With Canadian reports suggesting that MLS could add multiple Canadian teams in the near future, we are left wondering just how serious MLS is about further expansion into Canada.
Montreal and Vancouver have long been linked with potential MLS expansion, and now reports are surfacing that a Steve Nash-led group is set to bid for a team in Vancouver, so the easy question is this: Is further MLS expansion into Canada a good idea or a bad idea?
It remains to be seen just how serious the Canadian expansion talk is. We are hearing about bids and interest but people in Cleveland and San Antonio can tell you all about seemingly strong MLS expansion bids falling flat.
Vancouver and Montreal do look like strong candidates though and they both appear to have the elements to make MLS consider them for the expansion slots after Seattle and Philadelphia join MLS in the next two years.
What do you think? Do you like the idea of multiple Canadian cities joining Toronto in MLS? Do you think MLS should focus on American cities? Is there enough talent in Canada to stock two, three or four MLS teams?
Share your thoughts on Canadian expansion below.
P.S. I would love to see a Canadian league, to make a new rivalry like the rivalry in Superliga
Maybe one more but that’s it. The league was (let’s be honest) ultimately made for American cities to develop American players to compete with other countries. Sure, Vancouver and Montreal are worthy candidates, but look at American cities that don’t have a team! Phoenix, Southeast U.S. cities like Atlanta, cities in Florida, etc.
with the success of tfc joining the mls adding at least one more canadian team would be brilliant, not only for canadian fans but mls fans as well. another team that would draw a lot of fan, make more money and bring more attention to the mls is in every mls fans best interest
with the success of tfc joining the mls adding at least one more canadian team would be brilliant, not only for canadian fans but mls fans as well. another team that would draw a lot of fan, make more money and bring more attention to the mls is in every mls fans best interest
OK Chg, I’ll simply make 3 comments. First, I don’t really have a horse in this race, other than hoping for what’s best for MLS. I’m from Dallas and have lived in this area my whole life, so I’m certainly not anti-Southern.
Second, my comments about Atlanta are comparing it to other cities. And I’m afraid the stats don’t lie. Yes, I’m sure in the metro Atl area, you can find plenty of immigrants. But again, those stats are dwarfed by other cities around the country, as my earlier post noted.
And finally, and most importantly, Atl is simply not a good pro sports town. As an example, look at the USL attendance stats. On every website I’ve seen for USL attendance, I see Atl around 2nd or 3rd from the bottom. The bottom team always being (you guessed it) fellow Southeast city Miami.
If all you have is some number you picked off the internet, you don’t know squat about Atlanta. I lived in the city from 6th grade until college. A little more indepth snooping on the census website would have told you that less than 10% of the population is confined to the city limits, largely due to the plethora of surrounding small towns that limited annexation when Atlanta took off economically.
From 2000 to 2006 (most recent numbers available), it was the fastest growing MSA in the US, with a growth rate of over 20%. Since 2000,almost 200,000 new Atlantans are internaional new arrivals, while tens of thousands more are non-native US born who have migrated to Atlanta from elsewhere in the US. The city has thriving Hispanic, Indian, East Asian, Carribean, African, and Bosnian immigrant communties, all of which are centered outside the official city limits; while skewing slightly younger and better educated than the US as a whole. In raw numbers, Atlanta’s Hispanic population easily tops a half million, while the Asian population is over a quarter million and growing at the second fastest rate among US cities.
Many of these communities are hungry for soccer, as represented by the Fugees, a local club team that has received much acclaim and US press coverage. http://www.fugeesfamily.org/ Atlanta’s historically white but increasingly Hispanic and Asian northern suburbs are also home to some of the country’s best youth club teams. Even if you know a lot more about soccer than US demographics, I could take Atl’s best youth players (boys or girls) against the best you could scrape together in Vancouver or Montreal and beat you 9 out of 10 years.
As previously stated, you know not of what you speak.
Chg:
Yes, I DO know a little about the demographics of a place like Atlanta. Go to the U.S. Census site at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/1304000.html. You can read about Atlanta’s demographics. It says Atlanta is 33.2% white, 61.4% black, and then 1.9% Asian and 4.5% Hispanic.
To pick another city in the Southeast – Raleigh, the demographics are as follows: 63.3% white, 27.8% black, and 3.4% Asian and 7.0% Hispanic.
By comparison, San Antonio is 58.7% Hispanic. Anyway, I think my point is still a valid one. Yes, there may be some immigrant groups in places like Atlanta, but not nearly like other spots around the country. And please don’t try to tell me a place like Atlanta is a good pro sports town. What a joke.
this has been a great topic…
i want to assert san antonio’s place in this group – even though the league will likely ignore the city after the debacle in 2005-06 when our mayor basically ran the MLS off…
(and the league is wise to go after cities that are chasing it – better to go where support exists than to try and manufacture desire in dream markets…)
still…
san antonio metro is +-2M people. austin metro (1.5M) is an hour away. and the rio grande valley (1.1M) is a couple hours drive and one of the strongest soccer hotbeds in the country…
so you have 2M for a general audience with an additional 2.6M that would be making trips for weekend games and big events (blanco, beckham)… not to mention that houston is a quick 3 hours or so east, setting up an easy trip for rivalry games (groups of hundreds of hockey fans make the trip regularly for minor league rivalry between houston and san antonio).
as for dallas being a rival, well, they would be in name only. frisco and fc dallas might as well be in kansas. the earlier post had them an hour from south fort worth – the drive from SA is over 5 hours.
when we talk about soccer passion in an area (i live in a historic area near downtown where there are huge mexican soccer logos painted on the side of every restaurant), availability of a pop to support a team (no summer competition in SA – only the spurs in the winter), corporate support (6 fortune 500 companies – same as LA) and a growth hotbed both for game-day attendance and future media markets (one of the fastest growing metros in US and a hispanic boom-town), san antonio should be at the top of the list. does it not make sense for Chivas to relocate to san antonio?
The Southeast needs a team, but Atlanta isn’t necessarily the best choice. I’d prefer the Carolinas.
Much like the Vancouverites won’t pull for Toronto, most people in the South aren’t going to give a flip until there is a team in the region. I want to support MLS, but can’t muster up any more than lukewarm support for DC United or Houston, and they are the league’s most decorated club and recent behemoth respectively. What difference should it make to me if a team from California beats a team from Illinois? They both might as well be foreigh countries for all the ties I have to either.
The question as to whether or not people in Birmingham or other midsized cities will support a Southeast team shows ignorance of the market. The Braves were a huge draw for TBS in surrounding states for as long as they remained the only team in the region. The Falcons were the NFL team of choice for the Carolinas and northern Florida until the Panthers andd Jaguarsa came along. A team in the Southeast would draw soocer fan viewers from neighboring states who likely don’t bother with the league as is.
We could have solved the whole thing if MLS had chosen a relegation-promotion model from the start. I would have likely been monitoring the Battery’s progress in the standings for several seasons by now.
Homey, I don’t think you know much about Atlanta if you think there are no large immigrant groups in the South.
If we’re going to put a team in a city that does nothing for TV revenue, why not Rochester?
Adding teams in Canada does nothing to grow the game as a spectator sport in America. Adding teams in St Louis, Atlanta or Portland would and they’d help with TV revenue.