Kevin Baxter: Galaxy's return to MLS Cup final began with a boycott

LOS ANGELES — To truly understand how far the Galaxy have come in reaching the MLS Cup final on Saturday, you first must know where they started.

The Galaxy headed into last season having lost more games than they'd won since 2017. They'd made the playoffs twice in six seasons and had gone a team-record nine years without playing in the league championship game.

Once the model franchise in MLS, the Galaxy had become a dysfunctional mess. And it didn't look like things would be getting better any time soon.

So when the Galaxy announced that Chris Klein, who presided over that free fall as the team's president for a decade, had been given a contract extension, Andrew Alesana had seen enough. The team already had his money — he'd recently renewed the season ticket he had had since 2007 — but it would no longer have his support.

So just before the start of the 2023 season Alesana, president of the LA Riot Squad, joined with three of the team's other main supporters groups to organize a boycott, promising to stay away from games until changes in the front office were made.

And guess what? It worked.

Will Kuntz, who would become the architect of the team's turnaround, was hired three months later, Klein was sacked a month after that and after rebuilding the front office, the Galaxy quickly rebuilt their roster. The result was one of the most dramatic turnarounds in MLS history.

After winning just eight games in 2023, the Galaxy matched a modern-era record with 19 victories this season. After finishing in the penultimate spot in the Western Conference standings last season, the Galaxy tied for the top spot this season, becoming the first team since 2011 to go from second to last in the conference to the MLS Cup in one season.

And it all started when the fans went on strike.

"It's crazy where we've come from in a year," Alesana said. "I definitely take some pride in the team being as successful as they are."

So does Mark Villa, a season-ticket holder since the first game in Carson in 2004.

"My kids grew up in this stadium," he said. "The last eight seasons have been difficult to slog through as a fan. But seeing this revival really does start to make up for it."

Villa said supporting the boycott was a difficult but necessary decision — and one that forced AEG, the Galaxy's parent company, to listen.

"They already had our money. That's all they care about," he said. "The media scrutiny brought by the boycott grew to a point where [AEG] could no longer hide from it."

Nor could they ignore the planes circling the stadium calling for the firing of Klein and technical director Jovan Kirovski. Or the empty seats and the boos that cascaded down after games. Seventeen months later some AEG officials admit privately that the boycott influenced their thinking and might have accelerated changes that were already being contemplated.

In other words, the fans were heard.

"The Galaxy became mediocre and the fans got fed up with that. They demanded that there be change," said ESPN commentator Hérculez Gómez, who won an MLS Cup with the Galaxy in 2005. "If this pressure didn't exist AEG would have just gone on and the Galaxy wouldn't be in the position it is today.

"I don't think change happens if these fans don't take matters into their own hands."

One immediate result of those changes was that Dignity Health Sports Park became a fortress again. Only two teams in MLS won fewer games at home than the Galaxy last season; this year the Galaxy were unbeaten there in 20 games in all competitions. Ten of those games were sellouts, helping the Galaxy break the franchise single-season attendance record.

If AEG learned nothing else, they learned that if they build a winner, the fans will come — or in some cases, come back.

"It really means a lot for the players," winger Joseph Paintsil said. "The crowd, the people shouting, making noise. It gives us the energy to push for them, because they came for us."

"Of course you notice," Gómez added. "And you know, who else notices? The opponents. When you're loud, when you can make your presence felt, the opponent notices. And they notice that the home team is feeding off that."

Other ownership groups should also notice. Because if a boycott can work in Southern California, it can work in San José, where the Earthquakes haven't had a winning season in 11 years. Or Washington, where D.C. United hasn't won a playoff game since 2015. Or Chicago, where the Fire has made the postseason just twice since its last playoff victory in 2009.

"I definitely think other teams' fans should look at this as an example," Alesana said. "If people stopped showing for games, they can affect their ownership."

As a former Galaxy player, Gómez has a different take. For him, the turnaround this season in Carson was personal. And he's happy the fans see it the same way.

"When you go through the Galaxy, it's once a G, always a G," he said. "There are clubs that you go through in your career, there are fan bases that you come across, that seem to always remember, seem to somehow hold on to the past. There's something to be said about that."

"It's special because not many places around the world have that," he added. "It wasn't too long ago that the Galaxy was the only team you spoke about when you spoke about a super club. It lost that, and now it's regaining that, and people love it."

Especially the people who boycotted the team to make it happen.