I thought of away to align the teams until they added Sacramento and made 9 teams in the West. Have they announced a cut off number on amount of teams ? I think the Midwest needs more teams would like to see a team in Indy and or Louisville MLS : West: 9 Vancouver Seattle Portland RSL Colorado SJ LAG LAFC Sacramento South : 7 Dallas Houston Austin Orlando Miami Atlanta Nashville Midwest/ North : 7 St Louis Minnesota Chicago Columbus Cincinnati Toronto ( could be in East ) Sporting KC East : 7 New England NYRB NYCFC Philly DC Montréal Charlotte Possible expansion : San Diego San Antonio Las Vegas Oklahoma City Charleston Louisville Indianapolis Detroit Phoneix Raleigh Tampa no idea who might be #31
Look at (a) market size and (b) the presence of an NFL team. They seem to be indicators for some of the recent expansion.
Groupthink is wrong. The other leagues have (mostly) 32 teams or plans for 32, no way MLS stops short of that number. But I will say, it depends on the endgame. If MLS thinks 32 is the end, then I think they will want to give the remaining biggest markets (Detroit & Phoenix) a shot to claim the last two chairs. Plus, MLS may want to wait till closer to 2026, or possibly after, to take advantage of hosting the WC, to drive the last expansion fees as high as possible. If the endgame is 36, 38, or 40, then there is no need to slow down or target certain markets, there are still seats open at the table. It will just be a matter of when/if a bid is ready. Still, by the time 2022 rolls around, the league will have added a team six seasons in a row, growing from 20 to 30 in 6 years. The league had 10 teams, down from 12, as late as 2004. The growth from 10 to 20 took until 2015, 11 years. Overall, from 2005-2022 the league will have tripled in size, adding 20 teams.
Which way does NFL team cut? Last 6 have been an even split (Yes: Miami, Nashville, Charlotte; No: Austin, St. Louis, Sacramento). I think that committed, deep-pocketed owners williang to spend around $400 million on stadium/expansion fees/training facilities + strong corporate support + some kind of stadium plan are the 3 pillars. In that order. In terms of market size, biggest on the board (CSA or MSA if CSA not available): 1. Detroit: 5.4 mil (sans Windsor 333k) ----------- 2. Phoenix: 4.9 mil 3. SF/Oak: 4.7 mil (MSA part of CSA w SJ) 4. Riverside 4.6 mil (MSA, CSA w LA) ------- 5. Cleveland 3.6 mil 6. SD (MSA) 3.3 mil (sans TJ 1.8 mil ) 7. Tampa Bay (MSA) 3.1 mil ---------- 8. Baltimore: 2.8 mil (MSA, CSA w DC) 9. Pittsburgh 2.6 mil 10. San Antonio: 2.6 mil 11. Indy: 2.4 mil 12. San Jaun: 2.3 mil (likely less now) 13. Vegas: 2.3 mil 14. Raleigh: 2.2 mil 15. Milwaukee: 2.0 mil Everything else is under $2 million CSA.