sign of MLS’s maturity.
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“The league is only 30 years old and a lot of the time has been spent in educating our fans on what it’s about,” he says. “I think we’re moving past that now. I think we’re showing that this is a really competitive league. I think that’s been a challenge for soccer in the US in the past, but MLS has really grown in a meaningful way. Going into 2026 and the World Cup, it’s just going to continue to elevate what we’re doing. I think more players are going to continue to choose our league. I think the level of players is going to continue to rise and the engagement with our fanbase is going to continue to get lifted.”
Unlike Messi’s Miami, Galaxy did not receive an invite to this summer’s expanded Fifa Club World Cup. “I think for winning our domestic championship, it would have been nice,” Braun says, though he backs the competition and, particularly, the opportunity to have more competitive fixtures against overseas clubs. “Any time you can compete against teams from different nations teams is a great opportunity,” he says, “but it’s important for your team to show success and win these trophies.”
Galaxy may have dialled down the big names, and turned up the customer service, but Braun says the club’s core identity remains the same: it’s about winning.
“We identify as being a very successful club and winning as a club in our league,” he says. “We signed big players with big names that helped us to get to this point. But the LA Galaxy is known to be a very important brand in soccer and a successful brand in soccer. We’re continuing to find ways to build upon that by winning.”
