The Future Of MLS

[hugh613]

Four openings. Twelve Applications.

Charlotte
Cincinnati
Detroit
Indianapolis
Nashville
Phoenix
Raleigh/Durham
Sacramento
San Antonio
San Diego
St. Louis
Tampa/St. Petersburg

Sounds like San Diego moved to the head of the line thanks to the Chargers leaving town, although whether or not the market can support two teams (ie. Club Tijuana) should be cause for concern. The MLS wants Detroit bad, so odds are they're number two. After that, dunno... Phoenix makes sense in terms of largest metro area without a team. St Louis, maybe, although my understanding is there's issues with stadium funding. North Carolina's got potential corporate sponsors all over the place, so hard for MLS to turn a blind eye to that. Sacramento and Cincinnati have unreal attendance figures (Cincy with 17000+ in D3), but markets on the smallish side.

Either way, I think it's all way too much, way too soon; after all, we're talking about a league that's only been in existence since 1996. And given that I'm old enough to remember the demise of the original NASL (over expansion, over spending), it's hard to shake the sense of deja vu...

 

[braves]

Sacramento is actually not that small of a market, and they have a built in fan base. I think they would be a big success, similar to Portland. But big drama, owner submitted a bid with a whole new set of partners today in what people are calling a "coup" , so that is in flux.

I don't think Club Tijuana is the concern, my concern would be do San Diegans even care. They are pretty fair weather. Also, we are talking about a city that couldn't get a stadium done for a NFL team. The city is just not going to sell it over*(the land) to the MLS investors without a huge fight. I think the MLS certainly likes that they won't be competing with a NFL team and its a pretty big market.

I have concerns about expansion. The NBA has too many teams and expanded to fast, and we have the best basketball players in the world. I really think it could put a league that is been on the rise stagnant or even on a downturn. It could really hurt the quality. Though the teams are getting much much better at getting South American talent.

If it was up to me, I would want them to focus on getting to LIga MX level of quality before adding more teams, but that won't happen. More teams, more tv markets, bigger TV contracts, which is really what it is all about. These are for the most part a collection of NFL owners

Ideal and what would really help soccer/football in this country would be focusing on building strong academies with the current teams we have in the league

 

[braves]

and I completely disagree with the pro/rel argument, that is putting the cart before the horse. that is not the answer

 

[guaranteeed]

This expansion is crazy

Talent dilution is going to be insane

 

[braves]

yep, unless the league/owners wants to invest a lot of money in building up academies, which I just can't see that happening.

 

[guaranteeed]

Ya if they said that's a 10 year plan I get it

But like you say academies have to come first to have the talent base, it's never going to be the big money league because the TV times don't match up with Europe and Asia which are the biggest markets, somit has to grow slowly

Liga MX with more money great example

 

[hugh613]

This expansion is crazy

Talent dilution is going to be insane

This. Not sure if there's official word on when all these teams would start up, but let's say 2020 for argument's sake. That means in the span of three years, Atlanta, Minnesota, LAFC, Miami (presumably), plus 4 other teams. Where do they plan on getting all these players from, especially now that the MLS pipeline from Yemen and the Sudan has been shutdown?

 

[Toronto_Mike]

Yellowknife FC!

 

[ArizonaKid]

This expansion is crazy

Talent dilution is going to be insane

Especially when you got China just spending like it's monopoly money. MLS teams can't compete with those salaries for big name talent, hell top European teams can't spend in the transfer market like the Chineese are currently.

 

[aplous]

The product is hard to watch as is and I'm a big SKC fan...this expansion is an awful idea.