Population: IF you add in Millwaukee county and the counties around it we are quite large. Milwaukee County953,328 Waukesha County380,629 Racine County199,510 Kenosha County164,465 and thats just the really close Counties. Rivalry: Wisconsin and Illinois have had huge rivalries in Football and Baseball. Whats to stop it from spreading to soccer against the Chicago Fire?. Location: we are next to Chicago and in that we could grab a few fans from chicago i live in Kenosha County and there are Bears and cubs fans =\. Soccer: has always been a fairly large thing here in Kenosha we have quite a few soccer fields and a couple organizations. I dont think its to diffrent elsewhere in southern wisconsin. anyways yeah am doing this on school comp so can't do to much right now xD.
That's nice, but MLS is going to require a little more than soccer being "a fairly large thing" in a Milwaukee suburb.
Thats why they don't Advertise it as "millwaukee" Soccer They advertise it as Wisconsins Soccer team. So that the rest of wisconsin can say hey we are a part of it as well.
I can see that you're new here, but here's how it went down. Around 2005, MLS was ready to take just about any investor who walked through the door. Milwaukee briefly put together a foray into that realm, attempting to build a soccer specific stadium in that bombed out stretch of land just North of the Bradley Center. The Milwaukee City Council more or less told them to take a hike. As a Fire fan with a number of friends in Milwaukee, having gone to college at Marquette, I can tell you that no one wants a Milwaukee team more than I do. However, this really shortsighted view by the Milwaukee City Council (that bombed out patch of land is still bombed out), came at the worst possible time, because since then, Houston, Toronto FC, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland, Vancouver, and probably Montreal have scooped up spots in the league. They not only took up spots in the league, but showed MLS what putting teams in soccer-ready markets could do. The game changed. MLS no longer took whoever would have them, but last year had 7 cities apply for 2 spots in the league. They have their pick of the litter. Milwaukee meanwhile, is stagnant. It's Packer country. Soccer may very well succeed in Southeast Wisconsin, but not as well as it would in other places. Milwaukee adds very little to what MLS is looking for. It's a small media market, with no real history of supporting soccer on any level (outside of 12-year old birthday parties at Wave games), the government support for a stadium isn't there in the city, and in the suburbs, they would be the Midwest equivalent of FC Dallas, which would be a step back for the league. It would also be the second-smallest market in MLS. Even adding the counties together like you suggested, that's still only about a million and a half people. Only Salt Lake City is smaller. As far as marketing the team as "Wisconsin's team" ask the New England Revolution how attempting to appeal to a regional demographic works wonders for attendance. (hint: it doesn't. Just because the Packers can do it, doesn't mean a Milwaukee MLS team could replicate it.) So as much as I'd love to take the Hiawatha up from Chicago for a Fire-Milwaukee game, unless things take a complete 180 from where they are now, it will not happen. Milwaukee may very well eventually get an MLS team, or some kind of professional soccer team, but not now, and probably not in the next 10 years.