We've gone over this before. 3 Welsh teams (Cardiff Swansea and Wrexham) are in the English leagues. A forth team Chester is headquartered in England but its field is half in England and half in Wales. Monaco plays in the French league. Berwick (England) plays in the Scottish league. Auckland (New Zealand) plays in the Australian league, ironically called the A-league. Singaporian teams play in a Malaysian league. Liechtenstein plays in the Swiss league I could go on and there are other examples. FIFA's main job isn't to nitpick these things to death but to promote soccer. When Rangers and Celtic where making noises' about playing in the EPL FIFA said very clearly that a country without a viable professional or top flight league is able to play club soccer in another country. Now I know some of you point to the fact that England Wales and Scotland are all part of Great Britain and essentially one country but as far as FIFA is concerned they have different FA's and different national teams so these rules apply. The argument about angering FIFA by allowing a Canadian team to play in MLS is insane. If you think the MLS is going to allow a city of 5 million people, with a English speaking base, 2 hours flight from NY and 1.5 from Boston that is willing to build a SSS (whether they do or not who knows?) and has one of the few NHL franchises that turns a profit like. The MLS of course is going to be interested and of course they will go for it. Why wouldn't they? Toronto is a world class city. They can go back to San Antonio and get insulted by the mayor and the Alamodome, go to Cleveland where the investor passed away and the decendants want nothing to do with the MLS, go to Seattle where the Sounders are aren't exactly packing them in or back to Florida where they have failed once mainly because Floridians didn't want to pay good money to sit in 115 degree temparatures in the dead of summer to watch. OF COURSE MLS WANTS TORONTO. If Toronto wants in Toronto will get in. This is one of the rare cases' where the MLS needs the city about as much as the city wants the MLS.
toronto is a pretty awsome city. i am going there to visit my sister in about 2 weeks and every time i go there i think man american cities are nowhere near this clean or tolerant of other cultures etc. toronto would be a great addition especially with its growing immigrant pop along with the growing pop of soccer among young english canadians. every sunday morning during the epl season there is a game on normal broadcast television, so obviously there is enough market to not show some sunday morning talk show and put the epl on tv in toronto.
I have a dentist appointment on Tuesday. I'm thinking about eating cheese afterward. My brother has a pet lizard!
Hey, I resent you wasting space in the Expansion Forum with talk about your brother. Take it to the Reptiles & Amphibians Forum!
I don't care if Moose Jaw got a team. As long as the MLS can find a suitable Canadian city, it's okay with me.
Is it just me or is my cubicle smaller today? The wind is really hot outside. Don't pick it up, it's those damn telemarketers again.
get Montreal too! they draw a lot to each game already and it's not major league! but there's only one problem.....is FIFA going to let MLS have a team from another country and will MLS want to have a Canadian city?
Montreal gives away practically all their tickets. Impact F/O say they're not in this to make money, but to grow soccer in Canada. No way they'll be let in with the SEM system. FIFA will let a Canadian team in the MLS because Canada doesn't have a league and FIFA wants Canada to grow, just like how they wanted US to grow 20 years ago.