That is cool. I mean, Columbus is IN at the moment, but we are in serious trouble. Most people think it is a dichotomy: Columbus OR Austin. But I can see scenarios where both cities get a team: compromise to settle lawsuit with DT stadium deal in Columbus. Or neither city does: Austin kills McKalla via referendum & MLS contracts Columbus out of spite & PSV moves/sells to another city, say Sacramento. Neither do I count Miami as in yet. They have a referendum to clear in November. Heck, Nashville has not cleared all their hurdles yet either. Just because MLS says something does mot make it true. Miami has been "in" for a LONG time without playing a match.
For me, taking Columbus & Miami out reduces us to 22. This is my forecast. 23. Columbus stays (at least for 2019). MtD is denied in September. McKalla goes to referendum. MLS cries uncle for 2019. 24. Cincy. Smooth sailing. 25. Nashville. Council approves. Done deal. 26. Miami deal passes referendum. Things are not totally greenlit, but work starts on site cleanup. They are in. 27. Austin. McKalla deal killed in referendum. PSV must choose to up the ante, choose a new location, or walk/sell. They choose to work more in Austin & get a deal done, but it takes a while. Crew is officially saved at the same time. MLS announces olans to expand to 30 (or 32) at the same time. 28. SD/Phx/Det are the frontrunners. Det won't commit to a SSS. Phoenix will. Soccer City fails in SD. MLS takes the big fish. East (14): Columbus, DC, NE, NYRB, Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, Montreal, Orlando, NYCFC, Atlanta, Cincy, Nashville, Miami. West (14): LAG, SKC, Colorado, FCD, SJ, RSL, Houston, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Minnesota, LAFC, Austin, Phoenix. Candidates for 29-32: Detroit, SD, Sacramento, San Antonio, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Las Vegas.
Round Rock FC starts play as Austin FC. If McKalla falls through, the Hipster 6 will have a shorter ride to the games since they can't afford to live in Austin. No they won't. Theyll have trouble getting past 27, at least for a couple of years. I'd take Sacramento and San Antonio out of the list. The Sacramento ownership group is not going to land their whale. San Antonio is too closer to Austin and we aren't hearing enough noise out of them. I think Detroit lost interest, at least for now. New Panthers owner in Charlotte. That may put Charlotte back in play. I don't think the Rowdies move up under current ownership. But, maybe MLS can engage the Glazers. They do own Man U, but my recollection from way back was Malcolm was leveraged big time. That said, if Tampa gets a team, it should be the Rowdies. Not sure what the potential ownership situations are like in the other cities, but at this point, I doubt another USL team makes the leap to MLS.
I think after 28 MLS is gonna stand pat awhile, and Sac fans are accepting the brutal reality that the whale is not migrating south for the winter. So after Nashville and Miami..........one more of Raleigh, Charlotte, Vegas, Phoenix, Detroit etc.......whoever has their ducks most in a row will get 28. MLS is going to be slow now.
After Miami, there aren't really any "Must Have," "Can't Live Without" markets left. Plus the number of deep pocketed potential owners who want to own a MLS team is very, very small at this point. Hell, the league at some point is going to have to find new ownership groups for some of its' existing teams as well. At the end of the day, the lack of soccer loving Scrooge McDucks is the reason that The Crew have Precourt for an owner to begin with.....MLS certainly doesn't need any more of his ilk.
While there are few "must have" markets, and the potential pool of new owners is relatively small, MLS is well positioned to explode onto the international soccer scene. Top to bottom, MLS is probably the most balanced league competitively speaking. Quality of play is fairly good, but could benefit from a higher salary cap. Team costs (both purchase and operating) are still relatively low. US Soccer talent is about to bloom as the first DA academy generation of players start to emerge. Anybody who doesn't see MLS as being one of the top leagues in the world by 2030 is kidding themselves. Finding potential owners shouldn't be too hard for MLS.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. While I agree that there will be loads more people who WANT to own/operate an MLS team, the reality is that out of that pool there will be very few that MLS actually will deem capable/acceptable to own/operate an MLS team. Seriously, Silva and Commisso want in on MLS, the league doesn;t want them. Kemsley and Sela Sport wanted in MLS............the league said thanks, but no thanks. Hell, MLS said no to Gores, Gilbert and Ford in Detroit.
