MLS Club on the Move?

[Cyclopsis Joe]

The Seattle Spaceballs

It looks like..we've been jammed!

[Brian in Boston]

Rumor has it, FIFA has caped the league at 18 teams.

FIFA has not placed a cap of 18 teams on Major League Soccer. It has not capped the number of franchises that can play in any domestic league. What the organization has suggested is that it wants club teams to play between 34 and 38 regular season games in domestic competition. That means that in a single-table league (no dividing of teams into divisions or conferences), if each team were to play two games against every other team in the league (one home, one away), the maximum number of teams that could be in the league with each club playing just 38 games is 20 teams (2 games against 19 other opponents = 38 games).

However, a league of more than 20 teams could get around this rule by splitting into divisions and/or conferences and playing an unbalanced schedule. You could have 24 teams in a league split into two conferences. If a team played two games against each of the 11 other teams in its conference (22 games - 11 home/11 away) and one game against each of the 12 teams in the opposite conference (12 games - 6 home/6 away), the result would be a 34-game schedule featuring 17 home matches and 17 road matches.

[bulldogbarks55]

Gentlemen, Rochester currently has a soccer-specific stadium (PaeTec Park) under construction and it could be ready by August of this year. And the Rochester Raging Rhinos of the USL have always been among the attendance leaders of ALL soccer in the USA, often outdrawing established "major league" cities.

The appetite for good pro soccer is enormous and the whole region is "soccer crazy" what with youth and high school soccer just HUGE around here. Rochester-area teams consistently win state high school championships and have produced a number of world-class players, including Abby Wambach of Team USA.

If an MLS owner is looking for a soccer hotbed with a stadium and strong fan base to move to you couldn't do better than Rochester.

[cyandlux]

I dont think they'll "expand" to Rochester....theyll probably bump up the Rhinos...the owners I think are up for that and have the money, correct me if Im wrong.

[bulldogbarks55]

There's been talk in both directions, moving a team in or "promotion." The owners just went back to the state asking for more stadium money, a move which isn't popular. So the expansion/promotion fee may be a sticky point. But you have to understand the politics of Rochester. We never get anything done the way it should be. The local state legislature guru wanted to keep old Silver (nee Red Wing) Stadium for the Wings (it was in his district). But MLB said no, you either build or risk losing you team (after 109 consecutive years). So we got Frontier Field, but it had its roof cut out of the original plans. Then a couple of years back they built a "half-roof" over part of the stadium. And the War Memorial, home of the Amerks was refurbished ten years ago and expanded to about 12,000 seats. And to get that job done was like pulling teeth. The seats they used were purchased from the Richfield Coliseum near Cleveland when they tore that place down. The roof is so low that some of the new "nosebleed" seats don't have a clear view of the entire ice surface. The Amerks Hall of Fame plaques aren't even displayed at the War Memorial. They're at the team's practice facility 15 minutes away! They should have started over and built a totally new arena.

Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, you name the city in New York State and they ALWAYS get new, complete facilities. Rochester is like the poor relations getting the scraps off the state's table.

Rochester could support the MLS, but it needs political support either way.

[cyandlux]

MOve them to Hartford!!! We have...ummm...whatever... Rentschler FIELD in east hartford that was built after the Patriots pulled out.

[FirearmofMutiny]

There's talk about the Twin Cities about Zygi Wilf (the Vikings owner) showing interest in bringing in an MLS franchise. No doubt the state will soon have a stadium ready to go for an incoming soccer team: the proposed Gophers stadium or the proposed Vikings stadium, both which would be built considering a possible MLS team.

As for the two markets MLS pulled out of, I agree attendance was a problem, but it was never "we're getting outdrawn by every team in the WNBA" bad. I agree with whoever said the problem was the lack of ownership in Tampa. That and the stadium deal, which basically gave all their non-ticket revenue to the Bucs.

[Redlands, CA]

In reply to Brian in Boston. I read it somewhere about the MLS being capped at 18 teams by FIFA. I'll look for the article.

Wilf seeks MLS team for the Twin Cities

BY TIM LEIGHTON AND JOHN SHIPLEY

Pioneer Press

New Vikings owner Zygi Wilf wants to bring a Major League Soccer team here. If he does, the landscape of professional soccer in the Twin Cities would change dramatically.

One of the most prominent questions involves the local pro team, the Minnesota Thunder, which has been keeping pro soccer alive here for the past 11 years without quite reaching the top level of the professional ranks.

"It's a little too early to tell, but it really wouldn't make sense to have two pro teams in one town," said Jim Froslid, one of three Thunder owners and formerly the team's general manager.

That doesn't mean the Thunder are in immediate danger of dissolving. For one thing, the Thunder could be involved in a move to MLS. For another, Wilf hasn't spoken extensively about soccer, though he insists MLS is part of his stadium plan. Five of MLS's 12 teams play in open-air NFL stadiums.

