the league's ongoing financial problems led to the departure of then-commissioner doug logan in august 1999, with don garber, a former national football league executive, hired as commissioner that same month. under garber's auspices, columbus crew stadium was built in 1999, becoming mls's first soccer-specific stadium. this began a trend among the majority of mls teams and owners to construct their own venues, abandoning their former stadiums whose main tenants were either professional or college gridiron football teams.