In a chat with fans held at mlsnet.com Major League Soccer commissioner announced that he is "very confident" that MLS will be able to add three more teams by the end of the year. While he didn't tip his hand to who those teams would be, if I was a betting man and I felt lucky, I would roll the dice and...oh c'mon do I have to spell it out.
Here is the chat exchange:
Don Garber
If I answer that here, we certainly won't have much to talk about during the State of the League address tomorrow. I'm well aware that much of the internet traffic and fan buzz recently concerns expansion and all of you know I, and MLS president Mark Abbot, spend a great deal of our time traveling from city to city meeting with potential owners, officials and sports authorities and all others to manage the expansion of the league. I'm very confident that we will be able to announce a 16-team league by the end of the year. It's still a moving target as to what cities will flow in when.
Later in the chat, Garber identified several potential cities for expansion
Don Garber
There's more interest in MLS expansion than at any other time in the history of the sport in the country. Without prioritizing any one market, here is a rundown of the cities: Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, San Antonio, St. Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Rochester, New York City, Atlanta, Miami and Las Vegas.
Notice that Philadelphia is absent from the list. He discussed Philly's specific chances later in the chat, but it sounds like it's only in the beginning stages, so it's likely not one of the three. Perhaps Philly could be the new home of the Kansas City Wizards (if the league makes the correct decision to cut its losses in Kansas City and move to where they actually will support a team).
If I had to guess which will be the big three added, I would have to say Rochester, San Jose and Miami. Why those three? Stadiums. Those three cities all have stadiums already set up. Seattle might be in the mix, if they can work out an arrangement with the Seahawks to use Qwest Field. The Rochester Rhinos of USL-1 deserve a promotion, but I'm not sure MLS fans should be thrilled about San Jose and Miami coming back from the dead. Cleveland could also be a real possibility, as they were actually announced as an expansion team in 2005. But with the death of the man behind the Cleveland push, Bert Wolstein, the bid was stalled until recently. Las Vegas is a sexy pick and would be a bold one. With no major pro sports franchises in town for fear of the gambling spectre, it has the potential to be a treasure trove of revenue for MLS.
Surfing through expansion news I found this gem, produced by a Dallas Burn fan a few years ago. It is his projections for expansion complete with names and mascots for the clubs (some based on USL teams, some not). This was done several years ago, but I actually like his name for Houston better. The Houston Hammers. Maybe because it reminds me of the Hebrew Hammer and that was funny. Also, Locomotive St. Louis is so stupid it's brilliant. Or maybe it's just stupid.
Garber is likely to announce at least one of the expansion teams during tomorrow's State of the League address, which I'm sure will be carried on mlsnet.com live.
4 comments:
You must be the only person that thought Philly wasn't in the top 3. Either that or your just a hater.
Garber mentioned in the chat that 1-they were lobbying the State for a facility (where else are they doing this? Not Las Vegas or Seattle). 2- they have secured a investment group. I didn't realize most other MLS hopefuls had secured their I/O group?
I'm glad you left out the actual information regarding Philadelphia. It was actually brought up before that list was given. In case you missed it, here is what was said.
Is there any news on a possible new MLS franchise in Philadelphia?
Don Garber
No news yet but continuing to make progress but I'm hopeful, and even a bit bullish, about MLS's opportunities in Philly. We've been lobbying in the State House for public support of a facility and believe we have secured real interest from what we believe will be a terrific ownership group.
Philly supporters in the house? I'm not a hater. I would love to see a team brought to Philly. It just seemed like he left them off the list of expansion cities for a reason. Maybe the reason was he believed he had already discussed them. Philly could be one of the three, but lots of cities have set up "terrific ownership groups" (including Seattle since 2005) and many more have been "lobbying" local and state govt. for stadiums (I cant tell you how long NY has been lobbying for a stadium, probably since 98 or 99). But I hope Garber was being intentionally obtuse by saying there was "no news yet" for Philly. We should find out more from the Commish during the State of the League today. So, what would the name be for your franchise?
http://mlsrumors.blogspot.com/2007/07/expansion-and-three-cities-are.html
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