We may not be getting one of the next two expansion teams. MLS commissioner Don Garber (if the paraphrasing from this article is accurate) is basically saying Seattle and an East Coast city are getting the teams and we'll be in the running for a set of 2010/11 expansion teams.
The league probably will name Seattle and an East Coast city as sites for the newest franchises, to begin play in 2009, Garber said. Portland is vying for one of two more expansion teams that would begin play in 2010 or 2011, he said. The competition includes Atlanta, Montreal, San Diego, St. Louis and Vancouver, B.C.
I would certainly say it is not good news, but that is just Garber speaking. He does that all the time. He makes public statements that often hide or shade the truth to try and spur interest in additional cities. I have only been following MLS expansion a couple of years, but I have seen him do this multiple times already.
It is not good, but it does not mean the end yet.
MLS would be stupid, stupid to pass on Saint Louis this time when everything is already in place and Seattle and Philly both have significant hurdles and concerns still remaining.
I think he is just playing with Philly at this point trying to get them to commit. Making them think they have to hurry and beat Saint Louis is just a way of making the government officials move faster for a plan that will ultimately being in the 2010-2011 round of expansion. And who says Saint Louis is not East Coast. We would likely join the Eastern Division, so we might be an East Coast city. That is the kind of sly, almost lying that I have seen from Garber in the past.
Little Egyptian wrote:And who says Saint Louis is not East Coast. We would likely join the Eastern Division, so we might be an East Coast city. That is the kind of sly, almost lying that I have seen from Garber in the past.
Let's hope so. This project needs the momentum it already has and I don't know if it can sustain energy with things being dragged out another year for expansion.
Seattle to get expansion MLS franchise in 2009 or later
SEATTLE -- Major League Soccer has granted an expansion franchise to Seattle and it could begin playing as soon as 2009, a league official confirmed Friday.
Commissioner Don Garber will announce the decision in Seattle on Tuesday, the league said.
This was known back in late-September early-October. Espn is a little behind. This is not shocking news or even bad for the STL expansion team. The 2009 expansion team, which will make the league 16 teams with 8 in the West and 8 in the East, is still between STL and Philadelphia.
Anyone know Garber's flight schedule for next Wednesday-Saturday?
That is when the decision will come -- us or Philly.
I am in utter amazement that Seattle got a team. I watched the Rev.-Fire game on ESPN last night at Gillette Stadium (a game to go to the MLS cup) and even the lower bowl was not full. Plus, it looked like a lot of people were seated on the side that the cameras shot and not so many on the other. 10,000 fans ... less than a mid-season college basketball game. Putting a team in a football stadium is so incredibly minor league. It reminds me more of Major League Lacrosse than a major American sport.
But, I guess it is what it is. Decisions like this, though, make me question the long term viability of this league. It is clear they are in it for the immediate buck and not for the long term investment. That is what doomed the previous attempts at an American Soccer League. I am still 100% behind the Saint Louis MLS team and I will still go to games, but I lost a lot of respect for the league itself over the San Jose and Seattle deals.
While I'm not overly surprised since it's the one that seemed most likely for the East conference, I am nervous about the Philly/St.L decision. I feel like they've waited to give Philly more time to put up an offer like St. Louis, and that worries me as to what their final decision will be.
^and as far as I know, they have yet to put up an offer that could stand up to ours. I don't think the league would make a mistake like passing up on this possible expansion.
Yeah. You can't fault Cooper if this thing goes wrong. Everything he has done has been first class and above board. He has put together a fantastic package for MLS for the Metro East and for Saint Louis. We have done our part, at this point only the greedy MLS leadership can screw this up. I have no doubt that the MLS leadership is dumb and greedy enough to pass on Saint Louis which looks like a sure thing to take a risk in Philly ... and Seattle ... and San Jose. MLS put down their expansion requirements. So far only Toronto and Saint Louis have met those expectations. Toronto by all accounts has been a raging success and in their first year already one of the best franchises in MLS, so for MLS to deny Saint Louis at this point for teams that have not met the expansion requirements will be a colossal failure of leadership. San Jose was awarded a team nearly a year ago and they still do not have a stadium plan in place. Seattle might have a billionaire owner, but the best case scenario is 50,000 empty seats at every home game.
