25 and 26 Poll

Sac should get a team. They are shovel ready. With the issues for STL & SD lately, I too have Cincy next. One east (midwest almost south)/one west.

 

Sac and Cincy are peas of a pod; attendance juggernauts. That looks aesthetically pleasing game day any time theres a ton of butts in seats. Would be fitting if they came in together.

And then we keep an eye out for the next attendance powerhouse. Could it be Nashville?? wait n see. Theyre checking off a lot of the right boxes there.

 

Sac and Cincy would be ideal as it provides relatively local rivalries for existing clubs, yet are far enough away to engage new markets. I'm betting that MLS will consider it a plus if there is an existing team within a 4 hour drive of a candidate city. That also bodes well for Tampa, Nashville, St Louis, Indianapolis, and Miami.

 

As of today, 3 candidates are set to go with stadium solutions: Tampa, Phoenix and Sac. The next two teams will come from this list unless other markets secure stadium solutions.

I'm thinking that Tampa is the odd one out here, despite its market size. Just the combination of demographics, oddball owner and oddball stadium.....

and it would be hard to keep preaching the necessity of a new downtown stadium and community support if Sacramento is passed over...

 

What about San Antonio? They have a stadium too, and it can be expanded.....

 

I think they still need to come to an agreement on the expansion and lease terms. It's much further along than Cincy and Nashville.

 

Simply my opinion, but I believe that San Antonio is a "Plan B" expansion candidate and would be instantly leapfrogged by just about every other expansion candidate on the list if those other cities got their shit together. Again, just my opinion, which I base on market size and league footprint.

 

I think it's fairly apparent that Garber wants Miami, San Diego, St Louis and Detroit. How long is he willing to wait it out? Could we see 32 eventually?

 

Miami is team 24. So don't know why you are including them in the expansion discussion for slots 25 through 28.

St. Louis is dead. No stadium = no team.

I would tend to agree that the league would prefer San Diego over Sacramento, but I simply don't see that happening at this point. I don't see San Diego ever getting the stadium situation sorted out.

I would tend to agree that in a perfect world Detroit would be in the league's top 4 as well. A lot of hurdles to overcome there too. But there haven't been any setbacks yet either. That bid seems to be stuck in neutral...which isn't the worst place to be right now.

With the early success of Atlanta, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if MLS is giving the southern bids a lot longer look. Nashville went crazy for the Preds. Not a traditional "hockey town", but great support. Could soccer get the same level of attention there?

I don't see Indy being a real player at this point. If Cincinnati gets their stadium funding sorted they become a legit player. I can't imagine a scenario in which a player doesn't die on the field in Phoenix during the summer months. I just can't see the league responsibly moving into that market without an indoor stadium, which would be too expensive to build. Charlotte could be interesting, but they are in line behind Nashville for a southern team. And Raliegh is behind Charlotte.

And I think Tampa's chances were killed as soon as Miami got the final piece of land they needed to build. The only way Tampa gets a team is if 9 other cities all fall flat, and that ain't happening.

 

I'm not saying that those cities are ready for MLS, I'm suggesting he wants those markets and it's a question of how long he's willing to wait.

 

Im not sure Charlotte is ahead of Raliegh. They kinda got a quiet behind the scenes thing going on. Charlotte we know is all but dead in the water asking for public funding. We havent any proof Raleigh has asked for that yet, and they sounds like they have a downtown stadium plan with 2 alternatives.

That said Nashville is about to lap both of them.

 

I understand that. Was simply adding my two cents.

But Miami really doesn't belong in this discussion. They were already granted the provisional 24th slot. So the other 12 expansion candidates really aren't competing against Miami and they never were. Its an important distinction to make.

 

tampa miami and orlando is an awesome trio for winter games add SA to texas for even more fun tampa is in the cincy range to me.

let seperate the now, the real, the almost, the far back and the non:

the now:

Sac, Tampa, Cinci,

the real:

Phx, SA

the almost:

Nashville

the far-back:

Detroit, Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham

the dead:

Indy. StL. SD.

so really 25-28 is now a race out of 9 down from 12.

here is the rankings:

the now the real the almost the far-back







the dead.

 

The one that can go from far back to lock on a dime is Detroit, but they could take years before that gets sorted.

Raleigh gets in the competition whenever they show something , anything, and don't mention the words "public funds". Any candidate who utters those words might as well write em off

 

I see San Diego as a dead bid due to the political climate on the stadium issue. I just don't see San Diego turning things around anything soon. The city council is more worried about getting SDSU whatever they want than MLS soccer. They still are hoping that the NFL will come back someday, and see MLS as settling. Therefore due to this mind set by those who run things in the city, the NASL in the North country seems to be a better fit for pro soccer in San Diego. At this point, I imagine that Sacramento and Cincinnati are locks for teams 25 & 26. They will then be followed by either San Antonio or Phoenix and Nashville.

 

I think the other thing people need to remember is that Miami already has a soccer team in Miami FC. How many of their supporters would switch to an MLS club? And with San Diego getting a NASL club, how will it affect the supporter base if they start supporting those teams and then another entity steps in? I guess use New York as an example?

 

Toronto had a team called the Lynx before TFC. Atlanta had a team called the Silverbacks before Atlanta United FC. New York City has the Cosmos before NYCFC joined. An existed NASL or USL team has absolutely zero bearing on whether or not MLS will move into a market or not. They've done it multiple times over the last decade with absolutely no issues.

 

Probably just about all of them. Minor league teams, attendance-wise, always get crushed by rival major league teams in the same metropolitan area.

 

I doubt NYCFC would have affected the Cosmos as they played west of the city and drew a lot of support from the local El Salvadorean community.

There would have been some effect on Red Bull attendances as people in Northern Jersey find it easier to drive across the George Washington Bridge and use one of the 9,000 parking places at Yankee Stadium than to drive to Harrison and find a parking spot.

A friend of mine is a casual Red Bulls fan but only goes to Yankee Stadium because of the difficulties he's faced getting to and parking in Harrison (even though technically it's equidistant). He says the only way the Red Bulls would work for him would be if there were a shuttle bus from MetLife Stadium.

 

I think you missed the point. The poster I was replying to was wondering if an existing NASL team in a market would deter or play a part in MLS' decision to expand into that market.

History shows that it doesn't matter at all. And that was the point of my post.

 

Another data point: Utah had the highest-drawing D3 team when RSL was announced. It folded rather than competing.

The NY Cosmos are the closest thing to a success in such a situation, but running that team is more expensive than chain-smoking Benjamins.