Is the current round of MLS expansion a failure? MLS is only able to announce one team this year, meaning they will be forced to announce 4! expansion teams next year (including Miami) or delay the round 2 announcements into 2019. Thoughts?
They could announce the first two just prior to the World Cup, then the last two after MLS Cup 2018. A year is a long time with lots of space to schedule acceptance speeches.
MLS has been failing a lot lately, this round of expansion included. The lack of excitement tells it all, MLS fans used to get very excited about expansion cities. Now, everyone is "meh". Too much expansion lately, the Columbus conspiracy, misleading San Antonio about their possibilities, etc. It all points to MLS selling itself out.
you know shockingly enough, San Antonio should be feeling extremely pissed now because without this Columbus/Austin cluster, and Detriot and Sacramento dropping the ball and Cincinnati not proceeding as quickly as predicted, San Antonio would have been a completely viable candidate for expansion this time. I mean after the Sacramento thing, who knows anything anymore, but assuming San Antonio is who they said they were, why not them? gotta think Tampa, Phoenix, and Raleigh will have clean slates next round too just on the principle of what happened here.
The challenge isn't finding time to give speeches. The challenge is identifying four viable bids that meet MLS criteria in a year's time, considering how difficult it is to line up Miami for years, and how MLS was only able to finalize one this year.
The vetting process is good but dragging this out for almost 12 months killed some of these deals. The whole process took too long.
Sacramento should have been awarded a team a year ago. They could have easily started play in 2018 with LAFC and played at a different site before their stadium got built. MLS screwed themselves with the whole Columbus Crew relocation talks, always thinking Miami should have a team and screwing over potential expansion groups in San Antonio, San Diego & St. Louis.
The vetting process was what it needed to be. MLS had a number of suitors and either didn't know who to say no to, or didn't want to say no to the weak ones up front, so they set up a competition. After the initial application, MLS probably got more specific with the candidates, which narrowed the field to 4. Sacramento is a disappointment. They made to cut to 4, but when it came time to write the check, they couldn't. They probably should not have been one of the four. Nashville was a story of how it should have gone for real candidates. Pull it together and get on. Cincinnati... hard to tell just yet. USL expects them to leave for MLS. But there is a hitch somewhere. The stadium issue is interesting. Maybe a bait and switch by MLS. Maybe FC Cincinnnati wants different terms based upon needing to build a stadium when they were originally told that they wouldn't. Who knows. Detroit. Who knows. Pretty much radio silence. So, this process was as indicative of the thinking of some that MLS was a cheap buy in, and the league held to its criteria. Long term, this will be good for the league... Serious proposals only. I'm thinking that the Crew to Austin will be more telling. It won't be a good sign for the league if the Crew are still in Mapfre in 2020. Yet, its hard to say that Austin is going to support the move or Columbus find a better stadium site.
Ummmm.....clearly, they shouldn’t have been let in a year ago. The ownership group, while robust on paper, isn’t as robust as it was made to look. This is why MLS vets potential investor groups. If this was 2010, then y s Sac would be in. However, MLS has grown by leaps and bounds since 2010. The Sac Group is now paying $150M+ upfront just as an expansion fee. Then it’s said that their stadium build costs are now $250M+ as well. This doesn’t even include the cost of a training facility, academy setup, USL team/affiliate, and oh yeah the yearly costs to run all of that....... Bottom line is, MLS teams cost exponentially more today then they did just 3 years ago, let alone 8-10years ago. The vetting process is in place to ensure that expansion teams can have success not only in years 1&2 but for the long haul.
A league with around two dozen teams...isn't this about the same point where the old NASL went off the deep end in terms of overexpansion? All the more reason to stop at Nashville, take a deep breath and wait as long as it takes to bring in the next solid expansion city (ies)...we don't need anymore Jacksonville Tea Men, Oakland Stompers, Calgary Boomers-style nonsense...
Yes the NASL got to 24 before it started to decline but 1984 was a long time ago. The expansion process, as we have seen this year, is much more then somebody simply asking for an expansion team like back then.
Yeah, I'm very much aware that this is a different landscape...I've lived thru a lifetime of failed leagues, going back to my days as a Striker season ticket holder in the late 70s...my sentiments were only a cautionary perspective toward a new generation of fans. MLS in most every way is the anti-NASL of the 70s.
The NASL didn't fail due to over expansion. They were giving franchises to people with $150k in their pockets and not requiring stadiums, academies or commit to the long term. The one thing MLS has gotten right 96% of the time since RSL joined is expansion. This year proves it. The original question "Is this current round of expansion a failure?" Shouldn't it be answered AFTER the expansion clubs start playing? Using on and off the field criteria? So my answer is No. Atlanta has been excellent and Minnesota above average.
It's only a failure if they don't get the teams they wanted. I have no idea which cities the mls actually wanted out of the group (besides Nashville). While the MLS community may say 'meh' mls expansion had more media coverage in Cincy than Marvin Lewis leaving the Bengals, It produced 9 straight days of front page news. the enquirer sent 4 journalists to Nashville' announcement and every local news station in Cincy and Dayton sent reporters. Sacramento, I expect, is similarly locked in. They didn't have quite the representation at the Nashville presser which is most likely because travelling to Nashville would be a bit pricier for their reporters and journalists.
