Whitout Miami team for the 2018 season, should MLS give a early entrance to other candidate city, moving Miami to 2020? I think Sacramento should get this "promotion" above all other candidates cities, moving Minnesota United to Eastern Conference. With a second team in Los Angeles, I think NoCal should also have two teams, San Jose and Sacramento. Adding to teams in the same state will make 2018 season very interesting, especially in Eastern conference.
Way too late to add any other team in 2018. Even Minnesota was rushed when they were announced in early August last year.
Also, I know California is big, but I am not sure there should be four, possibly five, teams in the state. At least not till other areas get an MLS presence.
It's probably better to deal with the awkward scheduling for now than to rush it. You want the expansion franchise to have time to truly build a MLS-caliber roster, to market themselves to the community, etc. so they can be successful when they move up. Plus, their new stadium won't be ready until 2020. It's just a shame that it's taking so long for Miami to get their act together.
Well I am not sure I would have put a second club in NYC either, but Bosnywash does have 11 million more people than SanSan.
There's really only 1 club in NYC (NYCFC). NYRB are in NJ. It makes perfect sense to me that you'd have 1 club in northern jersey for all the car riders and another downtown for all the subway commuters. Plus, it's a huge, international city that can easily support two clubs. My only beef with putting a second team in NY is the lack of a long-term stadium plan and therefore sharing a baseball stadium with the Yankees.
Fair, and yes, NYCFC's stadium situation makes Miami look good. NYC and LA are different animals than every other city in the US, so I understand putting two teams in them. My statement wasn't so much that I would never have put another team there, just that I might have filled in a blank spot on the map first.
Assuming they stop at 28 teams for the foreseeable future, that will leave a few big markets out, but only a few. The national footprint should be fairly complete, even with 2 teams each in NY and LA. Meanwhile, there are advantages to creating derbies between teams in the same city, state, or region. When LAFC plays the Galaxy or when NYCFC plays the Red Bulls, it will be a hot ticket and a good TV draw. For similar reasons, I'd like to see Nashville and one of the Carolina cities land a team so we could create a southeastern rivalry circuit with Atlanta, Orlando, and Miami. Unfortunately, I don't think North Carolina will get an expansion club and Nashville is borderline.
Leaving North Carolina without a team will be a very bad decision, because it's a state with more than 10 millions inhabitants and without being in the radar of MLS, because DC and Atlanta don't have na appeal in this state (i guess). DC could atract Virginia, and Atlanta South Carolina. In a 10 year span I think MLS will expand to 32 clubs and canadian clubs will leave MLS. Because some big markets could stay behind in the meanwhile, it's importante to creat a New D2.
been a vancouver whitecap supporter since mid 1970's and the rivalries with seattle and portland over all the years adds to the appeal of MLS- i would rather see those rivalry games than games vs regina, winnipeg or hamilton which have yet to prove they will have significant support to even develop/sustain any type of a professional league the proposed Canadian premiere league (CPL) will be a semi-pro/young development league at best and will need huge financial support (benefactors-governments) to even get off the ground by 2020- travel costs east-west will be significant and crowds will hover well below 4 000... or even much less- the WC 2 in the USL 2 draw under 1 000 and edmonton in the NASL draw under 3 000- the hype about starting the CPL in 2018 will never happen; my guess is that the CSA and their proposed CPL is all about getting government funding/support for the 2026 World Cup with mexico and the USA bid- having some type of pro league enhances canada's participation- its all about hyping canada's profile leading to FIFA's decision in 2020 for WC 2026 canadians will support in huge numbers the WC games in 2026 even at the opening rounds- NADA for a CPL vancouver, TFC and montreal will NEVER leave the MLS and thank goodness for that!
Exactly. States are political entities, not economic entities. How many teams are in the same state is irrelevant. Whenever I see someone say 5 teams in Cali are too many, I know he hasn't really thought through what he's saying. Same here. Who cares how many people live in Charlotte, which is almost closer to ATL than it is to Raleigh. The Triangle market will rise or fall on its own merits, irrespective of how many people live in Wilmington. (I wonder, though, how Fayetteville might bolster a Raleigh team. Hell of a lot of young males with money to spend at Fort Bragg.)
I could see further expansion eventually (not soon, but perhaps 10 years or so down the road), but where would the Canadian teams go that would be an upgrade from MLS and why would MLS want them to leave? The Canadian teams and MLS both help each other greatly. MLS gets to market their league to another country with 37 million people and the Canadian teams get to play in one of the fastest growing leagues in the world. I can't imagine why either party would want to end that relationship.
I believe if Canada wants to have a word to say in north american soccer, they need to have a strong 1st division. Right now the 3 canadian teams are welcome to MLS, because is good to MLS and Canada. But in the future I think this situation will change. With so many teams, canadian teams winning MLS trophies will cause more frustrations to us fans, for example. Also pressure to enter in MLS from us cities. etc.
The same way that Wales has gotten a say in European soccer and the Welsh teams in the English system have switched over ti the Welsh oremier League?
Almost the same, but not the same... Wales >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Canada But if you want to talk about UK, what about Scotland and Northern Ireland?! Or Gibraltar LOL
Yeah, because three Canadian teams versus how many American teams is soooo unfair to the good ol' U.S. of A! They'll be leaving MLS over the commissioner's cold dead body. And not some BS noob who thinks they have all the answers.
They aren't leaving MLS because California is bigger than Canada, simply put there is more upside for the owners with access to the 10x larger US market than going it on their own.
LAFC 2018 brings us to odd number Assuming Miami by 2019, ok. But what if still no Miami? Should MLS be announcing/selecting 3 teams instead of 2 ? = My bets for the next 2 are Sacramento and Nashville, to keep adding 1team each West/East. Sacramento- no MLB,NHL,NFL. Existing team that draws well, stadium that can turn dirt tomorrow. Nashville- City leaders supportive, stadium site, no NBA, no MLB, map gap, growing region
1. Just because 2 teams are announced in December that doesn't mean both of those teams would start playing in the same year. And the league has often had odd numbers. I don't like it but the league lives with it when they need to. 2. MLS has never really prioritized adding teams based on geography, i.e. one East, one West. 2011 - Vancouver and Portland came in together 2015 - Orlando and NYCFC came in together 3. The whole Columbus to Austin deal means that we don't really know where teams will be located in 2019. I don't think geography or the effect on the conference alignment will be a very big factor for who MLS picks. They will pick the teams/cities that bring the most to the league and then deal with the fallout in terms of alignment and scheduling.
To add to your point, 2005 was RSL and Chivas. So of five times in league history when two teams were added, only 1998 and 2017 were adding one per conference... and Chicago would end up switching, as could Minnesota. The league has no problem moving teams from between conferences: Chicago has been West, Central, and East; Dallas did West, Central, West; Columbus did East, Central, East; KC and Houston were West, East, West; and Columbus relocating () would probably make Austin West and Minnesota East (probably temporarily). The league has also had five years with an odd number of teams, and will have a sixth in 2018, adding up to a quarter of its life. It's not the most desirable, but it beats keeping a single prepared franchise waiting or rushing an unprepared one. Believing the league places high value on introducing teams in geographic pairs to avoid regular realignment is clearly at odds with its actual history. It's like thinking a beautiful and efficient schedule format will determine league size; it didn't pause at 18, likely spends only a year at 24 (and might even skip from 23 to 25 or 26), and probably won't end up at any other pretty number. Those of us with OCD will need to cope.