150 miles rule between two teams (Cosmos vs MetroStars) My friend and I got into a debate about the news that Pele wants to bring Cosmos team back into the New York area. My friends says the only way that Pele would be able to have a team in the New York area is to have the NY/NJ MetroStars moved out of Giants Stadium and be places an area 150 Miles from where the Major League Soccer or Pele wants to put the New York Cosmos team. He said that there is a rule in US Soccer & MLS that state two soccer team cannot be places in the same metropolitan area without a distance of 150 miles of each other’s. I said, I have never heard of such a Soccer rule because in other sports in the New York Metropolitan area this rule does not apply. For example: the 150 miles rule does not apply in baseball because there is two baseball team (Yankees playing in the Bronx & Mets playing in Queens) in New York that is playing less than 150 miles from one another. In basketball your have two teams (Knicks & Nets), Hockey you have three team (Rangers, Islanders & Devils), Football you have two teams (Giants & Jets) sharing a stadium – Giants Stadium and they all play in the metropolitan area less than 150 miles from each other sports. To settle this debate my question for the forum is this: Is there a rule in US Soccer that state two teams must be places within 150 miles from each other town or cities or county? Second, if there is such a rule – Why? Because with the population of New York area estimated at 8 to 12 million peoples (especially with a large immigrant population) you could concede that the metropolitan area is capable of supporting two soccer teams. You could also apply the same two-soccer team’s theory in Los Angeles with its huge populations. Why would US Soccer & MLS have such a rule (If there were such a rule)? Thanks
No. When the Metros were owned by Kluge/Subotnik, they used a league cause of this type to keep the door closed on a possible Trenton franchise. Or so the story goes. God knows if MLS was interested in the Trenton possibility at all. Maybe this clause was just an excuse. Plus, back then (and, of course, still today), the Metros were lobbying hard for State support for their Harrison stadium. And, as I recall, the Trenton folks said they didn't need state help of any sort (correct me if I'm wrong). The thought was that Kluge/Subotnik didn't want state legislators wondering why Trenton MLS didn't ned state help, while Harrison MLS did. When AEG tok over the Metros, they announced that they had no problems with having another franchise this close (and isn't it 75 miles?). So, yeah, while it seems that MLS (not US Soccer) is aware that you can't place franchised cheek by jowl and, hence, has some sort of clause in place that lets the league review franchise distance, it's not a hard and fast rule.
Such a rule had been previously mentioned in connection with the attempt to put a team in Trenton. I think the relevant distance was 75 miles, not 150 though. Metrostars had exclusive rights to that territory and could veto having another team created nearby. The situation in NYC is a bit different. When MLS was created, there was an option to create a second NYC area team granted to the operators of the Metros. The term of that option was extended when expansion did not occur a few years back, but the option did not go to AEG when they took over the team. A second team could be created in the NYC area if the operators of the Metrostars permit it. So it's significant that the Pele group are talking to AEG. They couldn't create a new team without their buyoff. The situations in baseball and American football are different because those teams were created in competing leagues. I'm not sure how it works in basketball and hockey.
Yeah. The entire discussion on Aqueduct was tabled in September 2001 because it was determined that New York had bigger fish to fry. Before that, there was quite a bit of discussion though. IIRC, at the time, it was said that it wasn't a dead issue, but that it wasn't the right time to be asking for handouts from the state or the city.