Garber on Expansion(SI 10/26/07)

[southpaw817]

"Expansion continues to go strong. When you look at San Diego, Portland, Vancouver, Montreal, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Miami and a second team in New York, just to name a few, there are more serious prospects for expansion than we have available teams. Our ownership group is as strong as it's ever been and soccer-specific stadium development is going extremely well. Sponsorship is at an all-time high and we went past the 3 million mark in attendance for first time in league history. It's an exciting time for MLS."

Full link:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jonah_freedman/10/26/garber.qa/index.html

[Metrogo]

what does "available teams" mean? It seems to me there should be as many teams available as local ownership groups and communities can support.

[southpaw817]

what does "available teams" mean? It seems to me there should be as many teams available as local ownership groups and communities can support.

I guess they only have a certain amount of expansion spots. They prob dont want to expand too quickly so there are only a few openings at this given time. Thats my humble opinion. Hopefully we are one of them!

[nymetrobulls]

what does "available teams" mean? It seems to me there should be as many teams available as local ownership groups and communities can support.

MLS doesn't want to make the same mistake as the NASKL and over expand too quickly. The league is going about expansion in a very smart way (suitable owners, sss, etc...) and I applaude them for it. The game is growing in this country.:)

[QueensNick]

MLS doesn't want to make the same mistake as the NASKL and over expand too quickly. The league is going about expansion in a very smart way (suitable owners, sss, etc...) and I applaude them for it. The game is growing in this country.:)


I agree - i think the league has done a great job in the past few years to help the league grow.

[Metrogo]

I agree, though I think it has more to do with dimunition of talent. If there are suitable owners and a community that can support the team, why not?

[shonuff85]

I also applaud the league for not repeating the sins of the NASL. However i am getting tired of every 3-6 months Garber drops little hints of a secret investor(s) looking in to a 2nd new york area franchise and then nothing happens.

I know they've put target years out there (2009, 2010) but it's been a while now that Garber keeps mentioning nyc 2 when talking about new franchises. i hope sometime soon that some sort of concrete news is announced. not rumors, and not potential investors. if there is something real about to happen, then keep quite till it actually happens.we all know that there are some rich people sniffing around the possiblity of nyc 2, JUST HAVING A LITTLE MORE TO TELL US!!!!!!

Sorry everybody, I just get a tad frustred whenever this news comes out and no movement towards nyc2 happens.:mad:

[southpaw817]

I also applaud the league for not repeating the sins of the NASL. However i am getting tired of every 3-6 months Garber drops little hints of a secret investor(s) looking in to a 2nd new york area franchise and then nothing happens.

I know they've put target years out there (2009, 2010) but it's been a while now that Garber keeps mentioning nyc 2 when talking about new franchises. i hope sometime soon that some sort of concrete news is announced. not rumors, and not potential investors. if there is something real about to happen, then keep quite till it actually happens.we all know that there are some rich people sniffing around the possiblity of nyc 2, JUST HAVING A LITTLE MORE TO TELL US!!!!!!

Sorry everybody, I just get a tad frustred whenever this news comes out and no movement towards nyc2 happens.:mad:
I completely understand,its frustrating hearing the same news. Hopefully we get something concrete soon. Maybe we can get a little collection together and buy the rights to the team ourselves :D.

[shonuff85]

I completely understand,its frustrating hearing the same news. Hopefully we get something concrete soon. Maybe we can get a little collection together and buy the rights to the team ourselves :D.

LOL!!!! at the rate the league has been going, your idea might just work faster.