Expansion Rumors Megathread

As I’ve mentioned, I live in Miami.

As much as I would cream in my pants for MLS in Miami, IT’S NOT GOING TO WORK.

It’s a terrible sports town. I’m a diehard Marlins fan (I know, lol we traded the reigning MVP to the Yankees of all team) but ONE of the biggest things holding Marlins baseball back (beyond Loria and Jose Fernandez dying) is the fact that you have thousands of permanent Florida residents who have lived here for 30 years but they STILL root for the Phillies, Cubs, Yankees, Braves etc.

The same thing will happen with soccer.

Miami soccer fans will all still support Real Madrid and Barcelona and the club teams in South and Central America.

MLS in Miami will be a disaster. They’ll get maybe 7,000 Founding Supporters. That’s being very optimistic. Totally different animal than Orlando.
 
In my opinion, this is good news for Miami MLS.

Jorge Mas is flush with cash and he has deep rooted ties to Miami. Mas wanted to buy the Marlins (and should have won the bid because clearly Sherman and Jeter are sweating the money).

Yeah, finally seems like they have a group that could do something with the opportunity.
 
In my opinion, this is good news for Miami MLS.

Jorge Mas is flush with cash and he has deep rooted ties to Miami. Mas wanted to buy the Marlins (and should have won the bid because clearly Sherman and Jeter are sweating the money).
F Jeter that son of a bitch. The waletless wonder. Mas would have been an amazing owner!!!
 
F Jeter that son of a bitch. The waletless wonder. Mas would have been an amazing owner!!!
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I predicted Sacramento and Cincy, with Cincy edging Nashville primarily due to being 2019 ready.

People close to the league are much more bullish on Nashville over Cincy this month. If that comes to pass, it doesn't seem like anyone would be ready for a rushed 2019 launch:

Sacramento - No suitable stadium
Nashville - No existing operations
Miami - No existing operations

Looks like we are going to be at 23 teams for two years. Yuck. Gets even worse if Columbus moves to Austin in 2019, as the W/E split would be 13/10. Looks like MNU is going to come to the East for 1-3 years. My ideal timeline given public facts as they stand today:

Announcements:
2017 - Nashville, SAC
2018 - CIN, DET, MIA*

Expansions:
2018 - W+LAFC (12/11)
2019 - W+Austin, W-MNU; E-Columbus, E+MNU (12/11)
2020 - W+SAC; E+Nashville, E+CIN (13/13)
2021 - W+MNU; E-MNU, E+MIA, E+DET (14/14)
 
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I predicted Sacramento and Cincy, with Cincy edging Nashville primarily due to being 2019 ready.

People close to the league are much more bullish on Nashville over Cincy this month. If that comes to pass, it doesn't seem like anyone would be ready for a rushed 2019 launch:

Sacramento - No suitable stadium
Nashville - No existing operations
Miami - No existing operations

Looks like we are going to be at 23 teams for two years. Yuck. Gets even worse if Columbus moves to Austin in 2019, as the W/E split would be 13/10. Looks like MNU is going to come to the East for 1-3 years. My ideal timeline given public facts as they stand today:

Announcements:
2017 - Nashville, SAC
2018 - CIN, DET, MIA*

Expansions:
2018 - W+LAFC (12/11)
2019 - W+Austin, W-MNU; E-Columbus, E+MNU (12/11)
2020 - W+SAC; E+Nashville, E+CIN (13/13)
2021 - W+MNU; E-MNU, E+MIA, E+DET (14/14)
Remember that the meeting with existing MLS ownership to discuss expansion was supposed to occur yesterday.

Has there been any rumors flying around coming out of that?
 
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Remember that the meeting with existing MLS ownership to discuss expansion was supposed to occur yesterday.

Has there been any rumors flying around coming out of that?

No leaks yet, and the MLS official statement said they will "continue to work with" the candidates.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/12/14/major-league-soccer-releases-statement-expansion

I think the most plausible explanation relates to the delay in Nashville's lawsuit. The Save our Fairgrounds group amended their complaint a day before the hearing for the motion to dismiss. So looks like the hearing is delayed until 12/22. There's a high probability it gets knocked out then. Expansion announcement to follow?

I just want this over. At least for a while.
 
No leaks yet, and the MLS official statement said they will "continue to work with" the candidates.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/12/14/major-league-soccer-releases-statement-expansion

I think the most plausible explanation relates to the delay in Nashville's lawsuit. The Save our Fairgrounds group amended their complaint a day before the hearing for the motion to dismiss. So looks like the hearing is delayed until 12/22. There's a high probability it gets knocked out then. Expansion announcement to follow?

I just want this over. At least for a while.
A reporter tweeted that MLS is holding it under wraps so each City can have a big press conference announcement party hype next week. We should get leaks before that.
 
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This was a few days ago some folks got on the criticize Garber wagon.

I will guarandamntee you one thing: if Garber were head of US soccer, we wouldn’t have missed the World Cup.

The guy is a strong executive who gets the results he seeks. So you don’t like what he’s going for? Fine. He’s still easily one of the top 2 league commissioners in the country and probably in the world. The PL and BL guys come to him for advice, not vice versa.
 
I predicted Sacramento and Cincy, with Cincy edging Nashville primarily due to being 2019 ready.

People close to the league are much more bullish on Nashville over Cincy this month. If that comes to pass, it doesn't seem like anyone would be ready for a rushed 2019 launch:

Sacramento - No suitable stadium
Nashville - No existing operations
Miami - No existing operations

Looks like we are going to be at 23 teams for two years. Yuck. Gets even worse if Columbus moves to Austin in 2019, as the W/E split would be 13/10. Looks like MNU is going to come to the East for 1-3 years. My ideal timeline given public facts as they stand today:

Announcements:
2017 - Nashville, SAC
2018 - CIN, DET, MIA*

Expansions:
2018 - W+LAFC (12/11)
2019 - W+Austin, W-MNU; E-Columbus, E+MNU (12/11)
2020 - W+SAC; E+Nashville, E+CIN (13/13)
2021 - W+MNU; E-MNU, E+MIA, E+DET (14/14)

Sacramento broke ground on their new stadium already. They pretty much have a stadium.
 
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The Twitter sphere is saying that MLS has scheduled an event in Nashville on Wednesday, so we know what that means. Who joins them
 
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