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Which city should be awarded the 20th MLS club?

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With Montreal officially identified as the market getting the 19th MLS team, it is a certainty that MLS will add a 20th team.  It is time to consider which cities are in the mix for the 20th team in the league.

Does MLS add a New York team to serve as the Red Bulls' arch-rival? Do fans in St. Louis finally get their dream of an MLS team? Might MLS consider a team in the Southeast, like Charlotte or Atlanta?

Cast your vote here for where you would like to see the 20th MLS team awarded to: http://www.twiigs.com/poll.js?pid=54491&color=bluedarkest

Comments

  1. with the news comeing out today about the current state of financial affairs in St. Louis, I would rate Ottawa, New York and Atlanta in a virtual dead heat.

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  2. Vegas and New York def need to happen Miami Probably wont unfortunately….. I think Florida Expansion will come down to whichever team has better USL attendance and Tampa seems to be leading that right now

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  3. I think we need to focus on 3 divisions

    East
    RBNY
    NY Cosmos
    NE Revs
    TFC
    MTL
    Philly
    DCU
    Carolina (Charlotte or Raleigh)
    ATL
    Tampa

    Central
    Crew
    Fire
    Indianapolis
    KC Wiz
    AC STL
    FC Dallas
    Dynamo
    San Antonio
    Austin
    OK City

    West
    Van
    SSFC
    Portland
    SJE
    LAG
    Chivas
    San Diego
    Las Vegas
    Rapids
    RSL

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  4. Miami, New York, and Las Vegas are far and away the most deserving locations for Major League Soccer. This league needs to get attention and these three cities will bring in the glamor and the sexy a league like MLS deserves.

    MLS needs to stay the hell away from St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and any other embarassing blight on the landscape. Those cities are decaying and dying and will do nothing but bring the league down like a lead ballon.

    Are you listening Garber? Make it Miami, New York, and Las Vegas and do NOT put a team in those places I just mentioned under any circumstances. UNDERSTAND?!!

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  5. Just to remind you all, since it is in the desert a team in Vegas would have to play in a Dome or retractable roof stadium. That would be too much up front cost. It is 120 degrees in the summer, even if you start the games at 9pm local it is still hotter than….you know

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  6. oh and they can just move Kansas City to St. Louis. The KC metro area just doesn’t give enough support for a MLS team. Have them stop building that new stadium and move the team to St. Louis where it should have been all along.

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  7. Gotta go with Atlanta or Raleight-Durham the MLS needs a southeast presence. Tampa and Miami were set up to fail, Atlanta is the corporate hub of the southeast leading to lots of season tickets purchased(just have to make sure that the group that owns the Hawks and Thrashers doesn’t run the MLS franchise). The Silverbacks had potential, but poor management and marketing. You could still put expand the Silverbacks stadium for use by the MLS team.

    Raleigh-Durham is a hotbed for soccer on the east coast, Eurosport/Soccer.com is based there, as is the ACC which is the best college conference(as much as it pains me to say that being a Big Ten guy).

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  8. Oklahoma City hasn’t been mentioned at all. I know it’s a long shot but it’s a growing city that nearly got Salt Lake’s franchise. It may sound crazy but I see the city embracing a team similarly to how Seattle and Philly supported their expansion. OKC is crazy for their new NBA team, and with no other competing franchises during the MLS season other than a triple A baseball team, I see it being a great fit.

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  9. Atlanta for sure or somehwere in the south east…as of right now I would have to drive to 12 hours to Columbus 10 to Houston or 16 to Phil to see a game…too many teams clumped up in 1 location imo

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  10. everyone of you is on crack. No way any of the mentioned cities attract more 10k…2nd NY, Raliegh, STL, Las Vegas, etc. The only one that draws more then 10k is probably one that already has drawn over that – rochester. Just go big with the DP signing and put it in Miaimi. Everyone know that thats the formula to success in the large cosmopolitan areas- sign big names. You can now get three of them.

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  11. NEW YORK its the way to go
    Instant rivarly
    Jersey an NYC fan know that and i think a lot
    of people are waiting for that to happen
    and if am lying im here let the true Jersey fan say
    wassup
    and the true NYC soccer fan say that im wrong
    Let’s go Babyyyyy!!!!!!
    P.s why is it that the commisioner every time he gets a chance he says “Im really looking for a second team in NYC”
    wassup with that………….

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  12. what does Miami FC have to do with MLS? apples to oranges. Miami FC? really? no one here really know that team even exists. i rarely see any kind of promotion and like someone else said earlier, were not like other cities that have some sort of tradition like say the Portland Timbers. Miami FC came out in 2006 and its not MLS. Kind of hard to build a fan base around that when we can always watch better soccer somewhere else. lets stick to MLS. Miami has yet to have a soccer team.

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  13. Maybe you haven’t been watching news, but Arizona has become a curse word for many in the Spanish speaking community. AZ: No Bueno.

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  14. MLS should have stayed at 16 for a while. The growth is too rapid, and the level of play, which was already poor, will get worst. Forget about CONCACAF trophies for a very long time. The product on the field will be diluted.

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  15. i think they need to pick a soccer-rich town, a place where there is some history on some level and a passionate local fan base. basically, copy the model of selecting Seattle…..ST LOUIS it is!

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  16. I just wish Detroit would have a team but with Michigan’s sad economy I can forget it. Before the auto industry demise I could say Detroit’s Metro area would be a lock, but only with the right ownership and direction. This is a problem for most current MLS teams.

