I kind of look at things similarly to this & your original comment. While noting that the Fire are not an original & acknowledging that I am not giving Garber an attaboy by any means. He has two big things on his plate: expansion, and maximizing what he already has. Be it and underperforming market (big or small) due to ownership or stadium issues. Taking the latter first, I guess you could break this down a number of ways, but I will simply lump it all together: 1. Columbus. Almost done. New owners. New DT stadium should start soon. Mapfre being repurposed for training facility (future USL?) & community park. PSV out of town. I mean, he and MLS had egg on their face from jump, but this save was the best they could have hoped for. 2. Chicago. A great start. Out of Bridgeview & new ownership. Permanent home needs to be found, but the are looking and Soldier Field is fine for now, and in the city. Keep Bridgeview for training/USOC/USL? Could be the model for the generation 1.0 MLS SSS (Columbus, Chicago, Dallas, Miami). 3. NYCFC stadium. Would be a crown jewel for the league if they can get it done. 4. Dallas. Another big market. Another 1.0 SSS in the boonies with a long term lease. 5. NE stadium situation. A DT stadium in Boston wouldn't be on a NY level, but would still be a big boon. 6. Colorado. Last of the 1.0 MLS SSS stadium issues. Not as far out as Bridgeview/Dallas & not as big a market. Long lease IIRC. Still, 14-15k is far from Chivas level issues. 7. Houston. Not sure what the issue is here. Stadium location is good. Maybe some minor tweaks in the FO? Ownership? 8. Cincy. Guide the new stadium over the line. It is started. Looking good for 2021. ---------- In terms of expansion: 1. Miami is the crown jewel. The contamination story was bad press, but they knew they had some. It changes nothing. Coming in next year with new barebones SSS and shooting for 2022 for the permanent home. 2. Nashville. Starting next year. New mayor was opposed to Fairgrounds locale but it IS approved. Have the lawsuit to deal with, but have a temp home for now and shooting for 2022 on the new digs. 3. Sacramento. Finish negotiations. Make announcement. See when you want them to start. Ready to go on stadium. Looks smooth. 4. #30 decision. No hurry here. 5. Austin. Looking good. Stadium started. 2021 opening. 6. St. Louis. Looking good for 2022. Still some stadium details needed. 7. When to announce the move to 32. Gotta happen before the 2026 WC.
I'll pick these as a start... Three big cities with expensive land. Add to that construction costs, and a SSS is big time pricey. Amortize that over 20 years and it may cost over $1 million per game for servicing the loan on the stadium. I'm not convinced MLS has the revenue to cover the costs. Economics in NE is going to favor playing in the owners NFL palace. Best that they can hope for is the MTA station opening on game days. Pretty much the same in the big Apple, but the owners stadium has a little funkier shape. Chicago is who knows. But economics may favor the pointy ball stadium depending on revenue sharing. Anyhow land in these places are much pricier than downtown Columbus or Cincinnati.
Banc of California stadium was privately funded in downtown LA. It cost $300 mil but they sold the naming rights for $105 mil over 15 years. If teams can get any public money included, the stadia aren't too expensive. There are special tax breaks available for redeveloping blighted areas. Mayors are usually happy for a major sport to come to town. MLS asks are much smaller than NFL or MLB asks so getting the locals to throw in $100 mil that they amortize over 10 or 20 years isn't too hard. The obstacles are usually more political like NIMBY types complaining about traffic than financial.
American Airlines Arena (Stars/Mavs) to Toyota Stadium is 25 miles. Frisco and the surrounding suburbs have a population of 650k themselves. Frisco was the fastest growing city in the US in 2018. The only negative to the location, which is also used as the Cowboys preseason city and home to several minor league sports teams, is they likely built 5-7 years too early. Attendance has been markedly better in Frisco than it was in Arlington.
Not sure why this is being discussed here, but just want to add a little personal note I have on Frisco. My cousin lived in Frisco (just moved away) and their kids played local soccer. He said they only went to one FC Dallas game. They only went because tickets were sold to them for like $5. He said it was terrible. Stadium almost completely empty, he estimated maybe 1000-2000 in their seats. He said it was so brutally hot it was miserable. It blows my mind that besides Columbus current stadium it is the only MLS SSS without a significant roof and it is in Dallas freaking Texas. Now, would a roof solve all their problems...absolutely not. I know things cost money but the team and league need to look for a way to make the games there more tolerable for the fans. A roof may offer no shade due to its orientation, not sure. It just seems they have a major fan support issue in Dallas. After Chicago I personally think Dallas should be up on the leagues list to put a major focus on trying to do something about the lack of support.
FO is a problem as they're the smallest collection of idiots you'll ever find. However the problem is ownership. Brener is either uncaring about the current state or trusts his senior management enough to not care to look into it. And he has 0 money to invest into the team and none of the minority owners are any better. Jordan is the worst GM in the league, no matter how you break it down. He should decline to participate in the draft as he is that bad. His international signings are terrible. Current player management is insane, including how they're handling Quioto, the 3rd highest paid player on the roster. One of the managers in charge of STs was on tape giving a lecture about how teams should make it very hard for fans to drop their STs. When pressed on this, the video disappeared but not before being archived and shared around social media. Their advertising on STs for next year are misleading, at best, or out and out lies at worst. Their lack of Spanish-speaking staff is....dumb. Their idea to expand the SG section on a whim and force out STHs in prime seats has everyone up in arms. The same section that hasn't sold out since they moved. Their brilliant idea to create SGs from big european club fans in Houston and have them work with the existing ones. Sigh....