How Philadelphia Union’s record-setting MLS rampage was built
New York TimesBefore he owned the Philadelphia Union, Jay Sugarman made his fortune by founding and running iStar, a commercial real estate company with billions of dollars worth of holdings. Philadelphia has never spent all that much on players, but there probably isn’t another team in the league that has done a better job of identifying and exploiting market inefficiencies than the Union over the last few years. After winning the Supporters’ Shield in 2020 and finishing second in the East in 2021, the Union now lead the MLS standings by three points heading into the final few weeks of the regular season. Both players made the MLS Best XI when the Union claimed the Supporters’ Shield in 2020, then were sold to European clubs for a combined sum that netted out around $15 million. The Union know they don’t really have the budget to sign players from big European leagues or from markets like Mexico or Argentina, where a handful of other MLS teams have spent huge sums in recent years.
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