Will Toronto 2007 be an expansion team or a relocated team?

[pc4th]

There is a theory running out there that MLS might buy the Quakes or KC and keep it running for a season and then relocated one of those teams to Toronto.

Right now, assuming neither SJ or KC situation works out, MLS has to look for 2 new cities to host these two teams. In addition to that, MLS has to find an additional expansion team to go along with Toronto in 2007. It looks to me that there is a small chance that Toronto might be a relocated team instead of expansion simply because AEG and Hunt don't want SJ and KC anymore.

Anyway, we will find out on Nov 12 at the MLS Governors Meeting.

But this might be a scenario: (though not very likely).

AEG keeps the Quakes in SJ for one more year and find a new buyer. No buyer, team will moves to Toronto.

or

AEG sells the Quakes to MLS (AEG stated in the Mercury News that it can't be Quakes owner anymore), MLS owns the team for a year to find a new buyer. No buyer = Team to Toronto.

[CL_2004]

I would be great if Toronto got SJ Quakes because it will put are master plan into motion. We will have two Canadian internationals that im aware of(Onstad, and De Rosario) all we have to do is unload the other underperforming players we do not want. :D

QUAKES TO TORONTO :)

[Sempuukyaku]

Not gonna happen. Since this is a Canadian team we have the issue of Canadians as domestic players and Americans as non-domestics. You'd be able to get DeRo and Onstad right off the bat, and then maybe 5 more players as SIs like Ching and Clark. The rest you can't use...and MLS would have to set up a dispersal draft for the remaining others. I just don't see that happening because of the logistics involved.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

AEG sells the Quakes to MLS (AEG stated in the Mercury News that it can't be Quakes owner anymore), MLS owns the team for a year to find a new buyer. No buyer = Team to Toronto.

That sort of scenario has always been on the cards for the 2006 season. Last chance for KC and SJ to get their situation sorted out or expansion morphs into relocation. In the absence of viable expansion candidates another two team contraction would be very much on the cards so it's quite possible that expansion would give KC and SJ an extra year they wouldn't otherwise have had.

[PhillyMLS]

Not gonna happen. Since this is a Canadian team we have the issue of Canadians as domestic players and Americans as non-domestics. You'd be able to get DeRo and Onstad right off the bat, and then maybe 5 more players as SIs like Ching and Clark. The rest you can't use...and MLS would have to set up a dispersal draft for the remaining others. I just don't see that happening because of the logistics involved.

And we have a winner. One of the nice things about expanding to Toronto is that you get to add a team without diluting the player pool. Sure there might be an American or two on the team; but you won't be adding 20 Americans. So relocating a team to Toronto wouldn't make any real sense.

[PJohnson]

Not gonna happen. Since this is a Canadian team we have the issue of Canadians as domestic players and Americans as non-domestics.

Seems like you are making a big assumption here. I don't think Major League Soccer has announced what the rules on player eligibility would be for the not yet confirmed expansion into Canada. ;)

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Don Garber has made it clear on several occassions that rules would be the same but with Canadians as the domestic players.

[TopDogg]

Not that I think we'd get a relocated team (because we won't), but if the Quakes were to come here, only DeRo, Onstad and Chung (born and rasied in Toronto) would not count as international players.

As Onstad and Chung will both be about 100 years old by then, only DeRo would be of any use.

Besides, I wouldn't want to see all of those players hung out to dry like that.

[PJohnson]

Don Garber has made it clear on several occassions that rules would be the same but with Canadians as the domestic players.

I know. I've heard him say that too. But things have a way of changing in MLS. And the point is that nothing is set in stone yet.

[pc4th]

Originally Posted by Sempuukyaku
Not gonna happen. Since this is a Canadian team we have the issue of Canadians as domestic players and Americans as non-domestics. You'd be able to get DeRo and Onstad right off the bat, and then maybe 5 more players as SIs like Ching and Clark. The rest you can't use...and MLS would have to set up a dispersal draft for the remaining others. I just don't see that happening because of the logistics involved.

Toronto can trade for other players or for draft pick, allocations etc...
Also, Toronto can let go of some players while picking up some Canadian players in USL First Division.

If MLS really need to put a relocated team in Toronto, I don't think players will be an issue.

Does this sound right?

MLS: Moving to Toronto would be really good for our financial numbers. We would turn a money-losing team into a profitable team or at least get it to an owner for an ownerless team. But we wouldn't want to do that because of the players thingie.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

In a league with single entity ownership and player contracts handled by the league office with players allocated to a team by the league I'm not sure the "relocation" scenario works the way it would in other leagues where players are the employees of the individual franchises. I suspect that MLS will/would have to setup a Canadian corporate entity alongside the existing American one for legal reasons so what would on the surface be a "relocation" would in reality be a case of a contraction within the American entity with players under contract by the league's American entity being reallocated within the USA. Local ownership stepping up to the plate where an SSS is concerned is the key to survival in both SJ and KC and Toronto doesn't change that much because keeping both franchises would clearly be the leagues preferred option but AEG and HSG are also clearly just about out of patience in both cities.

[Freddy Garcia Lives]

This would handcuff a "new" Toronto team for 1 year where they would be limited in setting up their front office, and promoting the team, if they didn't even know what type of team they were promoting (new or expansion). It would be like sitting on their hands until a final decision on the fate of the Earthquakes or "Wiz."

[CL_2004]

Besides, I wouldn't want to see all of those players hung out to dry like that.

are they paying your bills?

[wildthing2022000]

I think the Toronto team will be an expansion team since the league wants to expand the league the only way they could do it is if they moved a team to Toronto then have a new team go where the old one was like in the NFL with Baltimore and Cleveland.

[TopDogg]

are they paying your bills?
No, but I'm a Quakes supporter, and even if I wasn't, I can certainly feel empathy for the players.

[pc4th]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/sports/soccer/08soccer.html?oref=login

"Toronto is the front-runner, we could stay at 13 for 2007, expand after that or expand to 14 in '07," Ivan Gazidis, the league's deputy commissioner, said yesterday in a telephone interview. "We want to get the right stadium, owner and market and will continue to be conservative."

Looks like MLS is having trouble finding an expansion team to go along with Toronto in 2007

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Key quote from the NY Times from my vantage point is:-

Government officials in Canada last week approved financing for a new stadium.

Assuming this was approval at the federal and provincial level rather than by Toronto council (approved it two weeks ago and it was by councillors rather than officials), that explains why the tone of newspaper stories in Toronto appeared to change from the stadium being a possibility to a certainty last week. For that to have happened MLS and MLSE probably had to finalize their deal by Oct 31st during the period of exclusivity because large portions of the stadium funding package and key guarantees were contingent on that. Will still be good to hear the MLS franchise formally announced this weekend, however, because even "papers of record" sometimes get the details wrong.

[Paul Schmidt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/sports/soccer/08soccer.html?oref=login



Looks like MLS is having trouble finding an expansion team to go along with Toronto in 2007

That quote kind of looks like it's implying "we could go to 13 in '07 and 14 in '08." Sounds like Milwaukee would be 14 in that scenario, if they get everything wrapped up.