where after Seattle and philadelphia should MLS start looking for further
expansion.
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where after Seattle and philadelphia should MLS start looking for further
expansion.
Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Portland, St. Paul,and St. Louis
Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, and NY2 can go to hell
Teams Closer to THE CENTER of MLS!! TORONTO! :)
ROCHESTER NY 2hrs
DETRIOT 3HRS
OTTAWA 4HRS
MONTREAL 5hrs
PITTSBURG 5hrs
Hop skip and a jump! ..:) would make for some road trips!
lets not forget Milwaukee...yahoo sports certainly didn't
Montreal...
The stadium and support are already there...
Why go to a city that "promises" a stadium, and "hopes to build" support, when you have a city that already has both...
Saputo would need to expand, but the stadium was built for it - and would be done before playing their 1st game...
Carts...
Vancouver, St. Louis 2011
Montreal, Atlanta 2012
Miami, NY2 2017
Vancouver - big organization in BC - all levels of USL
St.Louis - ready now needs lead time to build organization
Montreal - Expand stadium and increase ticket sales (not Comps)
Atlanta - 8th largest TV market in US (finishes 1-10)
Miami - MLS seems to want to return (not sure about this one)
NY2 - always been in the plan not going to change that (bring back the COSMOS)
I would be shocked if Detroit was seriously considered for an MLS franchise, with the way things are going there now. They can't even put people in the seats at Red Wings games because the economy is so poor.
Personally, I think it would be a shame if Montreal and Vancouver don't get teams. I heard on the CBC that they wanted to cap the league at 20 teams, though, and they might not be first in line.
The MLS should stop expanding for at least 5 years to allow the new teams to develop. The league will get to waterdown and it will become crap!!!
shouldn't be more then 20 teams in top tier.
I heard that Tobermory is pretty multicultural and could support an MLS team with all the locals and tourists/end sarcasm
Id bet St Louis, Portland, New York 2, MAYBE Montreal and MAYBE MAYBE Vancouver. If Sapputo gets his ish together and really really pushes the MLS AND does something in the USL i can see Montreal dipping in before New York 2 (and MAYBE Portland).
Regardless, US teams are going to be a priority especially ones that either a) have a big history with soccer and/or b) were part of the original MLS plan. The states (and most of Canada) just still isnt ready for soccer, its a shame but a fact. There are too many other sports supported in a bigger fashion. I dont blame them and in fact i think its smart. You wanna see teams turn out like KC and Columbus? Put em in the South and midwest (as well as out of the 3 major canadian cities, im not kidding, Canada is multicultural in the major cities and white as fuck outside of them, not unlike the US, even where its mixed, Soccer is still less embraced then the 4 major sports).
why a second new york team, they dont get great support for the red bulls? Why make another team
Not a bad analysis.
Miami supposedly had a deadline that ended on June 5th where they were to put forth a group who could afford a team, apparently the city was for it but couldnt find any buyers. Id say that Miami is out (as is any other Florida team).
Atlanta doesnt even support any of its other teams i dunno why they would start with soccer, regardless of how big the tv market is.
St Louis needs to have a team. Its like having a basketball league and not having a team in New York. Soccer has roots and history in St Louis that they dont have in...Miami...or Dallas...or Boston. MLS needs to put a team in St Louis, end of.
Dunno anything about San Diego (cept its close to the border). Seems to be brought up alot and favored as a new destination for Chivas... Itd be a tough thing to get people down there that support a Mexican team to switch over to an American team... May be able to convince people to watch the sport... really dont know about San Diego as a market, they really dont have anything (cept a zoo) down there...
I would question San Diego's success. It is obvious the Mexican population in LA hasn't taken to the team, and there is certainly more Mexicans in LA then SD, 100 miles closer won't mean much. And I highly doubt they will get a downtown stadium with the price of land downtown and the current structures being built. And if they not going to market to Mexicans, the other main population in the area is Navy and Marines...not sure they are the target market for a Mexican team.
New York won't get a second team. I'm tired of having to keep explaining it, so if anyone disagrees, I suggest reading up on the Red Bull's current attendance numbers.
