If you read this website, chances are you are a big fan of MLS expansion. The league has grown at an incredible rate, adding 11 teams in the last 10 years before shutting down one of them (Chivas USA). It is an unprecedented growth, due in large part to the growing popularity of the sport in the U.S. from the World Cup, European Leagues & Champions League coverage, and David Beckham’s arrival in 2007. Bechkam’s signing ultimately led to the recruitment of many more Designated Players, national television deals, and increased attendance, which has allowed other cities to get on their knees and beg for MLS teams to represent them. The expansion teams have only been good for Major League Soccer – with constant sellouts, incredible tifo, and Soccer specific stadiums, MLS has gone from a once 10 team league playing in American Football stadiums, to a legitimate 20 team league and an expected 18 Soccer specific stadiums.
This is the real point in all of this. Commissioner Don Garber has not just expanded for the sake of expansion. Each choice has been perfectly calculated and the cities have been an amazing addition to MLS. Seattle and Portland are the class of MLS when it comes to growing fan bases. Toronto plays in front of packed crowds even though they are yet to make the playoffs since their birth in 2006. Philadelphia is credited as being a fan created team while NYCFC have proven that major cities in the United States can support more than one team. Even Orlando has brought in Kaka and over 40,000 fans to the Orange Bowl, an incredible stat for a small market team.
All in all, it’s been win after win for MLS over the last 10 years and Garber has no plans to stop now. There are 4 more teams being added to Major League Soccer over the next few years and other cities are already being considered. I thought I’d take a quick look at each of these 4 new teams/cities and discuss how I feel they could potentially add to Soccer in the United States:
Atlanta (2017): Atlanta is a lot like Orlando in that it’s a small market and people weren’t 100% sure the fan base was big enough to support a team…boy were they wrong on both accounts. I already detailed Orlando a little above but Atlanta has done a lot more with less. They are yet to sign anyone (except Carlos Bocanegra to the front office) and already have over 15,000 season ticket holders. They’ll be playing in a Football stadium shared with the Falcons so my expectation is they’ll have over 30,000 fans per game. When a team like NYC or Orlando, with their rosters, comes to town, you can expect that number to jump considerably. Enough cannot be said about these fans who talked the talk regarding their desire for a team and when their name was called, they walked the walk, proving Garber right about this market before their team even had a name or crest. Speaking of which, there’s been some backlash to their name and logo but I actually like the colors, a darker red and blue with some silver. There is certainly enough red to go around MLS these days (Toronto and Chicago to name a couple) but I think it’ll go nicely with what they already have down there with the Falcons and Hawks. Additionally, I think Atlanta vs. Orlando has a chance to be a great rivalry down south and add some spice down there.
Los Angeles (2018): Los Angeles will join New York in 2018 as the only cities in MLS with two teams and just like New York, the newer team will actually reside in the city itself. A lot of speculation surrounded NYCFC when they were created as many feared New York, as big at it is, could not support two teams even with the Red Bulls playing in New Jersey (and that’s with the Cosmos already building a fan base in Long Island). Those concerns have quickly been laid to rest. Before even the half way point in NYCFC’s first season, it was clear both teams had great fan bases and the rivalry between the two teams is one day going to join the likes of the other New York sports rivalries.
This is partly the inspiration behind the second LA team. The LA Galaxy, a globally recognized team, play their home games in Carson, CA, 30 minutes outside of Los Angeles. As I wrote in earlier blogs, the Galaxy have done all they need to do to maintain A) their global brand and B) their own fan base as well as grow their Mexican fan base. LA2 certainly has its work cut out for them but they have the opportunity to prove that there is an untapped market in the city itself…something NYC has done this season. It no doubt begins with a stadium – ownership must build a stadium in the city itself, something they reportedly are close to doing. Next, they will need a David Villa-esque signing to get the ball rolling (pun intended). LA2 does not have it as easy at Atlanta. Atlanta has a fan base waiting for their team – Atlanta fans were filling USMNT games for years, begging for an MLS team. LA2 will not reach 15k in season ticket holders without something to sell first. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if LA2 follows in the foot steps of NYCFC in how they go about both their roster build and their marketing (note for LA2: you might want to avoid players similar to Frank Lampard – that advice is free, the next one will cost you). LA2 is no doubt a risk for MLS, especially with one (second) team already failing but with the success of NYCFC, MLS would be crazy to not give it a try and they seem to have done enough research to believe that this project will yield results.
Minnesota (TBD): Minnesota already has a team in one of the lower divisions and a very strong fan base (side note: for those concerned with the growth of Soccer in the U.S., the fan bases and attendance numbers in lower divisions is staggering – truly amazing stuff). With Detroit knocking on Major League Soccer’s doors for over 5 years, Minnesota seemed like a long shot but they quickly jumped into the spotlight, thanks to their star player, Miguel Ibarra. Ibarra was called up to the USMNT about a year ago, becoming the first ever U.S. second division player to receive a call up. This allowed Minnesota their 15 minutes of fame and boy did they take advantage. The Dark Clouds, their most well known supporters group, helped usher in a new era for Minnesota, which included a second division title and for the city to request an expansion bid. With a very impressive presentation, Minnesota was announced as team #24 in MLS this past March.
