MLS to expand to 24 teams by 2020: Garber

Excited, but hesitatant. Dilution possible, but so is great success. With the way that MLS is pushing academies, and with the success many clubs are having with their academies, could lead to a deepening of the US player pool. Imagine more kids sticking with soccer instead of switching to boring baseball, or parents pushing their kids to soccer because its safer (only slightly, still lots of soccer concussions) than football.

As far as my 2 cents go, methinks Orlando, Miami, San Antonio, and St. Louis (St. Louis more a hope than an actual possibility).

 

I was going to save the speculation for the expansion forum thread on this topic; save this thread for actually N&A.

 

I feel very confident in Orlando and Miami. I would bet on Atlanta, even if there is no clear ownership group there at the moment.

No idea for the fourth spot, but I know there are plenty of teams/regions who keep talking about MLS, which is great.

 

I cant see the MLS stopping at 24. Lets assume that Orlando and Miami both gets teams and San Antonio and St Louis also get a team. There is still room for expansion in Indy (3,000 season ticket holders without a game played) and somewhere in Carolina. Throw in the bids of Atlanta, Sacramento, Minneapolis, and Detroit, I see this league stopping at 30 and resort to conferences.

 

I also look forward to the 16-team post-season.

 

This.

Learn from NHL and NBA. 24 teams is the maximum league size in the US. NFL can support what is it because its #1, much like MLB used to.

 

Yeah, I think 24 is the new 20. MLS used to say they'd stop at 20. So you had this scramble to get into that 20. Now we've got 20 with NYCFC, and voila -- wouldn't you know it -- the new number is 24 by 2020. When we hit 24, it'll become 30 by 2030. These numbers are just a way to put pressure on investors until the league reaches its full market potential. What's that full market potential in the long run? I'd guess 30, but who really knows?

 

I wonder if there will be any relocations of current franchises prior to the league playing with 24 clubs.

 

NY3 certainly has to be among the first 24, or 26 MLS franchises.

 

While I wouldn't mind a team in San Diego, it isn't going to be Chivas and it shouldn't have been. Chivas's problem is their brand, identity and the fact that they share a stadium with LA. The LA marketplace is large enough is space and people to easily accommodate two teams. And the talent level in LA is so high that both teams would have more homegrown players than a San Diego based team.

No and they never will be. The 3 largest Canadian markets are already in MLS. The nearest largest cities (Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary) have metropolitan areas barely over a million people. There are 59 markets in the US of such size, so there's no need for further Canadian expansion.

 

About 58% of the population of the United States lives east of the Mississippi River. Right now, there any only six MLS teams (Chicago, Columbus, New England, RBNY, Philly and DC United). NYCFC will make it seven.

Go east.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_United_States

 

But Sacramento already have the Earthquakes.

 

Pro - rel baby ... pro-rel.

Seriously this country is too big to stop at 20 or 24 clubs unless you have pro rel in which case you give many more cities a shot at the big leagues.

Without that promotion door being open we're leaving way too many top tier cities untapped. Hell we're leaving entire top tier states untapped. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, Nevada and technically Missouri since SKC's in Kansas. That's leaving too much untapped potential on the table. That's no way to improve TV ratings and sponsorship deals.

 

Does FIFA get money from MLS? (Or are we talking envelopes/briefcases?)

 

I. Would. Concur.

 

Yep. The US (+Canada) is a big country, 20 teams in 18 metropolitan areas barely covers anything.

I'm glad to hear they have their sights on 24, but I think 30 should be the full build out (in 3 conference geographic alignment).

 

That's like saying Philly had DC United.

California is a big place.

 

Today it's 24, but I see them going beyond that to maybe 26 to 30. They will not stop at 24, it's just like they didn't stop at 18 or 20 like many of you folks was saying back then. In fact the ink didn't even dry on the 20th expansion club in New York City before they are announcing 4 more possible new expansion clubs. The question is now, how fast will the league establish expansion for clubs 21 and 22? Orlando City wants to enter the league in 2015 with New York City FC and the league maybe open to bringing in two Southeast clubs in the same expansion year.

 

After 24, it's time for MLS, USSF, and NASL/USL to start working together and strenthening the lower divisions. Teams like OKC coming in is a great sign.

Focus on infrastructure, local TV deals, etc. for the lower divisions. Get 18,000 seat stadiums there, academy systems, etc. after that. Then perhaps 20 years down the road we could start discussing the topic that shall not be named.

24 is about right, no more than that.

 

You missed the Forbes article, I see.

 

Cheyenne!

 

Not directly, but Fifa does see (more) money as the business of MLS succeeds and expands.

Fifa gets lots of money when US media companies buy Fifa broadcast rights. Fifa broadcast rights likely go up in value somewhat proportionately to how popular/desirable soccer is to the (potential) audience here. A bigger/better and more financially successful MLS will certainly benefit Fifa financially.

 

24 is only the short term objective. Long term-big picture-the league will probably reach the 28-30 franchise mark at some point. I can easily see the league in a distant future going back to an Eastern,Western, and Central conference set up.