and go with Cleveland and Rochester... the chivas thing is stupid, plus all it does it put a team in another NFL stadium thats huge, and in this case the investor doesn't own the stadium ala Kraft and New England... Cleveland, committed owner and a SSS...a good soccer history, and even a guy who wants to be their coach... Rochester, if they could just get one guy to partner with the current owners or if MLS cuts Frank and Co. a deal (like how chivas only has to pay 6M)...a SSS, proven fan base, etc... The Chivas situation is just another gimmick...
after you wipe your tears you can read that MLS decided not to expand in 04 a couple weeks ago. as fas as no chivas in 05, well you may be out of luck there.
I personally think it's stupid to put ANOTHER team in California....but there's an I/O available with Chivas so I guess there isn't a whole lot we can do about it for the moment.
whoa, who was crying? man people are stupid.... and when i woke up today i was planning on coming straight here to say disreguard this post cuz i was drunk off my ass last night and was getting all pissed cuz I didn't like the name Chivas USA... as for 2004 or 2005 chivas, your wrong, nothing has been decided, but 2005 is more likely, so thats not official... and yes, Chivas WILL have a team, but I would like to see Cleveland and Rochester still get teams...hah and ya, Chivas apparently also has plans for a SSS down the road...so another positive..
.. I'm thinking.. Rochester might be a decent pick considering they are "A" League champions every year, but Rochester is small market. Sure, they have better attendance than the Burn.. but not by much. Does MLS really want to expand to yet another losing team (and I mean financially) or would it be wise to invest in Chivas who you know are going to fill up the stands, and sell merchandise? It is just basic.. Go with the team that is going to make you the most money, advance the quality of play in league, as well as the best marketability. Chivas USA will dice Cleveland or Rochester in all 3 area's. OK think about it.. they go to San Diego for 2 reasons. 1) they get there own city on the border of Mexico.. makes sense. 2) Los Angeles is just a 2 hour drive from San Diego. It's funny how people complain about Cali having 2 teams and yet another on the way.. yet Rochester is in NY.. and if you look at a map and see how far San Jose is from LA and San Diego, your talking in the same area, you have Revolution, Metrostars, and DC united in a smaller area. they just happen to be different states
And we get to drive up to LA (only 2 hours away) and boo, hiss, and holler, and they can likewise come down and do the same. Which is another good reason for San Diego to get a team: even if it isn't called Chivas, we can already hate on the Galaxy just for being an LA team. See, rivalries don't have to be based on race, they can be based on simple geography. You're close, we hate you. This is gonna be great... someone send me directions to the HDC, or whatever it's called by 2005.
Actually it's #26. Still, the distance from San Jose to San Diego is more than the distance from Foxboro to Washington, and Chivas would give each of those regions the same number of teams, with the league hoping to put even more teams in the northeast before too long. Ohio, a state with a smaller population than the combination of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, looks likely to have a 2nd team, so there's room for 3 in California.
Having the Goats may actually be a good thing for LA fans because of road trips. Check out my plan: Take the train to Santa Fe station Take the trolley Gas Lamp District & drink Trolley over to Qualcomm & watch my G's take on the Goats. Trolley to the nearby hotel and crash Spend the next day at the San Diego harbor (optional) Take the train back home This is going to be a cool road trip!
I counted 13 markets ahead of SD. Sorry, I forgot to mention "will" be. I've seen figures that estimate that SD will be the 6th largest metropolitan area by 2020. Even still, you have to account for TJ, which has the infrastructure set up to move thousands of ppl to the stadium. Think of it this way: from the San Fernando Valley on south through Orange County, SD County and Tijuana, only Camp Pendleton (Marine base) and San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant chop up one continous metropole. In that area, about 22 million ppl reside.