This whole waiting period has been a joke. There is no reason to further delay the Saint Louis announcement if they are ready to announce Seattle. They are just playing with Saint Louis to try to accomplish their objectives in Philly and Portland and Vancouver and NY and every freaking other place that they think they can expand and reap the $30-50 million dollar entrance fee until the league becomes so big that it collapses ... again. They are not being smart about expansion in the long term. They are allowing new teams in when they should be moving existing teams that cannot get Soccer specific stadiums in place, like KC, Houston, DC and New England.
I am fed up with MLS and this experience has really jaded me. I thought they were turning a corner and beginning an era when we would see them steadily rise in prominence until they joined the other sports in a Big 5 classification. But, MLS' choices regarding expansion tell me otherwise. It tells me there are still very much a league interested in short term gains and still a very immature league.
I hope for the best out of all of this, but after following MLS closely, there is a reason that they are made fun of ... its because they deserve it.
BREAKING NEWS: Collinsville competes with Philadelphia for soccer franchise
MLS awards Seattle expansion team
By Elizabeth A. Lehnerer
Staff writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 1:17 PM CST
The decision to grant Seattle a soccer franchise has Collinsville and Philadelphia in a race to the goalline for a Major League Soccer expansion team.
On Tuesday, MLS awarded one of two new expansion teams to Seattle.
MLS league commissioner Don Garber was quoted in a Philadelphia newspaper saying that the league remains "excited and focused on trying to get a deal done in Philadelphia" but added the league would choose the region that completed its plans the quickest.Rob Christlieb with Crossroads Development Group, the planning and development arm of Jeff Cooper’s St. Louis Soccer United that is trying to bring professional soccer back to St. Louis, said Wednesday that the city of cheese steaks and brotherly love has a long way to go to catch up with SLSU.
Meanwhile .... Saint Louis remains the major chip in the poker game that is going on between MLS and Philadelphia.
The Saint Louis proposal is being treated like a beaten, ugly step-child.
I am glad to hear that everyone with Saint Louis Soccer United is still very positive, but we are being used. Plain and simple. Just as Cooper was used to secure a better deal for Salt Lake. I have just about had my fill of MLS leadership. I wouldn't blame Cooper if he pulled out of his proposal. If MLS can't even act like a professional league, I don't know how comfortable I would feel dropping $100 million into a franchise and stadium.
I thought MLB and the NHL had bad leadership but this is far beyond even their incompetence.
I remain confident. I think that we have a great plan, one that Philly can't beat by throwing something together at the last second. Though as Little Egyptian points out, this may not follow logic.
Besides, putting Collinsville and Philadelphia in the same sentence is pretty cool.
newstl2020 wrote:"The league will go with the proposal that was completed the quickest"
Sounds to me like they have decided to go with StL over Philly. This would be a big win for the city.
Just to play devil's advocate, isn't picking the plan that was completed the quickest pretty, I dunno, stupid. I mean, what if Philly proposed a 50,000 seat state of the art stadium but we proposed a field with little league bleachers first. I know I am pushing it here, but isn't that kinda unprofessional to say?
I just gave the quote, not a psycological analysis of the thought process behind it. It sounds a little better in the context of the article, like a little hint to StL that we shouldn't be to worried, as opposed to jumping at whatever they could get.
Little Egyptian wrote:Meanwhile .... Saint Louis remains the major chip in the poker game that is going on between MLS and Philadelphia.
The Saint Louis proposal is being treated like a beaten, ugly step-child.
I am glad to hear that everyone with Saint Louis Soccer United is still very positive, but we are being used. Plain and simple. Just as Cooper was used to secure a better deal for Salt Lake. I have just about had my fill of MLS leadership. I wouldn't blame Cooper if he pulled out of his proposal. If MLS can't even act like a professional league, I don't know how comfortable I would feel dropping $100 million into a franchise and stadium.
I thought MLB and the NHL had bad leadership but this is far beyond even their incompetence.
That's the impression I get from that story as well. It almost seems like it doesn't matter that SLSU has a more attractive and complete package on the table. Instead, it seems like we're being played while Philadelphia is being given all the time in the world to lay its best possible hand on the table. I hope I'm wrong, and we'll hear what we want to hear in the next few days, but I have become rather cynical about the MLS after seeing how they've handled the expansion process.
newstl2020 wrote:I just gave the quote, not a psycological analysis of the thought process behind it. It sounds a little better in the context of the article, like a little hint to StL that we shouldn't be to worried, as opposed to jumping at whatever they could get.
I wasn't jumping at you, so I apologize if it seemed that way. But it's just the little things that Little Eqyptian is talking about along with the big things that make the MLS seem pretty immature.