And after seeing the dreadfully small crowd at Swangard tonight in the game against the Impact, I have my doubts we'll see Vancouver get a team either.
Miami and Montreal
Do any of you guys who draw these conclusions about Miami know the city, or the history of soccer in South Florida?
1) They're not that into baseball down there - Marlins attendance is not something to be bragging about. Drive around: all you see are soccer fields, not baseball fields
2) The interest in soccer in Miami exceeds that of any city in North America, by far (including Toronto and Montreal). Ask Tyrone Marshall (I have) - he played for the Fusion, and he'll tell you that there's no place like Miami in terms of soccer culture in North America.
3) The Fusion failed because they played in a high school stadium 30 miles from Miami, and had truly horrible ownership. Also MLS was a very different league in 2001 (back then, there was nowhere near the number of players from South America, no Beckham/Blanco, the league itself was on the verge of failure, etc)
Miami is 65% hispanic/latino. Only half are Cuban - there are large Honduran, Nicarauguan, Haitian and Dominican communities. There are also sizable, wealthy enclaves from every country in Central and South America. Miami has some of the best Peruvian and Argentine restaurants in the world.
Build a well-located SSS in South Florida, and watch what would happen!
Just to be clear, Montreal has many of the same positives in terms of demographics, soccer interest, etc....and although it's a smaller market, they have the stadium, so I'd rank Montreal ahead of Miami.
But overall, these two cities are country miles in front of the others, in terms of having natural interest and support.
Since Montreal and Vancouver are a given, I voted Ottawa.
The league seems to really like Vancouver. They've been courting them for a while, even releasing that statement after the BC place announced renovations. I think they'll get one despite not having a stadium yet. I don't think any other Canadian team will make the 18 team cutoff, unless they expand further.
I think the Ottawa meeting was a courtesy. I think they're pretty far back on the priority list. Montreal may have to wait until a team folds to get in.
Why is it that the USL team (granted the Lynx did terribly up here) is doing so poorly and they cant find a group of people to pay for this team (even when the mayor has said he would support the building of a SSS)?
Im playing the devils advocate but i also dont think itd work in Miami.
it shouldnt expand beyond 18 teams... instead it should focus on some sort of promotion/relegation system
Two reasons:
1) USL just isn't MLS (as you said) - Miami's a bigger city than Toronto, people just won't accept USL in the larger MSAs
2) They're playing in a non-SSS high school stadium - different one than the Fusion used (this one is a little better located, but not perfect), but it's still not the right venue
Sorry to reiterate my point (it may have been missed and im not trying to come across like a dick but it wasnt mentioned) but why isnt there a group vying for an MLS club then? Why havent we heard otherwise? At least in St Louis, Portland, Montreal and Vancouver there are either supporters/billionaires or both...
I have no doubt the MLS would love to go south but there havent been any chances to. They had high hopes for Arizona but look how that friendly between NYRB (yes, yes i know, theyre shite, hilarious) and Chivas went...
yea miami is not bigger than toronto
Miami is bigger than Toronto.
"Greater Miami" is 5.9 million people, and doesn't include a significant population of another 500,000-750,000 within one hour to the north
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami,_...a#Demographics
GTA is 5.5 million
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto#Demographics
This is a valid point about Miami. They have a group but nothing like ours, SJ's or Seattle's. St. Louis has the same problem, btw.
Re Phoenix, I have no idea whatsoever why anyone would think that's a priority MLS expansion candidate. You simply cannot play outdoor sports there in the summer.
At the MLS allstar game In Toronto Garber will announce that in 2010 Montreal will join the league, and in 2011 (the year the BC place lease starts) Vancouver will join. They may have a couple american teams like St Louis and Miami, but that doesn'r matter.
Canada will get at least 1 more team. The league needs a Canadian brother for TFC, particularly to help Canadian TV ratings. A strong Canadian duo is good for the league.
Whether Canada gets 2 teams, I'm not sure. But if the league could duplicate TFC in Montreal and Vancouver, they'd go for it. In a league so driven by money sharing, these two new canadian franchises could end up being great moneymakers to support the smaller american markets.