Major League Soccer's deadline for submitting expansion applications was yesterday and seven cities turned paperwork into the league. The plan is to add two of these seven cities in 2011. MLS has already announced the addition of the Seattle Sounders FC next year and an unnamed franchise in Philadelphia in 2010. Here are the seven finalists, in alphabetical order:
Atlanta, GA
Miami, FL
Montreal, QC
Ottawa, ON
Portland, OR
St. Louis, MO
Vancouver, BC
This is truly an incredible list. Every bid is led by major players in the sporting industry. Atlanta's bid is being placed by Home Depot and Atlanta Falcons' owner Arthur Blank. Miami's bid is being backed by the La Liga team FC Barcelona. Montreal's bid is being backed by George Gillett, owner of the Montreal Canadiens and part owner of the Premier League team Liverpool FC. Ottawa's bid is being placed by Eugene Melnyk, owner of the Ottawa Senators. Portland's bid is being funded by Merritt Paulson, son of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson and owner of Portland's minor league baseball and soccer teams. I've had the chance to meet Merritt Paulson and he is very serious about his sports and has the bankroll to do whatever he wants. St. Louis' bid is backed by the owners of the local Women's Professional Soccer team. Vancouver's bid is being backed by Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash and former President of Yahoo! Jeff Mallett.
So who are the front runners in all this? My first thought is Miami, with their backing by FC Barcelona, but they already had an MLS team that failed and their stadium situation isn't the best. Their plan is to play games at Florida International's yet-to-be completed football stadium. I believe without a doubt, one of the teams will come from the Canadian bids.
So here are my picks: Atlanta & Vancouver or Montreal/Ottawa & St. Louis. The league expects to make their selection in early 2009.
Who do you think will be selected? Post your thoughts in the comment section.
3 comments:
Soccer in Florida doesn't work too well -- so I'd immediately count Miami out. I remember back when Tampa had the Mutiny, and they could hardly fill the lower bowl of Raymond James Stadium. Often people point out that there's a huge Latin population in Florida, and that's usually one of the largest followers of soccer. But then again, baseball is also a hugely popular sport in the Latin community. And they don't even go to the Fish games. It didn't work with the Fusion, and it's not going to work today, even if it's at another small-scale stadium.
I agree completely. It's unfortunate that a big time sports franchise like FC Barcelona is trying to get involved in such a notoriously poor market. But who knows, if they use direct branding, similar to what Chivas USA does out in Los Angeles (Chivas is the NY Yankees of Mexican soccer), it may attract already existing fans of Barcelona. Chivas comes close to selling out all of their games despite sharing the stadium with the LA Galaxy. If the Miami team did something similar, it may actually work.
Atlanta has barely been able to eke out attendance north of 2,000 for the Atlanta Silverbacks games in recent years, and was far short of that in past years.
I'm hopeful, but realistic. Atlanta can't support an MLS team
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