Here is the latest rumor. Joey Saputo was on Montreal’s THE TEAM 990. In the interview he states that the club is close of making the announcement by the end of MAY. Few days before his Montreal Impact plays AC Milan at the Olympic Stadium on June 2. Listen to the interview right by the 40th minute…Joey makes it clear. Here is an interview by oranges at halftime podcast with Joey Saputo on signing expansion agreement with MLS.
Saputo says that the hold up is more philosophical issues, fundamental issues rather than dollar and cents issues, I wonder what those issues may be?
Maybe the nature of the ownership and what that entails. The Impact would go from being a not-for-profit org owned by Saputo Inc., Government of Quebec and Hydro-Quebec to being privately owned by the Saputo family.
i hope you're right. my only hope is that there isn't an unresolvable philospophical issue and that joey decides to pull the plug on the bid forcing us to have to play teams like austin on postage stamp sized, football lined fields for eternity.
Don't worry about that. Montreal is in. They've been told they were in and are telling (this is important) sponsors they are in. They are selling rights, sponsorships and agreements based on MLS entrance. Both sides need the other. If there was any US city out there with 35million dollar check, a stadium, a committed owner and team in place they would have been in 5 years ago. The philosophical differences are about the junior ranks not anything with ownership. The Impact want to build a try youth system. They want a PDL team, a USL 1 or 2/NASL team and the MLS team. They also (heres the 'differences') want to be able to retain outside of the draft system the players they've developed and the ability to sell the player to a non-MLS team outside of the leagues single structure. 5 years ago this would have been impossible to bridge. However Vancouver and the residency program has ironed out a lot of the kinks.
I hope they get to do that to some extent. I really feel the league needs to allow that if they want to develop high quality talent.
Garber is talking to the AP today as if the announcement for Montreal is very close. I get the impression the deal is done and its just down to giving Montreal the luxury of picking their announcement date. Your right on the button with many of the youth development issues. Note that MLS made a number of changes this season as to how these are handled in a nod to Vancouver.
allowing teams to sign their best young players-- i believe it is 4-- so they do not have to go into the draft is a GREAT thing mls has done-- and vancouver led the way
Totally correct, Tim Ream played 2 years for the Chicago Fire Reserves, gets drafted by Red Bull and makes his MLS debut against the Fire (with a clean sheet by the way) Excusez-moi, mais ca c'est una mega stupidite'
But players know going in what exactly that team is, it's a normal PDL team stocked each summer with college players. The Fire can't put players they have signed on the same field with them due to NCAA amateur rules. In other words, for the time being, it fits outside the Fire's development pyramid. It's a team that draws from all over the country like a lot of the other top PDL teams.
Without a doubt you are right but what is the use of the Fire Reserves? Just invest time and money in players that will be drafted by other teams? Looks like a sinkhole for money if you ask me. MLS should change that rule.
It's not about the players. Players will use any opportunity to further their career. What we are talking about, is giving clubs the incentive to invest a lot of money in training and developing new players.
I would love to see Montreal put a team in Quebec City, either a USL1 au NASL. Any chance we would see this? Bonne chance Impact de Montreal!
they used to be in trois rivieres (csl champs 2009) the imact now have a reserve team, or academy playing at saputo stadium in the csl. tickets are 5$ general admission.
The last we heard of it, Saputo was saying that it was his intend to put an NASL team there as the Impact's reserve team, but I guess it will depend of the way negotiations go with MLS regarding rights on players formed within the academy system. Personally, I would love to see a team in Quebec City (and go see them play against the Impact for the Voyageurs cup).
The Impact and Alouettes are going to trade nicknames, and Saputo is going to re-create the Autostade for MLS on the grounds of Stade Saputo