Those who have followed the expansion process in the past know that the mlsin[cityname].com websites have often been registered some time before the official expansion to said city, particularly the past two cities. mlsinseattle.com was registered by the Sounders a some time before the expansion announcement and now redirects to the main Sounder FC website. mlsinphilly.com was registered a few months before the Philadelphia expansion and while it does not redirect to the main Philly site, it is still owned by MLS according to a domain search. mlsinstlouis.com was owned by the group wanting to bring MLS to St. Louis, but it's now in a redemption period, meaning it's about to expire. Which brings me to Vancouver. mlsinvancouver.com was registered by a private registrant on July 18, according to this, and currently redirects to the Whitecaps MLS petition page. I checked mlsinmontreal.com, mlsinportland.com, all of mlsinnewyork.com, mlsinnyc.com, and mlsinny.com, both mlsinvegas.com and mlsinlasvegas.com, and mlsinottawa.com. None are registered. mlsinmiami.com was registered in January, by some guy named Jose Davila, but the site is just on hold when you go to it. mlsinatlanta.com is a real estate site. Is this a sign of things to come in the following months? Or a situation similar to the St. Louis website, where the owner simply wants the site ready just in case?
Do you or anyone you know if the Impact have a page on their website dedicated to the bid, or making the bid public? Parts of me is having their doubts about them joining MLS in 2011.
I can't find anything on their site related to MLS. Besides a lot of upgrades to the Saputo Stadium, I don't know what else they would need to enter the league. It should take less time to upgrade that stadium than for a city to build a new one from scratch. I'm not aware if they have other holdups which could prevent them from entering in 2011.
It's not redirecting anywhere now... But if there was any doubt about who registered this, note that both the Whitecaps website and this new registration are hosted on the EXACT same two servers: ns57.1and1.com 74.208.2.9 ns58.1and1.com 74.208.3.8 "Southside.... we have a franchise!" OK, maybe a little premature to say that... but this is by no means a real estate site. The Caps set this up to either promote their bid, or to celebrate a victory they've already won behind closed doors.