4 Expansion Teams?

[DLite]

"Oklahoma has a very good chance of landing a Major League Soccer franchise as the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and Tulsa compete for one of four new teams, a league official says."


This is a paragraph from an Associated Press report on OKC's possibilty of getting an MLS franchise. My question is, does anyone have any information as to which cities are vying for these four spots? Also, will all four teams come about in the same year?

[Laramie4OKC]

These are the cities I believe to be vying for MLS and in no preferential (alpha) order and I can't say which ones have already or which cities are in the elite eight:


Cleveland
Detroit
Houston
Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
Portland
Rochester
St. Louis
San Diego
Seattle
Tulsa


Potential ownership groups and a soccer specific stadium will almost guarantee a franchise for any of the above mentioned cities.

If I have left an area out please let me know, if you know of a city in the above list that has dropped out of the MLS picture let me know and maybe we can figure out which eight cities are vying for an MLS franchise.

[kasai]

Move KC to OK.... Maybe they can draw 15k+ in OK because I just don't see Kansas City ever fully supporting their team unless a new stadium is built.

[Soccertes]

Originally posted by Laramie4OKC
These are the cities I believe to be vying for MLS and in no preferential (alpha) order and I can't say which ones have already or which cities are in the elite eight:


Cleveland
Detroit
Houston
Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
Portland
Rochester
St. Louis
San Diego
Seattle
Tulsa



These are the cities that will actually get an MLS team:

0

[Viking64]

Originally posted by Laramie4OKC
These are the cities I believe to be vying for MLS and in no preferential (alpha) order and I can't say which ones have already or which cities are in the elite eight:
Cleveland
Detroit
Houston
Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
Portland
Rochester
St. Louis
San Diego
Seattle
Tulsa


You need to go back and look at Garber's statements from the All-Star game.
"This weekend, we have a contingent of interested investors joining us from Tulsa, Oklahoma and Cleveland, Ohio. In the past months, we have visited several new potential new MLS markets, including Toronto, Detroit, and San Antonio.

Cleveland - new mention
Detroit - new mention
Philadelphia - Not mentioned since WUSA and MLS parted company
St. Louis - not mentioned by MLS, ever, that I know of
San Antonio - new mention
Seattle and Portland - not been mentioned in a long time
Tulsa - new mention
Houston - not mentioned in a long time. Astrodome now needs a purpose though, since the Olympics are not coming.
Minneapolis-not heard an official mention, ever. Maybe there's been one.
Milwaukee--since the last guy went away, nothing.
Then they went to OKC a week later, and Lamar said they had a good chance.

Don't get me started on Rochester--they are going nowhere fast. San Diego is not too likely.

So, the 8 are, if I had to guess...

Detroit
Philadelphia
San Antonio
Seattle
Houston
OKC
Toronto
Either Cleveland or Milwaukee, but not both.

[SoccerMavn]

A thread on this is already going on in News and Analysis.

[Thunderpac]

Originally posted by Viking64
Minneapolis-not heard an official mention, ever. Maybe there's been one.


There has, by Garber. There was a thread about it in here before the crash. I think it was around April or May when he said it.

[bofahey]

Originally posted by Thunderpac


There has, by Garber. There was a thread about it in here before the crash. I think it was around April or May when he said it.

I don't recall that, but in any event, I assume MLS would only relocate there if a SSS was built in downtown St. Paul or MPLS. I don't think there would be much likelihood that they would play in Blaine. In terms of locations, it's worse than Naperville. It's also been discussed (pre-crash) whether the Metrodome could work. Again, I highly doubt it. The only way that would happen is if the Vikings moved and the Metrodome was not torn down. In that case, it could become like RFK (stadium without a tenant), and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission might agree to very low rent to get an MLS team. It would also need to install Field Turf.

The best chance to get MLS in the Twin Cities would be to get a SSS attached to any new bills for Twins and Viking stadiums--again a very long shot. Alternatively, the only other possibility would be if a new Vikings owner (Glen Taylor?) also was willing to invest in MLS, in which case MLS could conceivably let an MLS team play in a new Viking stadium with a CMGI-like arrangement.

[jasontoon]

Originally posted by Viking64
St. Louis - not mentioned by MLS, ever, that I know of
Minneapolis-not heard an official mention, ever. Maybe there's been one.

Here's a USA Today article from March 2002 that says "Garber says MLS is considering expansion to Philadelphia, Houston, Rochester, Seattle, St. Louis or Minneapolis-St. Paul." It's not as recent as the All-Star Game, but St. Louis and the Twin Cities have indeed been mentioned by MLS in the recent past.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/mls/stories/2002-03-21-leaner.htm

[johnfitz55]

Houston is the best bet for expansion. Then maybe Seattle, but the stadium fell through, so now Oklahoma or another NY team.

[USRufnex]

Originally posted by johnfitz55
Houston is the best bet for expansion. Then maybe Seattle, but the stadium fell through, so now Oklahoma or another NY team.

