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MLS Ticker: Union, Bimbo sign eight-figure extension; Earthquakes DP tears meniscus; and more

SebastianLeTouxPhiladelphiaUnion3MLS2014 (USATodaySportsImages)

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By RYAN TOLMICH

The partnership between the Philadelphia Union and Bimbo Bakeries is set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Bimbo, the Union’s current jersey sponsor, has renewed their partnership with the MLS side for another five years, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. Neither organization disclosed terms of the deal, but the report states that sources told them they believe the deal will net the Union more than $11 million, or about $2.3 million per season.

“It’s been a great partnership for us for the past four years, and we are looking forward to the next five,” said Vincent A. Melchiorre, senior vice president of Bimbo Bakeries USA. “They are a tremendous organization to work with. They’ll do everything they can do to grow both businesses.”

“Words cannot describe how excited and honored we are to not only have a great brand on the front of the Philadelphia Union uniform,” said Nick Sakiewicz, Union CEO and operating partner, “but also a unique marketing partnership with a company that shares our core values and vision about the growth of soccer in America.”

Here are some more news and notes from around MLS:

EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER GARCIA SUFFERS TORN MENISCUS

Less than two weeks into his MLS career, Matias Perez Garcia is reportedly the latest player to be sidelined with an injury.

The Earthquakes Designated Player could potentially miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn meniscus in the team’s 5-0 loss Saturday to FC Dallas in what was just Perez Garcia’s second game, according to .

Perez Garcia is now set to undergo arthroscopic surgery to his right knee that will sideline the Argentine for 4-6 weeks. Perez Garcia joins exciting forward Yannick Djalo on the sidelines. Djalo has been out since early August with a right quadriceps strain.

ATLANTA RECEIVES MORE THAN 14,000 SEASON TICKET DEPOSITS

Fans of Atlanta’s MLS expansion franchise are proving the doubters wrong.

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank spoke to the public on Tuesday and revealed that the MLS franchise has received more than 14,000 deposits for season tickets, at a cost of $50 per deposit. Blank then challenged fans of the still unnamed team to fill up the remaining 11,000 seats by the end of 2014.

While that may be a challenge that won’t be accomplished in the final four and a half months of the year, it remains impressive that Atlanta has received more than 14,000 commitments. The team is scheduled to begin play in MLS in the 2017 season.

QUESTIONS ARISE OVER ORLANDO CITY SC STADIUM

With New York City FC battling stadium difficulties, fellow 2015 MLS debutante Orlando City SC are facing some troubles of their own in hammering out the details of a potential stadium.

The City of Orlando has been forced to answer questions with regards to the planned stadium, which is to be located at Parramore Heritage Park. The site comes with it’s drawbacks, however, as concerns have arisen over pollution around the potential site, which previously housed a dry cleaning plant in the 1970’s.

Meanwhile, construction will also include filling in the park’s signature pond, moving a city fire station and closing a local street.

The city maintains that the current site will cost less than previous options, although the proposed relocation of the fire station was not taken into account due to a previous planned move for the facility.

ESCOBAR FINED FOR EMBELLISHMENT

FC Dallas winger Andres Escobar is the latest player to draw the ire of the MLS Disciplinary Committee.

The league announced Wednesday that Escobar has been fined an undisclosed amount for embellishment stemming from an incident in FC Dallas’ 5-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday.

With his side up 2-0 in the 51st minute, Escobar went down in the vicinity of San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Atiba Harris, prompting a whistle from the referee.

Escobar and FC Dallas are back in action Friday as they host Western Conference leaders Real Salt Lake.

What do you think of these notes? What do you think about the Union’s deal with Bimbo? Who do you see replacing Perez Garcia in the Earthquakes’ lineup? Impressed with Atlanta’s season ticket numbers? Are you concerned over the Orlando City stadium?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. At the rate the Quakes are burning through DPs, it’ll be a wonder if any more players agree to come here unless they have literally no other option. All three of our imports this year are out with injuries. Just bad luck, or is the team’s reputation for rough play coming back to bite us in the form of unusually harsh tackles?

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  2. Maybe it’s just Dynamo fans I’m familiar with, but are MLS diehards more holy than the pope? I follow some English teams, and Fulham fans used to being mid-EPL are irate they are already down 1-0 today to Wolves in what could be their third straight loss to begin their Championship period (itself following a poor end to their EPL stint). I see comments like “You expect me to pay for this rubbish,” “unacceptable,” etc. But if you make even a tepid version of the same sort of comments about MLS teams, the hardcore would view you as a disloyal troll, unless you were as bad as Chivas, in which case everyone would pretty much have stopped caring. Does our position as newcomers, happy to have a team, make us less critical than fans of other American sports, but more pointedly, even less critical than the European soccer fans and their supporter groups that are supposedly the template here?

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    • American soccer fans are in general pretty insecure. You see it it every aspect of football, from blaming the referee for every lost game to flat out ignoring our players flaws such as Dempsey’s propensity to dive at every possible opportunity.

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    • i think it kind of depends on the site. last year dc fans were plenty critical on the WaPo Soccer Insider, but a little more protective of the team on SBI. Its one of those things. I’m allowed to my team sucks, but you arent

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  3. wow wow
    Seattle, atlanta, new england, vancouver, are all NFL-CFL stadiums Mr.Garber!!!!!!!!!
    whos next phoenix, minneapolis, LA2.
    Seattle, Vancouver, New England should get a SSSin less than 7 years.