I don't think that's entirely accurate. They potentially said no to Ford Field but I could see MLS changing its mind. IMO: After Miami the only "must-have" is Phoenix and that all looks to be ironed out. I want the Crew to stay but it's going to take a near miracle for that to happen. Here's my random speculation: The "Crew" on paper moves to Austin with the league taking over operations in Cbus for 2019 (PSV is too far behind the 8-ball to try a 2019 move at this point IMO). MLS shops the Crew around to new owners with a three-year deadline. Cincinnati enters the league in 2019 Nashville & Miami enter in 2020 Austin and Phoenix enter in 2021 2022 - This is where it gets interesting. Ford Field could have its retractable roof, Charlotte might have it's bid in line, Sacramento could land its whale, Vegas will have a new stadium up and running or renovated Cashman. Either way, I see at least one team coming in.
I don't disagree. It should be noted that of all of the bids, Detroit ticked all of the boxes. MLS might not prefer Ford Field, yet Detroit's bid has everything. Downtown Stadium: Check Multi-Billionaire Ownership Group: Check Ownership Group with Pro-Sports experience: Bonus Check Large Media Market: Check One thing that might work against them is the Ford's ownership of the Lions. It could be possible that Blank and Kraft aren't that fond of them. That's just my speculation. Out of all of the expansion candidates who submitted bids in December..........Detroit was the ONLY one that had all of the boxes checked. So why were they turned down again? There's more to this then just Ford Field being less than ideal in MLS' eyes.
Detroit doesn't have one important box checked. Rapidly growing population. It's pretty much stagnant in the metro and the opposite of growing in the city. That'll be a big fat scar on that bid whether it gets accepted or not.
San Diego and Detroit. Here's why... San Diego: The delay and ambiguity in the MLS expansion timeline speaks volumes. Seems pretty obvious to me that they are waiting to see if the SoccerCity proposal is successful or not in the November referendum. The chances of passage maybe be less than 50%, but if they get a favorable outcome, they instantly vault to the top of the list. Yes, it would mean a 4th team in California, but the NFL and NBA each have 4 teams out there while MLB has 5. Large market that is hungry for a professional franchise after losing the Chargers, great market for soccer, great stadium location, and the SoccerCity proposal is fantastic, at least for MLS. If the SoccerCity proposal fails, then my substitute pick out west is Phoenix. Detroit: With Atlanta and Seattle leading the league in attendance by a mile in NFL venues, I just don't think Ford Field is the liability many are making it out to be. In fact, having a dome in a cold-weather market could even be an advantage. Meanwhile, not only does Detroit have the ownership wealth, stadium location, and market size that the league covets, they also help MLS build-out its "national footprint" prior to the 2023 media rights deal. So, unless St. Louis comes back into the picture with a new stadium financing plan, Detroit would be my other pick. Dark Horse would be the Carolinas (Charlotte or Raleigh), as MLS clearly wants to increase its presence in the southeast. They could come out of nowhere almost as easily and quickly as Nashville did. I realize that outcome would justifiably anger a lot of Sacramento fans, but I just don't think they're gonna have to ownership wealth to pull it off.
