Assuming SLC has allready been chosen then I say MLS should expand to Rochester and Seattle. One big market, and one medium market like they did this year with Civas in LA and SLC.
Portland is way more deserving than Seattle. First of all portland's a-league club averages 5,000, whereas seattle only averages 2,500 and thats being generous. On top of that Portland doesn't have baseball to compete with like seattle. Also PGE park the timbers stadium could probably turned into a sss. It can be made to hold 30,000 if its set up as it was for womens world cup, with natural grass.
Dude, welcome to the boards, but let me give you a bit of advice. Before you go saying things like "Portland is way more deserving than Seattle", you might want to go read through the hundreds of posts that have already been made on this subject. No city is more deserving than any other city unless they come up with the owner, the cash, and the stadium. Number of fans for A-league teams doesn't mean squat. SLC and Seattle have owners, cash, and stadiums to play in, which means they are going to be in the league in the next two years. Portland, as far as I know, doesn't have the owner or the cash, so PGE Park won't get you a team by itself. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see Seattle, Portland, AND Vancouver in MLS so you can carry on your Cascadia Cup thing at the top level. But there is no such thing as "more deserving." There are only cold hard facts.
Rochester for sure. Here's wishing an I/O for Detroit. I don't trust that guy with the Sounders (or whatever he intends to re-brand to capture the bobblehead crowd).
Atlanta Soccer is very popular down here and MLS will probably draw well, also there is a large hispanic poulation (mostly Mexican) that would attend the games. Two members of the national team are from metro Atlanta (Mathis, Wolff) so the locals would be able to have people to identify with. If not Atlanta then Birmingham, Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa, or Miami, MLS needs a team in the southeast. Charleston is too small of a market to support an MLS team for an extended period of time, they would do well i their first few years but after that the attedance would drop because it won't be the hot new thing. It is also too far away from the larger markets of the south (Charlotte, Nashville, Atlanta...) for people to travel on a saturday for casual fans just to see a game, hell I wouldn't even travel to Charleston for MLS.
I drove through that ciy once and it wasn't the prettiest but there are probably people down there with big money who might want to dive into MLS.
As far as you know? Dude, maybe you should read through the hundreds of posts on here and FIND OUT before you go posting stuff like this... Nick
Why would the Mexican fans attend MLS in Atlanta when they don't attend in Los Angeles? More Central Americans come to Galaxy matches than those of Mexican background. Do you have a large Central American population in Atlanta?
I go with Atlanta and Charlotte might be front runner. I know most of list. Applicants seemingly noteworthy. However, MLS Eastren Conference look for some. Depleation musnt be cause for affect but stablizer for balance of curfew. New york look strong. Where is central time zone? On other, I think season opener for Chivas USA. It would be nice to defend against Salt Lake (? I suggest team name to be ringworms). The return leg follow next match.
Portland is 'Liberty City'. 'Hello Lazlo! Did that Woman say she was a Nanny? 'Cause Freddy needs a Nanny because he's been a VERY naughty Boy!'
Well if you think about it there is more for the Mexicans in LA to do than the Mexicans in Atlanta, hell there are better things to do in LA than Atlanta for people of all ethnicities. The new Silverbacks stadium is going near the Mexican section of metro Atlanta so we'll see from there.
I put my vote in for Detroit. We could put some good use to the old Lions Stadium. They obviosly didn't.
Ummmmm......yeah......welcome to the BS boards. MLS doesn't like the fact of playing in 80,000 seat stadiums. And chances are, they don't like 80,000 seat INDOOR stadiums even more.
Atlanta is a big soccer city and there is no MLS team in at least 4+ hours from there. Atlanta should get a team.