After waiting what has felt like an eternity, Sacramento is reportedly getting its MLS franchise.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the capital of California will officially have the 29th MLS team on Monday. Their sources say the league will hold a press conference in downtown Sacramento where commissioner Don Garber will officially announce the team.
Sacramento has long been considered a favorite to land a franchise. They were one of four finalists for the spots that eventually went to Cincinnati and Nashville, but a tricky ownership situation kept derailing their efforts despite a stadium plan that was ready to begin construction at any moment.
That all changed when Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle joined the prospective ownership group, bringing stability and a large chunk of cash to the operation. Burkle, who co-owns the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, is joined by Hollywood film producer Matt Alvarez and Sacramento businessmen Kevin Nagle in owning the expansion team.
Their $250 million privately financed stadium will go up on a plot of undeveloped land in Sacramento’s downtown railyard. Construction on the new facility would reportedly begin immediately.
The city council has pledged $33 million towards streets and other infrastructure around the stadium and has pledged to rewrite other laws to allow for the club to erect digital signage in the area.
Sacramento is currently home to the USL’s Sacramento Republic and they are routinely near the top of the league’s attendance rankings. The new MLS expansion side would adopt that team name and imagery.
The team issued a statement earlier on Tuesday, clarifying reports, but not officially announcing anything:
“We share the great excitement and anticipation in our community about Sacramento’s bid to join Major League Soccer. We will continue to respect the MLS expansion process and remain confident about the future of our club and our city. We look forward to sharing more information in the days ahead.”
Lots of good reasons for this to happen. First is the City, and I mean everyone in the city is looking forward to it. Not just the soccer community yada yada. Two a lot of good players come from the region and this will just increase the pull to their academy and US soccer, three it creates instant rivalry with SJ and the West Coast teams. In my opinion MLS best strategy is to blanket the county with 40 teams and organize into 4 rivalry intensive conferences. Sac fans will travel (and try to embarass SJ fans in their own house).
About time.
The pyramid scheme keeps going, who cares that MLS is irrelevant and unwatchable and that USMNT is beyond awful…
After all, it’s all about money, right, Don?
dude, northern california has no team. Once they put a high quality team on the field, it will be a hot ticket. From Modesto to Oakland to Santa Rosa, mexicans will show up in droves to see chicharito play for the republic. Never in a bazillion years would the quakes ever even entertain signing someone of that international level. The Republic will be another LAFC, spending big to bring out the fans. The Quake/Athletics will probably end in vegas.
@bigprof
I think you missed Ivan’s point. His point is that MLS sucks, doesn’t matter what you say, MLS sucks, etc. Don’t try to argue this with thoughtful points.
Some people just don’t want MLS to succeed. A lot of them call themselves US Soccer fans
Here we go again…”promotion/relegation…blah, blah, blah.” Save it, Ivan.
you guys are both missing it…Yev less so, he is just whining about soccer here and MLS is crushing it, so he jumps at bad nat team instead