Expansion Rumors Megathread

[Shane1988]

Looks like the Miami team joining the MLS in the future

Known as Miami Beckham United at the moment, they looking at ex Real Madrid and Brazil Legend Roberto Carlos as the manager of the club

 

[Shawn Ryu]

You know which market is interesting? Detroit.

I know we generalize it as broken rust belt city but their teams are pretty well supported.

 

[ferrarinycfc]

MLS Commissioner Don Garber to visit Sacramento Republic FC in April

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/...don-garber-visit-sacramento-republic-fc-april

Sacramento are as MLS ready as any city in the US.

 

[jerseyhotspur]

Garber and MLS will support anyone who can cough up a $100 million franchise fee and have a stadium plan in place.

 

[Vito]

https://twitter.com/x/status/720695701722652673

 

[franchise646]

That's a great number?

Also Minnesota will be in the western conferences.

https://twitter.com/x/status/720706500604346372

 

[ferrarinycfc]

24-28 will be heavily competed for as there are many minor league soccer teams doing very well with attendances.

By 2030 id imagine mls reaches 32 teams.

Ill say Sacramento,San Antonio,St louis will probably be 3 of the 4.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

Why was Chivas a failure again?

 

[BossNYC]

Miami and LA in 2018 with Beckham and flashy DPS and the world cup will be a big year for MLS.

 

[Ulrich]

Why was Chivas a failure again?

For a myriad of reasons:
The owners were trying to be an authentic Mexican team in MLS, Wanted all ethnic players, supposedly had to speak Spanish in training, treated non-Mexican coaches differently (there was a lawsuit by two coaches, maybe Calichman and another), didn't have good outreach/marketing in LA, paid rent to Galaxy to use stadium and couldn't balance books with low attendance, never had full support from owner - definitely his second team when compared to Chivas down under, and the players the mothership sent to the club always underperformed - many thought because they felt it a step down in MLS and didn't exert themselves.

The one thing they did have going for them was their academy was top notch. It became an orphan after Chivas USA collapsed and unfortunately LAFC has no interest in assimilating it - they want to start fresh.

I'm sure there's a lot more I'm forgetting about that fiasco....

 

[franchise646]

24-28 will be heavily competed for as there are many minor league soccer teams doing very well with attendances.

By 2030 id imagine mls reaches 32 teams.

Ill say Sacramento,San Antonio,St louis will probably be 3 of the 4.

I hope they stay at 28.

 

[Falastur]

I hope they stay at 28.

You and me both.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

For a myriad of reasons:
The owners were trying to be an authentic Mexican team in MLS, Wanted all ethnic players, supposedly had to speak Spanish in training, treated non-Mexican coaches differently (there was a lawsuit by two coaches, maybe Calichman and another), didn't have good outreach/marketing in LA, paid rent to Galaxy to use stadium and couldn't balance books with low attendance, never had full support from owner - definitely his second team when compared to Chivas down under, and the players the mothership sent to the club always underperformed - many thought because they felt it a step down in MLS and didn't exert themselves.

The one thing they did have going for them was their academy was top notch. It became an orphan after Chivas USA collapsed and unfortunately LAFC has no interest in assimilating it - they want to start fresh.

I'm sure there's a lot more I'm forgetting about that fiasco....

Complete bush league operation that MLS had to get away from.

Wonder how successful 2nd LA team will be though, don't think they will have the same result as MLS.

For one Galaxy isn't named after terrible energy drink.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

I hope they stay at 28.

30 by 2020, and then wait until league gets as prominent as other leagues then 32. And end it there.

 

[Gotham Gator]

The league needs to increase the international spots if it keeps expanding like this.

 

[jerseyhotspur]

By 2030 id imagine mls reaches 32 teams.

anyone else worried about expanding too fast and diluting the talent pool in the US?

and with a 34 game (unbalanced) season, won't it be sometimes YEARS between some teams ever playing each other?

 

[joe]

and with a 34 game (unbalanced) season, won't it be sometimes YEARS between some teams ever playing each other?

Depends on the specifics. If you have 4 divisions of 8 teams, a team could play each team in their division twice (home and away) - 14 games - and every other team once (presumably alternating home and away each year) once - 24 games - for a total of 38 games.

If you want to stick to 34 games but keep that system, then yes, you won't play every team every year, but you'd be close. And certainly you'd be able to play every team at least once every two years.

If you played every team in your conference home and away, though, that would be 30 games, leaving you only 4 games but 16 teams (in the other conference). In that case, it could be a few years in between matches.

Other people have done better/more detailed scenarios if you want to dig around.

 

[BossNYC]

anyone else worried about expanding too fast and diluting the talent pool in the US?

and with a 34 game (unbalanced) season, won't it be sometimes YEARS between some teams ever playing each other?

This is why playoffs are supposed to exist.

People seem to think playoffs exist just because they're fun. They're supposed to exist when you have too many teams to possibly play each other in a single regular season.

 

[Seth]

This is why playoffs are supposed to exist.

People seem to think playoffs exist just because they're fun. They're supposed to exist when you have too many teams to possibly play each other in a single regular season.

I disagree for two reasons. The first reason is that England has solved this problem by having 44 teams in their top two leagues. They don't normally play each other but they do allow for cross-mixing between the two groups thanks to pro/rel, and they also have the FA Cup which allows different leagues to play each other.

But the real reason I disagree is that the playoffs don't exist because they're fun or because there's too many teams. The playoffs exist because they're supposed to make money. Extra games and extra TV time are the real reasons.

As a separate issue I think playoffs are somewhat uniquely American because we have two separate and competing baseball leagues who eventually started to play each other for the championship. Playoffs didn't start even then as that was a result of splitting each league into divisions. Might have to do a little research to see if there were playoffs before there were two leagues. Same with the NFL. Anyone know before I head off for google and wikipedia?

 

[ferrarinycfc]

FC Cincinnati set USL attendance record with more than 20,000 on Saturday

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/04/17/fc-cincinnati-set-usl-attendance-record-more-20000-saturday

Its good to see Minor League Soccer teams doing well.

In 20-30 years there may be 40 viable markets for MLS and pro/rel might not be as scary to owners as it is now.