The old NASL failed by over expanding into markets with owners that were neither capable of nor willing to withstand heavy losses that were coming due to a variety of reasons (lack of their own stadiums, lack of revenue and talent development streams, yes)...sadly, a lesson MLS never learned by letting Ken Horowitz into the league back in '98...but the league is a million times wiser 20 years later, thank goodness.
It's far more important to get these decisions right than to get them over-with, especially with the stakes being so high ($450 million+ in start-up costs). MLS needs to be absolutely certain that the ownership group has deep pockets to invest over the long haul, that there are no hang-ups with the stadium deal, and that there is a large and enthusiastic group of fans ready to back the team. Every new club that comes into the league needs to raise the bar for the league rather than watering it down. Also, these decisions are extremely painful to change later-on. Just look at the massive #savethecrew backlash. So, they need to be certain that each new club will be a long-term success. These decisions will change the landscape of the league for the next 50 years or more. So, I actually find it encouraging that they announced only Nashville and are buying additional time to make sure the others are truly ready.
So then it's okay, or maybe preferable, if they scrap their plans to announce another expansion team in the near term?
This isn't the first time MLS has delayed an expansion announcement. When RSL was brought into the league, the announcement was delayed for weeks past the date they originally claimed they would announce a team by. It is about making sure they have the right team and that that team has everything done that needs to be done by the time of the announcement. The worst thing that can happen to MLS is to have an expansion team flop and kill a lot of the leagues momentum. Or to come out pretty flat and be a negative addition to the league overall.
outside of the stadium deal Nashville is the biggest risk of any candidate. Having a new marketplace is less important than making sure you have people buying things in the marketplace.
No, the timing of the announcement means almost nothing. Nashville is good to go. No complaints there. Though the stadium is not downtown & is on the fairgrounds 3-4 miles away. I guess that is good enough for Tennessee but not Columbus? The real failure is the Columbus/Austin, San Antonio fiasco revealing to all what a bunch of lying, greedy, duplicitous, douchbags most MLS ownership groups are. And the commish leading the way. Miami looks close to the finish line to me. Sacramento is very close. Funny how they need a billionaire but MLS was OK with Precourt for Columbus despite NOT being one. Cincy is pretty close as well. Their problem is that if they let in amother team without a SSS (Seattle, Van, NYCFC, Atlanta) then pretty soon no one will buold one. Especially given Sac/SA situations. They will just play Cinci (stadium) & Sactown (ownership) off against each other until one crosses the line. My money is on Sacramento. I think they could play in 2019, giving is an even # of teams. 2020 can be Nashville & Miami. Cincy will be the new middle market with stadium bid for everyone else to chase going in to the next round.
Failure is all perspective. I am sure soccer fans in Nashville do not view this round as a failure. To MLS bean counters, not getting a big market or two (i.e Detroit or Phoenix) in would be a failure. All depends on how you look at it.
Looks from the outside a clusterf===k of the highest order. Seems to me the MLS is incapable of being nimble on its feet its looking like some old failed corporation wanting everything guaranteed and then being unsure of what to ask for. The MLS should have minds that think quickly & laterally. Minds that look for creative solutions to fix problems; rather than minds that try to find problems to avoid accepting challenges to find solution. Its unbelievable at different times decisions could not have been made. Football is the most capitalist game in the world, the player market alone and transfer system alone, is cut throat, quick and brutal..... the punishment for a club failing is quick and hard you get regulated ... success brings huge rewards no one wants to loose... Somehow the MLS seems to wanta run a socialist system, in the most capitalist of games simply to protect owners who fail to invest and develop their teams... The inability to make decisions or set criteria and say the first to met this is in... beggars belief ... OK I am from Australia and we have own owe issues today as well and maybe I don't understand the local market but what a waste of time and what signals are being sent out....
whoa there! If MLS wants to forego the tight cost control -the "socialism" you speak of - the league would likely follow the fate of the old NASL. The cultural /economic status of the Game is still not at a level that could support a sustainable 1st division pro league in competition with both the existing American sports and the soccer leagues elsewhere. The Game is still an infant here and needs the careful weaning.
March is looming large. Still no announcement. Miami looks good. Way to go Becks. Location is mot perfect, but at least it is done. Sac lacks deep pockets & the stadium financing might not be completely sewn up. Cincy has deep pockets but the stadium location & financing are not done. Detroit has deep pockets but you would have to play in a dome on turf. PSV's/MLS' Adventures In Team-Stealing is not going well in Austin at the moment. Seems like SA was a really good option. Too bad Garber iced them out so Prec@nt could move to Austin.
The Miami location is actually worrisome. Parking is just about non-existent and it is in a very unsafe neighborhood. Beckham has done an admirable job. He's had to deal with a lot of obstacles and hidden agendas and still got it done. The team will be competing with the Dolphins, the Heat, the Florida Panthers, the Marlins and even the Miami Hurricanes for those residual family dollars that go to fund entertainment. The sentiment is that the large segment of the community from Latin America will go a long way towards giving the team the support it needs. Hats off to David Beckham for making it happen.