2025 Messi League Soccer (née Other Teams’) News Thread — Now With 100% More San Diego!

Not the worst idea I've heard.

 

Not Lucho but Evander yes . I thought we should have went out and grabbed him. We need young pacey playmaker who is going to be in mvp race caliber

 

John fisher is selling the quakes https://www.sportico.com/leagues/soccer/2025/san-jose-earthquakes-sale-john-fisher-1234857003/

 

Or, rather, he’s putting the club up for sale. No buyers seem to exist quite yet. It’ll be an interesting test of those franchise values we see published from time to time. I can’t imagine Quakes fans would be sad to see him leave. That said, be careful what you wish for. Still, the training facility that the club desperately needs, and was announced in 2023, still hasn’t begun construction.

 

And would they even stay in the Bay Area? Don't forget that this is the second iteration of the Quakes in MLS.

 

How much of a kick in the crotch would it be for the Quakes to move to Vegas and play in the Wild, Wild, West Gambling Hall and Hotel?

 

That would be way worse than The Crew playing in Austin's toxic waste dump.

 

It would be interesting to know how the league would feel about the Quakes moving someplace.

On the one hand they used to have a visceral fear of showing franchise instability. Too reminiscent of the old NASL.

But maybe they got over that with the whole Crew/Austin thing. And maybe guys with $600 million don't grow on trees.

And theyre really desperate to put a team in Indianapolis, where.they supposedly have a ready and eager ownership.group, in order to keep that city out of the grasp of the new USL Div. 1 push.

It would solve that problem quickly, although it would leave Vegas hanging. But Vegas is still a ways off facility-wise.

And someone else would have to figure out the east/west implications

 

That's my point -- Vegas has a new stadium. If Fisher cannot sell for an absurd amount, relocation to his shiny new stadium is on the table. NYFC proved this is an option.

If they do move to Indy, East-Central-West alignment is super easy. Texas-west, Toronto-south, and then the rest. It has the added benefit for Don Garber of keeping Austin away from Columbus for a solid decade.

 

I believe RSL and Colorado play for a trophy and I'd hate to break that up, but too bad. This also keeps all three Texas teams in the west.


If it's 10 teams per division:
2x per divisional team for 18 games.
1x per each non-divisional team EXCEPT the team placed in the same spot. (East winner would avoid West and Central winners.)

That's 36 games, right? Who gets the home game in the non-divisional matchups?


Alternate idea:
2 games per divisional team for 18 games.
2 bonus games vs rival team.
20 games right there.
The other 18?



(10) West: LA, LA, Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Austin, RSL, San Diego

(10) Central: Indy, Columbus, Colorado, Chicago, Nashville, Minnesota, Atlanta, Cincinnati, KC, St Louis

(10) East: Philly, New England, Montreal, Toronto, NYRB, NYCFC, DC, Miami, Orlando, Charlotte


How'd I screw it up?

 

MLS is increasingly a league owned by NFL billionaires and consortiums so I expect the end game is to have it look like the NFL with 32 teams across two conferences, each of which has four divisions of four. Doing it this way allows them to keep it at a 34 game schedule with more balanced scheduling and preserving Rivalry Week. Assuming that Vegas and Indy (or Detroit) are the final two teams to get to 32 it would look like this:

Western Conference:

Northwest Division: Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Vegas

Pacific Division: San Jose, LAFC, LA Galaxy, San Diego

Central Division: Colorado, RSL, St Louis, SKC

South Division: Dallas, Austin, Houston, Nashville

Eastern Conference:

North Division: Minnesota, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto

Midwest Division: Columbus, Cincinnati, DCU, Indy/Detroit

Atlantic Division: New England, Philly, NYC, Red Bulls

Southeast Division: Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami

Home and away against your division every year for 6 games

One game each against the other 28 teams, with the host alternating each year

That's 34 games and as close as you'll get to a balanced schedule with all the major regional rivalries preserved.

Minnesota and Nashville are caught in no man's land and easiest to flip across conferences because they don't have a primary rival they're tied to. Atlanta and Charlotte are bigger rivals to each other than to Nashville, and St Louis is now SKC's primary rival instead of the Loons.