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  4. that is great news philly inking another contract with bimbo, and hopefully they can finish the stadium design and blossom into what philly should be.
    other great news is atlantas season tickets, only if they had a real soccer stadium but it works for now. for the atlanta team name, do not go with phoenix. go for atlanta olympic ciy, something historic.
    no more mls 1.0 names. rapids, crew, fc dallas, red bull, earthquakes, fire, dynamo?
    how about colorado arsenal, houston apollos, columbus pioneers, dfw united or dallas united, chicago blue stars, san jose athletic, new york metrostars.

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    • What about Sounders, Earthquake, Timbers and Whitecaps ?
      They are MLS -2.0 ( negative 2.0 ) !!!!

      Atlantic Olympic City ? Are you crazy ? Do you remember a bomb that went off there….during the Olympics…that almost killed my friend.

      You are doing to rip on names fans love and suggest that. It has to be sarcasm.

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    • Colorado arsenal? I think MLS has learned its lesson from chivas USA that naming a team after a foreign league team will alienate fans from other teams. nycfc is different, because city isn’t really a team name

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    • Shirley you realize that
      FC Dallas, RBNY, the Fire and the Dynamo were either not inaugural franchises or have been rebranded, no? And that San Jose ceased to exist then returned later? Not exactly 1.0

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  5. No one is doubting Atlanta. We are doubting the stadium situation. Seattle has one of the best environments and fan support, but the field is horrendous.

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    • I assume you mean the turf, because of all of the new teams, it seems Atlanta has the best plan for a new stadium (NYC, Orlando, Miami).

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      • …for a stadium where ATL will always be second-class tenants. I’ll take ORL’s imminent SSS, thanks.

      • Orlando certainly bungled the original stadium deal, but MLS approved it, so egg on both faces.

        As for the new site, these calls for re-examination reek of politics. The fire station move and the dry cleaning plant are long-since-known quantities. Filling the pond is unfortunate, considering the cost to build it not more than a few years ago, but the aggregate cost is still less than shelling out what the church wanted for the final parcel in the original stadium plan. To boot, Orlando avoids the public image nightmare that would have been seizing a minority church through eminent domain.

        If any one has a legitimate story idea for Mike Synan, please tweet it to @msynan. Otherwise, he’ll continue to rake false muck.

    • I think a lot of people on this very site were doubting Atlanta. Doubt they’re willing to show up now, though

      http://www.soccerbyives.net/2013/09/significant-discussions-expansion.html

      “Attendance for the Braves and Hawks are consistently poor-to-average. Thrashers attendance was embarrassing. Bad pro sports town”

      “ATL will definitely get a team and than be neglected by fans just like every other ATL franchise over the past two decades. Terrible fans from that state. ”

      “Those two markets are large but don’t deserve MLS teams based on their lack of support for other sports IMO.”

      “Bad idea, who cares if they have an ownership group and a stadium share and if it fits some abstracted notion of geographic balance if there isn’t enough fan interest.”

      http://www.soccerbyives.net/2014/04/atlanta-announced-expansion.html

      “Does anyone that is not located in and around Atlanta think this is a good idea?”

      “Don’t understand this decision. If MLS simply has to expand because it’s so addicted to expansion fees, surely there are better candidates. This is the worst sports city in the country, they didn’t sellout football games until recently and the Braves regularly fail to sell out playoff games. Plus it’s in an MLS 1.0 cavern.”

      “Mistake. Big mistake. Atlanta will suck.”

      “Ho hum, another second class citizen playing in the shadow of an NFL franchise looking to fill open dates with 12,000+ crowds in half empty stadiums”

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      • I was skeptical of Atlanta and thought Carolina would be a better place, but I am pleasantly surprised with Atlanta so far. And Sacramento

      • i’ll own up to my skepticism. i was honestly floored when I saw their season ticket numbers. i have no problem being wrong. go atlanta! (even though i won’t be rooting for them)

      • If they do flop in attendance, at least MLS has not built a stadium and feel trapped there. The stadium was being built regardless. If no on shows up after 4-5 years, they can move to Austin or St. Louis, Carolina, etc.

    • I have been and still am doubting Atlanta due to their consistently poor history of supporting local sports teams. They didn’t earn the moniker of “worst sports town in America” for nothing. It had plenty to do with all those empty seats at Braves playoffs games, even with a team stacked with future hall of famers. Or the fact they didn’t even sell out Falcons games until Mike Vick came to town. It’s easy to throw down $50, but we’ll see how many tickets are actually sold and how many fans actually show up.

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  6. Congrats to Philly. That’s a healthy sponsorship. ESPNFC ran a sweet list of jersey sponsorship fees in the Premier League, and $2.3 million stacks up pretty against the bottom of the table. $2.3 million places the Philadelphia Union between Burnley ($3.3 million per season) and Leicester City ($1.7 million per season).

    Within MLS, LA Galaxy are receiving $4.4 million per season from Herbalife, Seattle are receiving $4 million from Xbox, RSL are receiving $3 million from LifeVantage, and Sporting KC are receiving $2.5 million from Ivy Funds.

    Reply

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