Man City Owners Pondering Bid for NY II; Red Bull Having Second Thoughts?

From the Daily Telegraph:

"Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi-based owners are understood to be considering extending their influence in football across the Atlantic with a bid for a New York MLS franchise. Telegraph Sport understands that City’s proprietors are among a number of investors considering bidding for the franchise, which will extend the league membership to 20.

Sources with knowledge of the MLS franchise process told Telegraph Sport that City’s owners have examined the potential of a US investment, though they will face competition, both from Middle East rivals and US-based investors.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s purchase of Manchester City may have begun as a whim, but its potential as a marketing and diplomatic tool quickly became clear to the emirate’s ruling family.

The success of the project is understood to have led to discussion of building City 'franchises’ in other leagues, with the US among the most lucrative and high-profile developing markets in world football.

Qatar are also interested in extending their global reach in football to the US, with the investor behind Paris St-Germain understood to be taking soundings about the MLS.

. . . There are also suggestions that Red Bull may be reconsidering its investment in the MLS, which potentially opens up a second New York franchise. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ld-strengthen-despite-David-Beckham-exit.html

Shit just got real.

It's hard to look away from that pile of money, but please for the love of God no more brand extensions. Fortunately, I guess "City" is generic enough and works with New York.

But why not create an awesome brand from scratch instead of doing a cheap replica of another brand, which as an idea never seems to have a high ceiling?

And Red Bull have spent a lot of money in MLS, but what I wouldn't give to erase that name from the roster of clubs.

Cue Ole's rant about foreign clubs franchising clubs in MLS....

CityFC.com was one of the domains that MLS registered a couple of months ago. I wonder if that was a coincidence or not.

Expectations: With the parity / salary cap structure in place (albeit there are rooms for DPs), the proposed N.Y. team may not take the league by storm as immediately as Man City did in EPL...

The quoted sentence about the Red Bulls is the only sentence in the whole article that directly references them, and cites nothing but "suggestions".

Are they aware of what a salary cap is?

naming your new york team "red bull" was a huge mistake. Does anyone really take it seriously when their team is named after an energy drink?

It's like Manchester United renaming themselves Manchester Sasquatch's with their new beef jerky ownership.


just had to say that, lol.

#postsfrom2006

Virtually everyone...

Just had to enlighten you...no joke...

You know no one has ever brought that point up before.

Nate Jaqua for USMNT?

You misspelled Freddie Adu...

Ironic since you misspelled Freddy.

He is my friend on MySpace let me ask him.

FIFA says we're the 4th best team in the world, we're going to EASILY make the semi-finals of the WC this year...right?

Well, this would be great for the league imo. PSG interested too, potentially? That's some serious wealth MLS owners for the most part don't have. MLS owners lack of wealth or unwillingness to spend is part of what keeps the cap low and quality down.

Wealthy owners willing to spend big would only help, and if those owners aren't in the US but rather abroad, so be it. I'd expect interest like this to increase and a possible cash influx to MLS to follow. Of course, the cap will need to change. Can't turn away possible ownership like this because a few other owners don't want to spend. And if Garber is serious about MLS being a top league in 10 years, something like this only moves the needle in that direction. I'd also say MLS has zero chance of being a top league in a decade without foreign investment like this.

True, but read together with the recent NYT interview that is the subject of another thread, you have Red Bull now somewhat less enthusiastic about a second NY team, so the issues may be linked:

"Jérôme de Bontin, the new sporting director of the Red Bulls, is not a big fan of one of Commissioner Don Garber’s favorite projects: a new stadium in Flushing, Queens, for a the 20th team in the league, by 2016.

“I don’t mean to be controversial,” de Bontin told Fox Sports, then proceeded to be exactly that, “because I’ve just arrived. I know M.L.S. well. I’ve been supportive but critical of M.L.S. At times it fails to learn from its mistakes and is maybe misguide. Competition is good. Over time. A second team in New York would be a good thing, but today it’s probably premature. I wonder if market is mature.”

The sound of those jaws dropping came from league HQ on Fifth Avenue."

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...-bulls-executive-says-not-so-fast/?ref=soccer

I'd have them ask the LA Galaxy management.

If this happens, MLS needs to drop the salary cap. If they do, this league will take off. It would be a shame to have very rich owners that are willing to spend 10's of millions on a club to only be allowed to spend 3 million plus whatever aging DPs they can sign. It would be a wasted opportunity.

Don't know how much there is to this but a respected fan on the MetroFanatic site with business contacts in Red Bull corporate in LA reported weeks ago that Red Bull was none too pleased with Garber and the league.

I'd imagine they'd believe (as I do) that the league has decided to pursue NY2 in a manner that undercuts our club. It's one thing to support (and even fund in this case) a second team in any market but despite the obligatory "we're doing this for Red Bull they support creating a rival in the market" disclaimer the zeal with which Garber/MLS has publicly pursued this multi-year initiative replete with the occasional putdowns (unintentional?) of our team and the open declaration that NY2 is the key to unlocking the market could easily have alarmed Red Bull, it certainly alarmed me.

There's a sense in a section of the fanbase that the feeling is mutual and Garber doesn't like Red Bull much either. This theory suggests Garber opposed the branding/naming and doesn't appreciate Mateschitz playing no role in the league and the lack of progress in the market.

Still until there is further evidence (any actually) I'll chalk this up to long distance speculation. Every day that goes by however without Garber getting Red Bull to disavow de Bontin's statement and now disavow this latest "rumor" leaves room to contemplate the unthinkable...

Hopefully with this big investment, MLS will adopt UEFA Financial fairplay + significant revenue sharing.

This will allow the league to take off and at the same time be financial responsible.