If you don't flip them to the other conference, you have Minnesota grouped with the Texas teams and Nashville grouped with Canadian teams. Culturally, these new groupings make more sense and would help build rivalries.

Minnesota and Chicago are natural rivals. Both are in the NFC North and NHL Central and they're relatively close geographically.

Austin and Nashville are very similar cities. Houston and Nashville are both in the AFC South. Dallas and Nashville are both in the NHL Central.

 

The reporting is that a big reason why Fisher is selling is to fund the Las Vegas stadium. He’s a billionaire, but doesn’t have a lot of liquidity.

 

I think a large part of the issue Columbus had was just that--not an NFL ownership group or in an NFL city.

 

Nobody has that kind of liquidity. And if they did they still wouldn't write a check to build a stadium. That's what banks are for.

 

Sure. I based the statement on articles like this:

A's Still Short on Vegas Funding, Even With Potential Sale of San Jose Earthquakes

 

MLS :

West: 9

Vancouver
Seattle
Portland
RSL
Colorado
SJ
LAG
LAFC
San Diego


South : 7

Dallas
Houston
Austin
Orlando
Miami
Atlanta
Nashville


Midwest/ North : 7

St Louis
Minnesota
Chicago
Columbus
Cincinnati
Toronto
Sporting KC

East : 7

New England
NYRB
NYCFC
Philly
DC
Montréal
Charlotte

West:
So hopefully Vegas never gets a team but if they do that makes 10 teams in the west and don’t forget Sacramento is a strong possibility but you could also lose San Jose and or Vancouver So 7-11 teams is possible. 8 would be the easiest to work with. San Antonio hopes likely went up in flames once Austin got a team. Oklahoma City & Phoenix are also long shot teams rumored as possibilities for expansion. San Jose going to Oakland or the Roots getting a expansion team is also a low probability scenario.

Midwest/North:
Indianapolis seems like the favorite with Detroit as the only other option. Long shots like Milwaukee or another Canadian team which I mentioned a few possibilities for Vancouver to relocate in.

South: Charleston has to be a super long shot but Louisville seems viable if someone has the 500 million to invest which they don’t. Tampa Bay is still being thrown around but Orlando might have killed that opportunity.Another long shot would be Raleigh, NC Perhaps.

East: Rochester

international :
San Juan , PR ??? They have like 5 teams but someone with money could try to take Academia Quintana to the next level or perhaps just make a new team

 

Fun exercise.

In the NHL, St. Louis has resisted moving out of the Western Conference and doesn't mind 8 or 8:30 local starts when on the West Coast. Rather than 6 pm starts when in the East.

Minnesota to Montreal is almost 1000 miles and a time zone apart.

Also, expansion teams rarely get preference over existing teams. Indy could be the team with awkward division partners.


Midwest- Minnesota, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus

North - New England, Montreal, Toronto, Indy

Atlantic - Red Bulls, NYCFC, Philadelphia, DC

 

On Thursday, June 19, it was reported first by Argentinian journalist Cesar Luis Merlo that FC Cincinnati is set to sign 21-year-old attacker Ender Echenique of Caracas FC to a 4.5-year deal.

Cincinnati.com

we better start getting serious about this roster

 

Now that would be a fun experiment. It isn't quite as international as the three Canadian teams, but definitely intriguing. San Juan is comparable to Indy in size and does not have the Colts or Pacers to compete with. Flights from the east coast are less hateful than those to Seattle.

The only problem is that Puerto Ricans don't give a rat's ass about soccer.

 

According to the Enquirer, Enchenique to Cincy is a done deal.

What's more, supposedly they have a good offer to Bayern Munich for Thomas Muller.

But dont worry - Im certain some MLS team will sell us their clubhouse boy.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sp...ng-of-ender-echenique-caracas-fc/84278837007/

 

Inter miami look set to win their group at the cwc

 

Maybe spoke a little too soon

They finished second and face PSG. Dont see how miami survives them.

 

New All Star Jersey dropped:



As a friend of mine said: it's the "We Hope the A/C Works" kit.

 

Love this for Austin

 

Is this real? lol