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  17. Last year, Miami FC played games at FIU (actually in Miami) and at Lockhart (in Ft. Lauderdale). The attendance numbers were significantly higher in Lauderdale. I mean, they were still terrible numbers all around, but keeping them in the city of Miami (aka the cesspool of Florida) does not solve the problem.

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  18. Now you’re onto something with the young professionals. DC, Chicago, LA, (New York needs time to build their presence in their transit-oriented stadium) and more recently Houston, Toronto, Seattle, and Philadelphia… all destinations nationwide for college-eduacated professionals. What city in the South is like that? All those sunbelt boomtowns are now busting. That is the future.

    You can’t attract the younger generation college educated demo without a vibrant walkable city with great mass transit. The younger generation doesn’t want to run away from the city. It wants to be right in the middle. Hence why the centrally located stadiums have worked much better. It’s the younger professionals who grew up playing the game that are the core MLS fans, not exurban families or Spanish-speakers.

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  19. Another Vegas local here – cool!

    I couldn’t agree more. Vegas is a glitzy location with lots of local money that could play a big part in regular lucrative sponsorship deals and long term financial stability for a club here.

    Other than NY2 or Miami, its the only proposed location that could attract a superstar DP to do for the league what Becks did for LA.

    Best of all, MLS would have the market all to themselves, as Vegas is the largest metro area (2 million) in the entire country that has no major league sports team of any kind. The support is here – UNLV sells out the 19k-seater Thomas & Mack for basketball every game and the 51’s (AAA baseball) are near full capacity for most Fri/Sat/Sun games.

    Vegas is clamoring for a professional sports team. Mayor Goodman has tried to lure a team here in the past (MLB and NBA) and expressed a willingness to build a stadium if we could get a long-term team. We’ve hosted big events before, such as the NBA All-star game and US basketball NT to great success.

    We just need a group of investors to realize this and make it happen. I haven’t seen anything from the Mark Noorzai led group since they made that controversial bid for a stake in Columbus a few years back. Anyone heard anything?

    I’d love to see a Western team (especially LA) find a way to play a friendly or open cup game in Vegas just to test this theory out. Perhaps the MGM arena (17k indoor stadium inside the MGM hotel) can be configured for a small field?

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  20. Ives,

    Is San Antonio even on the MLS radar? I’ve recently moved here, and I think this place would go absolutely bananas and be a slam-dunk, home-run, insert your mixed-sports-metaphor here for the MLS and for San Antonio.

    But I haven’t ever heard any real, substantive chatter.

    On a scale of 0-100%, how likely is it in your opinion that San Antonio will ever get an MLS franchise?

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  21. is there any interest in bringing a team to AZ? we would need it to be an indoor stadium.

    i think it would be well supported, given our high hispanic population

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  22. Some good thoughts in the ‘srfinger’ post.

    The differentiation between cities with Hispanic populations and “young professionals” is very intriguing.

    The old time soccer fans have not supported MLS in droves. This includes both the Hispanic as well as other ethnic fans. They show up for the summer friendlies with the big teams but are waiting on the sidelines for MLS to become a big time league where they buy the Ronaldos and Messis. Its a shame but it may be a fact.

    MLS should look for city with the same ‘young professionals’ when identifying the next team!

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  23. facebook would say st louis. their fan page has 18k fans. borough boys have.. 18. though that number would instantly climb on a dime after an official announcement about ny2

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  24. St. Louis. Live nearby and have been waiting for a team for quite some time (was extremely excited about spot 16 when we were vying with Philly). The past history of supporting the game has been mentioned, and I think the area could really support a team well today. And as for the claims of ballot stuffing by St. Louis people (occasionally reference above), that’s not my impression from the majority of the comments on here. Seems that most live elsewhere but are still voting for StL.

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  25. New Orleans. Most culturally rich city in America. Wouldn’t have to pull my arm to get me to make some away trips there.

    I’d also love to see the Puerto Rico Islanders in the league. Pipe dreams, I know

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  26. Dear MLS,

    STOP EXPANDING. You are watering down the league. Not to mention that NONE of these cities would draw good crowds, anyways. St. Louis, no thanks..MLS has been avoiding STL every single time they have expanded until now, and whatever reason it was that kept you out of there should continue to keep you out of there. Just because you are running out of places to expand to doesn’t mean you have to go there…how about you move the un-supported wizards to St. Louis! Miami, no…that was a failure already…and anywhere in the south hellllll no…they don’t like soccer down there! Baseball and American football (and NASCAR) are the only sports they care about. As for NY, the Red Bulls have the most beautiful arena on the continent and they can’t get more than 15k (other than the first 2 or 3 games), so why would you put a 2nd team there? Vegas is not a good sports town. Really only San Diego would be feasible but, as I said before, do we really need more expansion? Move unsuccessful clubs to new cities if you must. Portland, Vancouver and Montreal all have the fan bases so not any bad moves there…but please, no more.

    Thanks,
    A fan who would love for this league to keep getting stronger

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  27. Charlotte wouldn’t be the pick for a North Carolina town. Do Raleigh or Greensboro…much bigger soccer community and have already proven themselves with the Hurricanes.

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  28. i know WHY they dont. but i want to know WHY they agreed to that. the truth is, they can bargain with MLS and wave their wand to get more games. you don’t think the MLS wants to have more games on TV? they’re not going to say no. they’re not going to agree to ALL games so that they can still get money from Direct Kick and all that jazz, but 1 to 2 games. come on, that is pathetic. it’s a soccer network, they can bargain harder to get more MLS games on this american channel which has expanded to 2 channels.

    i think both parties would agree and thus amend said contract. but maybe i’m crazy.

    as far as ESPN, i don’t expect it from them anyway. im strictly talking FSC.

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