MLS Expansion

[mellon002]

Seattle and Rochester

[riverplate]

With the Salt Lake City deal, did Garber throw a dart at a map?

It simply means Dave Checketts knows how to get a deal done. It's got nothing to do with being "a good soccer town"--whatever the hell that is in the U.S.

[urtel]

Soccertown: n, a place where there is a significant amount of soccer fans.

Ideally, it'd be a town/city that has had a team there. Rochester has a successful franchise, but it was passed up for someplace like Salt Lake City.

[CoachCoach]

I don't know why Rochester doesn't get a shot at the big time. Seems like a no-brainer. Do they need a bigger stadium??? You know, eventually, they will be invited to the party.

The other one, Chivas-USA is certainly an interesting situation. It provides exposure to the US that reaches beyond its boarders. If this experient works, you know you'll see teams from all over the world install a team in a US city with a big immigrant population of that country. My only concern is that in sharing the same stadium as the Galaxy, will the galaxy attendance dwindle to the league low because all its fans might just support only Chivas? Something to think about.

Salt Lake City....Not a bad option, as far as location goes. I just have a concern with the narrow soccer field. I have to say, watching professional soccer matches on high school size fields is just plain ugly.

[dysko]

Soccertown: n, a place where there is a significant amount of soccer fans.

Ideally, it'd be a town/city that has had a team there. Rochester has a successful franchise, but it was passed up for someplace like Salt Lake City.

Does a PSL team that averages nearly 4,000 a game with little if any advertising count as a succesful franchise? If so Salt Lake has a succesful franchise.

As for Rochester, it is in the middle of the lacrosse hotbed of the world, but has a hard time supporting pro lacrosse. If I were an MLS hat that would make me a little leary of how well soccer would do there. Add to that the fact that Rochester is a significantly smaller market than Salt Lake (SLC 35, Rochester 71) and it really doesn't suprise me that Rochester got passed up in this round of expansion.
If you really take a good long look at things from the business aspect Salt Lake makes sense.

[CoachCoach]

Rochester may be a small market, but I wonder how a team would do where it might be considered the first choice for the consumers leisure dollar.

All the other current franchises have to compete with football, baseball, basketball, minor league soccer, other outside sporting events. I mean, what else is there to do in Rochester?

Maybe this formula might work. Plus from what I hear they already have a good customer support base. Just thoughts....

[dasoccerplayafosho]

All the other current franchises have to compete with ... minor league soccer ... I mean, what else is there to do in Rochester?

Maybe this formula might work. Plus from what I hear they already have a good customer support base. Just thoughts....

How can you have a customer support base without minor league soccer? what are customers supporting? just curious.

back on the subject, it is a brilliant move. I live in Utah (springville, by orem and provo). there are tons of people that will go, trust me. there are 18 people on my soccer team that are going to buy season tickets. And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to slcboz. This is a great post for a newb were u here under another name??? you hit Utah right on the money, i guess you should though, because you live here. to back slcboz up, utah isn't just mormons. yes, I am mormon, but gawl, your childish stereotypes about polygamy, mormons, racism etc. are absolutely unbeleivable, and nowhere close. less than 3% of the population are polygamists, there is no racism, the whole country isn't a little mormonville.
Austen

[odio quaranta]

Atlanta

Two members of the national team are from metro Atlanta (Mathis, Wolff) so the locals would be able to have people to identify with.

Lame, lame, lame!!! Who knows or cares about that? Only family and friends would come out for that reason, and that's what? A dozen?

[deckham]

definitely atlanta... the most talented players in the States come from around the South.

[deckham]

Lame, lame, lame!!! Who knows or cares about that? Only family and friends would come out for that reason, and that's what? A dozen?
obviously you haven't seen the high school soccer in georgia... probably the best in the nation.... don't speak until you know what you're talking about.

[odio quaranta]

obviously you haven't seen the high school soccer in georgia... probably the best in the nation.... don't speak until you know what you're talking about.

And all those high schoolers are friends or family of Mathis, eh?

[Mancityfan81]

I vote for Rochester and another team in the greater NYC area. WE NEED A NEW YORK DERBY :cool:

[pattymcfatty43]

Well i think that Nashville is a perfect town for an MLS expansion team. It has one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S. and it has plenty of feilds for them to play on, for example; vanderbilt feild, LP feild(adelfia colesium) or the gaylord entertainment center. also Nashville has had and expansion team in the past. The Nashville Predators, and the attendance at the gaylord entertainment center has done very well for that team. So why not let Nashville have an MLS expansion team?

[pattymcfatty43]

hey, umm new york dosent need another team why does one state get two and some have none? why not let another state have a chance at having a team?;)

[Craigebhoy]

I voted for Rochester, with an honourable mention to Philadelphia.

[Botev1912]

I want Seattle

[tavasko21]

Wichita Kansas, we used to have the indoor team (Wings) but they were dispanded a few years ago.

[united_fan_72]

Philadelphia and Seatle are the two logical choices from the list available...Though Rochester would bring a great local market for the MLS, they do not have the national media prescense the other cities have...Philadelphia and Seatle would attract more national media attention

[phoenixwantssoccer]

Where's Phoenix on this list, their next

[The_ChelseaSupporter]

Being from Washington State, I had to vote for Seattle.
It would make me actually enjoy MLS.