Minnesota is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it’s a small market team in a place that gets extremely cold during the time that would be late season in the Major League Soccer schedule. They are looking to have an outdoor stadium, which could complicate things for them on that front. Second, they don’t even know yet where they are going to play. Ownership has had trouble locking down an area for the team so other cities, St. Paul included, have jumped into the mix, hoping to lure the team. I don’t know a lot about the geography of the state but one has to think that a city change could be catastrophic for this club, given their small market status. Are there Soccer fans EVERYWHERE in Minnesota? I’m not so sure. Third, while the team is still a few years away from playing its first game in MLS, Ibarra has been sent to Mexico to play with Leon, taking away their one true selling point for their lower division team (that is, if you take away the “we’ll soon be in MLS” sales pitch). The initial excitement of Minnesota joining U.S. Soccer’s top league has worn off so it will be interesting to see how they move forward in growing interest in their area and getting people excited.
Miami (TBD): Ohhhhh Miami…what to do with this disaster. Listen, I’ll be the first to tell you that up until the Miami bid, Garber was batting .1000 with expansion and I’ll also be the first to tell you that we as Soccer fans in the United States owe a great deal of gratitude to David Beckham (as stated above) for what the league has become almost to a point that they should let him do what he wants…..and like it or not, that’s how it feels with this Miami bid.
First of all, Miami already had a team and it folded. Granted it was under bad management and during a time when Soccer was not as popular as it is today but come on! You have St. Louis, San Antonio, Sacramento, Las Vegas and Detroit begging for a team and you go back to a failed market? Second of all, Garber should have known a LONG time ago that it would be nearly impossible to get a stadium in Miami. The Marlins absolutely screwed the city of Miami with their stadium deal. Miami tax payers are paying for that stadium for the next 40+ years……….I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in if you didn’t already know it…..40+ YEARS(!!!) of tax payer dollars funding this stadium. Do you really think another team is going to walk in the door and get another tax payer funded stadium? In fact, the Dolphins, who play for, by far, the most powerful and popular league in the country, can’t even get tax payers to fund a renovation of their stadium. I don’t care if you’re David Beckham or the Pope — you’re going to have a very hard time getting a stadium in Miami. This is why Miami went from a 2018 target date to a TBD (same thing with Minnesota and their stadium woes). Garber’s biggest rule with expansion teams is a stadium (he made a massive exception for NYC) and Miami is not even close right now.
I personally like the idea of a soccer team in Miami. It certainly feels like an untapped market. The problem is that in the 20 years of Major League Soccer’s existence, Miami has done nothing to prove it deserves a team and they are on the fast track right now to a second failure while other cities, with big fan bases, are begging for one chance and one chance only. I’m rooting for Miami because I’m a big Beckham fan and I want to see this success — plus, their initial idea of having a stadium on the water was awesome…but so far I’m very concerned that we could see the first blemish on Don Garber’s expansion project (again, Chivas USA notwithstanding). There IS a supporters group already built in Miami waiting for the team to take the field and rumors are that if Miami would start in 2018, they’d bring Cristiano Ronaldo with them so that’s very promising if true. That’s my one positive statement in my Miami coverage – a longshot unconfirmed rumor.
I’m a big fan of @Barstoolsam, the Barstool Sports Soccer blogger and an excellent follow on Twitter. When Minnesota was introduced back in March, he had a very interesting take that has stuck with me until now and will continue to do so as MLS continues to add teams. He said the one big concern with such rapid growth in the league is the fear of spreading out the DP’s and just overall top players. His point was/is that the more teams you add the more diluted the talent on the field becomes and the product MLS is putting out there will actually begin to get worse.
No one can argue that MLS is day/night of what it used to be and the playoffs have become really special – MLS is juuuuuuust beginning to get some respect around the world (did you see Brazil called up Kaka after they pretty much said that would never happen now that he’s in MLS? Did you see Giovinco getting a call up for Italy’s Euro qualifiers along with Pirlo?), they don’t want to mess it up now chasing the dollar. If the league becomes just a few good teams and a bunch of minor league teams, the level of play will drop drastically to what it was just 7-8 years ago and MLS will lose the global respect it has fought so hard to earn…and continues to fight for. Pandering to the mob could hurt MLS down the road but for now, they’re in an excellent position with their popularity growth ahead of the 2018 World Cup — let’s see what these new teams can bring to the table.
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Image source: ATL - http://wvhooligan.com/category/mls/atlanta/
Minn - https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2015/03/how-soccer-specific-stadium-might-get-built-minnesota