Last year I would have said there is no way they are stopping at 28. Now though I do believe there will be a lull in expansion considering how bumpy this current round has been. Let the dust settle. I have a feeling either the Crew stays in Columbus and Austin gets granted an expansion team or the soccer operation leaves Columbus and a new expansion Crew is added. So that leaves the current 23 teams (keeping the Crew in Columbus) In no particular order: 24. Cincy 25. Nashville 26. Austin 27. Miami 28 is the toss up. Despite the heat, I think it will be Phoenix though. San Diego won't get past the issues they have, if Detroit can't get a team with Ford Field (and they shouldn't) then Charlotte won't with BoA stadium, Raleigh doesn't move the needle, Indy doesn't care, San Antonio is too close to Austin, St. Louis doesn't care, Sac could but even if they can find financial backing it seems like MLS doesn't want them, same with Tampa. After that it may be a few years before we revisit this again. Maybe at that point some of the other cities have things in order and/or teams like Chicago 2, East Bay/Oakland and Vegas can start pushing.
Surprised that nobody's brought up the possibility of a Columbus reboot. That would be the simplest way of making the Ohio Model Act litigation go away.
St. Louis is back in the mix. An official in Gov. Mike Parson's office told the Post-Dispatch that officials with the state Department of Economic Development met with Major League Soccer representatives as recently as Tuesday, and that the Parson administration was interested in working on a stadium proposal. The Parson official did not immediately know which St. Louis sites were under consideration and how many other times state officials had met with MLS representatives. The official did not have any information on construction plans, timelines or who beside the state might be involved with discussions. The meeting with state officials came soon after MLS officials said that St. Louis remained a potential expansion team, even after voters in April 2017 rejected public funding for a stadium. Earlier this month, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber talked about league expansion and once again dragged St. Louis into the mix, saying the city has “been floating around a little bit” as a potential city to get one of two new teams.
The Tampa Bay Rays (Stuart Sternberg, etc.) are buying the Tampa Bay Rowdies; announcement Tuesday morning (Oct. 2nd, 2018). No idea if Sternberg is interested in taking the Rowdies to MLS or not. We shall see.
A member of the would-be ownership group from last year’s failed bid held a press conference Tuesday morning to announce a new proposal to bring the MLS to St. Louis. Jim Kavanaugh, co-founder and CEO of World Wide Technology, and members of the Taylor family met at Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club to make the announcement.
With the football not as popular as it once was and parents be conscious about letting their kids play with this high possibility of injuries and soccer growing in North American a good bit each year + MLS growing in popularity I don't see the league stopping at 28, 30, or 32 teams. I see them possibly going 36 or more. I think the biggest thing the league needs to have in mind is expanding to cities that can sustain an MLS franchise. The cities / ownership groups that are wanting a team now; maybe look at those first then go to other cities. If the league does go to 32+ teams I'd like to see them spread out across North America. My thoughts on where I think the league should look at going to if they go to 32, 36, & possibly 40 teams. Including the current 3 expansion teams; Miami, Nashville, & Cincinnati that brings the league to 26 teams. I would hope the league eventually considers Sacramento if they can get the backing. I believe a team in the Carolina's is a shoe in eventually. In no real order these are the cities I think the MLS should look at if they do keep moving forward and expanding and possibly getting to 40 as long the there are ownership groups / cities willing to peruse a team. 27-30 -32 -36 -40 Charlotte / Raleigh Phoenix Sacramento Detroit Las Vegas St. Louis San Diego Tampa Bay Indianapolis Where the league goes from 37-40 will be anyone's guess until cities pop up looking to have a team there. Milwaukee San Antonio / Austin Oakland / San Francisco Not sure where a 40th team would come from but these would be the big markets left with out an MLS team -- Pittsburgh / Cleveland / Jacksonville / Memphis / New Orleans / Baltimore / Buffalo / Oklahoma City / Chicago #2 Just my thoughts.
With a fully privately funded $250M SSS being proposed. As well as a very wealthy majority female ownership group. Hard to see St. Louis not being one of the next 2. (unless they have 2 come in and start before 2022)
There's a reason why the NBA, the NHL, the NFL & MLB baseball haven't grown past 30/32 teams. At some point, the television money just gets too diluted to suit most owners. Since television & cable cast money continues flow into MLS, ticket sales & expansion team fees will become less important to most MLS owners/investors as a source of income. I can't imagine that MLS will ever have more teams than the NFL.