Looks like St Louis has jumped up the list with the ownership group coming out and their stadium plans near the old Union Station near light rail station. Very good location. I say St Louis, Sacramento, San Antonio, Cincinnati and Nashville. Really strengthens the middle of the country for MLS.
Cincinnati or Nashville, not both. They have to give one team to either Charlotte or Raleigh to plug the hole in the Carolinas.
Uh, NO. The MLS BOG have to do what's in the best interests of MLS and it's investor operators. Whether or not that would include granting an expansion team to a currently non-existent investor/operator group in Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville, and/or any other johnny come lately it would be soooooo cool to have an MLS team in our City City remains to be determined.
Charlotte or Raleigh - We need more southern teams Nashville - ^^ Ditto St. Louis - Fill in more of the middle. Kansas City needs a friend Cincinnati - If they can keep it up and prove this wasn't a honeymoon year Detroit - Amazing support for amateur side DCFC, plus close proximity to three current MLS cities Calgary - Again, fill in the middle. And it's not as remote as Edmonton
But MLS cares more about who's checks clear, who has some kind of grassroots support and who has a sweet deal for a stadium build WAY before they care so much about the map and geographic elements. National TV coverage and city metro pop matters, but not so much what region its in; the South, Midwest or Alaska.
Rochester doesn't have the ownership group that's solid financially and is going to pony up 100+ million franchise fee. On top of building the stadium that will cost 200 million dollars. Second, The stadium Rhinos have is in a terrible location and they get terrible fan support right now because of it. They don't have anything going for them. I agree that Rochester is the better soccer hotbed of the "Erie Canal" cities. Buffalo does have some good history of it's own with the Stallions and Blizzard during the indoor prime years. And it has a solid NPSL club in Buffalo FC which is run by Nick Mendola, NBCsports soccer analyst. Still, Rochester has the stronger soccer history of the two. And it's never close. But TBH Buffalo will be in a better situation to nab an MLS franchise than Rochester. Why?!? I know it sounds weird but here me out. Buffalo Bills are due to be petitioning the state for a new stadium. The new stadium is all but slated to be built downtown by the the Amtrak station near Exchange streets at the Perry street projects. To justify partial federal and state aide to finance the stadium. The Buffalo management will need to add reasons for it's use. A MLS soccer team to take up summer days would make sense. The Pegulas are branding a big western new york sports entertainment group as they own both the Sabres(nhl) and the Bills(nfl). If they could be convinced; they could try and bid for an MLS club that would compliment their NFL team in a new downtown stadium. It's far fetched. But the idea of making use of a new stadium beyond just 10-11 NFL dates per year. It would be stupid not to want a soccer team to add another 20 dates a year. This idea of Buffalo getting an idea is minimal at best. And it's contingent on a lot of factors falling into place. But seriously, I don't see ANY other viable option for an MLS team to move to upstate NY. And i think MLS is all about growth potential cities now. They'd thumb their noses at cities like Buffalo and Rochester. Rochester had chances a dozen years ago and they couldn't get a large financed group to even take a stab at owning a MLS club. MLS was more desperate for viable ownership groups and would take less than ideal cities. But now they don't have a good stadium plan, nor a viable ownership group to compete with MLS's new demographics and corporate priorities anymore. MLS is outgrown towns like Rochester and Buffalo. sadly. They're even jerking around Sacramento while holding out for Miami to get its shit together after 3 years of drama.
I don't think it excludes Nashville and Cincinnati, but it's hard to see Carolinas (Charlotte really) not getting a team at some point. Purely as a market, it's one of the most obvious left.
Yeah that is the way the business works. But this is "6 cities you would like MLS to expand" so I just threw out cities where the league could really stretch its footprint.
But one of the mandates is to build revenue and I think they're focusing on TV contracts as a way to do that. The Carolinas are a huge under-served TV market area (+15 million) that they could dangle to TV execs when negotiating the next contract (which I can foresee being between $150-200 Million per year). Charlotte had a plan to rebuild Memorial Stadium, there is a team and ownership with a stated intention to bring MLS to Charlotte, but no deep-pocketed investor yet. Garber himself said MLS wanted Minnesota to give them a geographical footprint overriding other considerations. And the converse of this is the case of Cincinnati and Sacremento. They have Stadiums/stadium plans, investors, and devoted fanbases and are probably the most MLS-ready markets. Yet beyond lipservice from Garber saying they're doing the right things, the needle hasn't moved forward at all. Both are probably too close to the Earthquakes and Crew and will be strung on for another couple of years. <edit: not to mention the baffling continued support for Miami despite the continual roadblocks that keep popping up. Why continue pursuing a market unless it's only for it's value in TV contracts?>
TV might play a role. I'd add that Miami and Minny are major corporate markets that are in a different weight category compared to a place like Sacramento. I think MLS would never skip these towns, even if they were in Ohio or Oregon. There's a reason why all major leagues are in Miami and Minny. On top of economy / corporate power, there are also demographics -- Minny is full of rich young hipsters of leftish persuasion (MLS favorite demographic). Miami's demographics are quite different, but it's a huge place and one of the fastest growing areas in the country. I think it's similar with Charlotte. It's a major corporate / banking center. A young, very fast growing city and region. And as you say, it's in the middle of a 15 mil region. Also it's in the process of rebuilding it's downtown (Uptown). It's very willing to offer public land and taxpayer money to make downtown a nicer place, which is a sort of situation that leagues and potential owners like a lot. There's also no MLB in summer. Just AAA and NASCAR -- which is obviously huge but very different. I'm not sure, but I think that competition with NASCAR wouldn't hurt MLS too much. I think MLS will get to Charlotte at some point, it's just an obvious market. It will be interesting to see what happens with the USL team. Memorial will be a hip stadium in a good location, hopefully they get a good crowd and get some buzz started.
Professional baseball has had to struggle by for decades because it hasn't been able to plug the hole in the Carolinas.
1. Detroit does not want MLS so Cincinnati 2. Saint Louis, only if the two competing groups can some how work together 3. Raleigh (Triangle area instead of Charlotte) 4. San Antonio 5. SF instead of Phoenix
Following Cincinnati's success, Im going to have bump San Antonio. 1. St Louis 2. Charlotte 3. Detroit 4. Cincinnati 5. San Antonio
Diehard Detroit City fans are the ones who dont care to have a MLS franchise. Im sure the vast majority of people who watch world soccer in Michigan would be into it. As a Crew fan in Toledo (just an hour away) I think its a good opportunity for a real rivalry. I personally think it would be interesting to go after players of Arab and/or Islamic heritage because that community is huge in metropolitan Detroit. Then maybe bring in native Detroiters/Michiganders like Justin Meram and Steve Clark from the Crew and Josh Gatt in Norway.
Um, Cincinnati & Detroit have to be the favorites for expansion slots 25 & 26. Maybe, St. Louis can slide up if it finds a deep pockets owner. But, all other things being equal, Detroit has too much potential and Cincinnati has unsurpassed fan support. Miami may have a shot at slots 25 & 26 if, as I fully expect, the Sacramento Republic FC is going to slide right pass it for slot no. 24.
I would say Cincy based on the fact that they like to bring up one East and one West at the same time. They would be the most "move up ready" for an eastern team.
Sacramento is more ready than Cincy, I think. Cincy & St. Louis for 2020. Then Detroit & South Florida, maybe, in 2021 or 2022.
I think he was saying Cincinnati before Sac because it's in the East. Otherwise Sac is ahead of the pack.