All right John... tell us the name of the O/I... not the potential O/I, but the real one (since this is the only reason I can think of right now as to why Houston would be a "best bet")... then tell us when/where the new SSS is going to be built or perhaps about the great stadium lease deal they'd get at Reliant... while you're at it, how's the season ticket drive goin' for your "best bet" franchise?

[wellington]

Since Rochester will not be building Pae Tec Park, we can scratch Rochester off the list. They were long shots anyway. They are going to focus on building a smaller stadium or refurbishing Frontier Field making it more soccer friendly for the A-League Rhinos.

[Lithium858]

I still think San Diego should get a team!

[soccerdome]

Originally posted by Thunderpac


There has, by Garber. There was a thread about it in here before the crash. I think it was around April or May when he said it.

I keep hearing about this crash. Did it happen within the last couple of days? (I wasn't here) Someone please inform the lost one (me) :(

[soccerdome]

Originally posted by Lithium858
I still think San Diego should get a team!

No. California already has 2 teams. MLS needs to balance it out throughout states. I say OKC, New Mexico, or Florida (maybe.) But wherever MLS goes, I hope it's a smaller market so there's no competing with MLB and NFL.

[empennage]

Originally posted by Viking64
San Diego is not too likely.

Sad but true. :(

Although the Padres are moving out of Qualcomm stadium soon. Not a SSS, but it's still a stadium free of conflicts that can support MLS. RFK can do it, so why not Qualcomm??

[empennage]

Originally posted by soccerdome


No. California already has 2 teams. MLS needs to balance it out throughout states. I say OKC, New Mexico, or Florida (maybe.) But wherever MLS goes, I hope it's a smaller market so there's no competing with MLB and NFL.

This should not be a reason to keep a team away from San Diego. There's close to 30 million people in the state, with 18 million in Southern California. And I bet if you compared the distance from DC to Boston to New York, it would be smaller than the distance from San Jose to San Diego.

California is a big state, and cities the size of Oklahoma city or Albequerque(sp?) are suburbs in CA. To give you a feeling for the size of the California market, if CA was it's own country it'd have the 8th GDP in the world. There's a reason that there are currently two teams in CA, and that's because it is a huge market.

[Lithium858]

Originally posted by empennage


This should not be a reason to keep a team away from San Diego. There's close to 30 million people in the state, with 18 million in Southern California. And I bet if you compared the distance from DC to Boston to New York, it would be smaller than the distance from San Jose to San Diego.

California is a big state, and cities the size of Oklahoma city or Albequerque(sp?) are suburbs in CA. To give you a feeling for the size of the California market, if CA was it's own country it'd have the 8th GDP in the world. There's a reason that there are currently two teams in CA, and that's because it is a huge market. Well said my friend! Couldn't have said it better myself. But that's cause I'm dumb...well thats another story hehe.

[soccerdome]

Originally posted by empennage


This should not be a reason to keep a team away from San Diego. There's close to 30 million people in the state, with 18 million in Southern California. And I bet if you compared the distance from DC to Boston to New York, it would be smaller than the distance from San Jose to San Diego.

California is a big state, and cities the size of Oklahoma city or Albequerque(sp?) are suburbs in CA. To give you a feeling for the size of the California market, if CA was it's own country it'd have the 8th GDP in the world. There's a reason that there are currently two teams in CA, and that's because it is a huge market.

It's not population but fan base. Yes, there are a lot of people in Cali, but I don't believe they have the largest amount of soccer fans out of all the states. Let me make-up an example here: let's say OKC has 10,000 people in it and San Diego has 1 million. And OKC has 5,000 soccer fans and Diego only has 1,000. Where would be the logical place to expand? Think about it. In fact, I just thought of a REAL example: when the Fire moved to Cardinal they didn't get the most suppport in the beginning, but their last 5-6 games were sold out (even over capacity most of the time.) Even though Naperville is a suburb, it showed that it's capable of supporting a major league team. I think we all can learn from that experience and remember to go where there is a demand for soccer, and not always huge populations.

[rhydogg]

I think Phoenix or San Diego would be the best for a new team. I know tons of soccer fans in Phoenix who crave soccer. Arizona doesn't have one division 1 soccer program. The state needs a major soccer team that all the fans of the game can watch and follow. I have watched numerous mls games in L.A. , Colo. , and San Jose. I have noticed the fans at all these game are about 80-90 % Hispanic. Phoenix has a very large hispanic population. I am almost certain if they got an MlS team their attendance would be better then most of the other mls teams. I feel this would be the case with San Diego also. It just seems the Hispanics, Latinos, etc... just get more into the games and supporting their teams then the average white American. I went to the Galaxy game tonight and it was about 90% hispanics. It was awesome to see how involved they were getting. It just seems like an another MLS team in the SouthWest would be more successful in the long run then one up north or elsewhere.