"That's something which would be of interest, certainly in conjunction with, hopefully, the building of a new stadium," Wilf said last week. "If (the stadium) is open, soccer would be a perfect complement, especially for the area that we're thinking of building it, because it is a very sports-oriented community in the Anoka County area, so I think it would be a big plus."

Froslid was returning from talks with MLS on Monday and said the league, eager to expand, has targeted Houston, Cleveland, Seattle, Philadelphia and Toronto. MLS, he said, wants two additional teams by 2007, and the sport's world governing body, FIFA, ultimately wants an 18-team league.

While local enthusiasts have worked hard to keep soccer alive here, money has always been tight. The Thunder, while no longer bleeding red ink, have never made a profit. And attempts to build a soccer-specific stadium in the Twin Cities, the ideal carrot for an MLS team, have failed.

For Wilf, whose ownership group just laid out $600 million for the Vikings, the MLS franchise fee of between $12 and $20 million would be less daunting, especially if he already had a stadium.

Wilf said he "would have to explore" working with the local cognoscenti. Thunder coach and co-founder Buzz Lagos said he can't believe the locals would be left out.

"I assume that there would be some kind of cooperative agreement,'' he said. "I don't think MLS would jump in and ignore us... . Our ties to MLS are too strong.''

The Thunder (4-2-4) are playing their 16th season and 12th as a pro franchise. Their next game is Friday at James Griffin Stadium against the Toronto Lynx.

"There are different ideas out there about how to do this," Froslid said. "One would be to make the Thunder the MLS team. Another would be to make the Thunder a feeder program to the MLS team; maybe we drop down a level and develop players for it. Another would be to dissolve the franchise."

That's what happened in Salt Lake City, where MLS set up an expansion franchise and a lower-level team folded.

Froslid said Wilf's interest in soccer is enticing because the Thunder's mission is to bring soccer "of the highest level possible" to the Twin Cities. Right now that's the Thunder, playing in the First Division of the United Soccer Leagues, one step below MLS.

If the promotion to MLS has to come without the Thunder's involvement, Froslid said, so be it.

"From my perspective, and understand that I'm only one part of a three-person ownership group, that's a good thing," he said. "That's honestly how I feel. That's been our consistent message."

Wilf said he is "concentrating on football" right now. Should he soon get serious about soccer, he'll have an eager audience in MLS.

"There is a huge opportunity that exists in the Twin Cities for top-level soccer,'' said Dan Courtemanche, a senior vice president of marketing and communications for MLS. "We need to make sure the market is a great market, and with the Twin Cities, that isn't a question."

Alan Merrick, director of soccer at the National Sports Center in Blaine, said he is working to bring an MLS franchise to his stadium. He contends he has potential investors but declined to identify them.

"Let's just say I have a few oars in the water,'' said Merrick, a former star defender for the Minnesota Kicks.

The NSC has a national reputation for its soccer complex, one of the largest in the world, but it would require modifications before an MLS team could call it home.

Merrick encouraged Wilf to give him a call and join forces. Froslid would be interested to talk with Wilf, too, though he isn't sure when it might happen.

"We'd be all ears to that," he said, "but I guess he hasn't been here in the community long enough for us to approach him. It would make sense for us to sit down and discuss things."

[Redlands, CA]

I was right after all.

[Brian in Boston]

I was right after all. 

No, you weren't. The journalists responsible for the Pioneer Press don't have their facts straight.

FIFA has never said that they either want, or would cap, MLS membership at eighteen teams. What they have said is that they prefer a domestic league to limit its regular season schedule for each club to between 34 and 38 games. As I previously explained, in a single table league with each team playing a home-and-home series against every other club in the competition, in order to meet FIFA's desired 38-game schedule per club... well, simply put, the league would be limited to twenty teams. However, as also previously outlined, you can get around such a "cap" on the number of teams by simply splitting the competition into divisions/conferences and going to an unbalanced schedule.

Further, how is it that FIFA is going to cap MLS at eighteen teams, but allows the top leagues in England, Italy, Spain, France, Argentina and Chile to operate with twenty teams each? Brazil's top league has twenty-two member clubs. Other national domestic leagues operate with anywhere from ten to eighteen teams. In other words, there is room for flexibility on FIFA's part.

Simply put, FIFA has not set a limit on the number of teams that MLS - or any other domestic league - can field. In point of fact, should the soccer market in the United States grow, arbitrarily halting MLS growth at eighteen teams would threaten to underserve the target market. Ultimately, FIFA will allow the USSF and Major League Soccer to determine how many franchises is the optimal amount to operate with based upon supply-and-demand.

[Redlands, CA]

Do you have a article? I want to read about this. I'm just repeating what I read nothing more.

[hubsportsfan17]

removed

[Redlands, CA]

I didnt' mean to be a jerk about it. It's just so strange all these beat writers are wrong when some guy I don't know is right? No offense to you BrianinBoston. I think you have lots of knowledge about this subject and I enjoy reading what you wrote.