North American Pro Soccer 2014

[Gothamite]

Looks like Chivas isn't really being put on hiatus as we were originally told. They're folding them after this month and LA2 will be a completely new franchise when it begins play.

Called it.

So if Tam is involved... red shirts, then?

[bosrs1]

Vincent Tan is involved?

Oh, this. This can't end well.

Why not? Tan got Cardiff up to the big time. And the big countroversies involving him ended up being non-issues. He fired a racist coach and changed the team's colors. Which in the latter case is exactly what MLS wants only they want an even more extensive rebrand. They're erasing Chivas USA and everything involving it from the Earth.

Looks like Chivas isn't really being put on hiatus as we were originally told. They're folding them after this month and LA2 will be a completely new franchise when it begins play.

Called it.

So if Tam is involved... red shirts, then?

Well he is only a minority owner. Nguyen is the main investor. Guber and Tan are the minority partners.

[Nyk33]

Looks like Chivas isn't really being put on hiatus as we were originally told. They're folding them after this month and LA2 will be a completely new franchise when it begins play. Also they have their new ownership group which includes the Warriors/Dodgers part owners Peter Guber and Tan from Cardiff City.

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/09/30/chivas-usa-ownership-mls-vincent-tan-henry-nguyen-peter-guber-tom-penn-la

The Los Angeles Dragons would be an interesting name for them since Tan supposedly wanted to rebrand Cardiff City to the Cardiff Dragons before the fans revolted over the thought of even more Cardiff City traditions being tampered with.

Edit: According to ESPN they are going on hiatus after this season.

http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/story/2061689/chivas-usa-to-suspend-operations-after-mls-seasonsources-say

[Kevin W.]

Vincent Tan is involved?

Oh, this. This can't end well.

Why not? Tan got Cardiff up to the big time. And the big countroversies involving him ended up being non-issues. He fired a racist coach and changed the team's colors. Which in the latter case is exactly what MLS wants only they want an even more extensive rebrand. They're erasing Chivas USA and everything involving it from the Earth.

Maybe, just maybe, involving an owner whose claim to fame is :censored:ting on the long-established history of a club and whose knowledge of the game itself is severely lacking isn't a good idea.

[bosrs1]

Looks like Chivas isn't really being put on hiatus as we were originally told. They're folding them after this month and LA2 will be a completely new franchise when it begins play. Also they have their new ownership group which includes the Warriors/Dodgers part owners Peter Guber and Tan from Cardiff City.

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/09/30/chivas-usa-ownership-mls-vincent-tan-henry-nguyen-peter-guber-tom-penn-la

The Los Angeles Dragons would be an interesting name for them since Tan supposedly wanted to rebrand Cardiff City to the Cardiff Dragons before the fans revolted over the thought of even more Cardiff City traditions being tampered with.

Edit: According to ESPN they are going on hiatus after this season.

http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/story/2061689/chivas-usa-to-suspend-operations-after-mls-seasonsources-say

Yeah the hiatus report came yesterday. And it's not really a hiatus. MLS is dressing up a contraction and expansion like what will eventually be happening in Miami to avoid the bad press that comes with a contraction. This isn't an Earthquakes deal where they're simply putting the team on pause for 2 years, this new LA team will have no ties to Chivas.

Vincent Tan is involved?

Oh, this. This can't end well.

Why not? Tan got Cardiff up to the big time. And the big countroversies involving him ended up being non-issues. He fired a racist coach and changed the team's colors. Which in the latter case is exactly what MLS wants only they want an even more extensive rebrand. They're erasing Chivas USA and everything involving it from the Earth.

Maybe, just maybe, involving an owner whose claim to fame is :censored:ting on the long-established history of a club and whose knowledge of the game itself is severely lacking isn't a good idea.

Maybe, but like I said, in this case they want to burn the existing team and everything to do with it to the ground. So it's not a bad thing. That and he's a minority owner which means he's really nothing more than a source of money. He's not running the thing or really even getting a say.

[Nyk33]

Looks like Chivas isn't really being put on hiatus as we were originally told. They're folding them after this month and LA2 will be a completely new franchise when it begins play. Also they have their new ownership group which includes the Warriors/Dodgers part owners Peter Guber and Tan from Cardiff City.

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/09/30/chivas-usa-ownership-mls-vincent-tan-henry-nguyen-peter-guber-tom-penn-la

The Los Angeles Dragons would be an interesting name for them since Tan supposedly wanted to rebrand Cardiff City to the Cardiff Dragons before the fans revolted over the thought of even more Cardiff City traditions being tampered with.

Edit: According to ESPN they are going on hiatus after this season.

http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/story/2061689/chivas-usa-to-suspend-operations-after-mls-seasonsources-say

Yeah the hiatus report came yesterday. And it's not really a hiatus. MLS is dressing up a contraction and expansion like what will eventually be happening in Miami to avoid the bad press that comes with a contraction. This isn't an Earthquakes deal where they're simply putting the team on pause for 2 years, this new LA team will have no ties to Chivas.

So basically instead of being a direct continuation of Zombie Chivas it will only be the spiritual successor of Chivas USA.

[bosrs1]

Looks like Chivas isn't really being put on hiatus as we were originally told. They're folding them after this month and LA2 will be a completely new franchise when it begins play. Also they have their new ownership group which includes the Warriors/Dodgers part owners Peter Guber and Tan from Cardiff City.

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/09/30/chivas-usa-ownership-mls-vincent-tan-henry-nguyen-peter-guber-tom-penn-la

The Los Angeles Dragons would be an interesting name for them since Tan supposedly wanted to rebrand Cardiff City to the Cardiff Dragons before the fans revolted over the thought of even more Cardiff City traditions being tampered with.

Edit: According to ESPN they are going on hiatus after this season.

http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/story/2061689/chivas-usa-to-suspend-operations-after-mls-seasonsources-say

Yeah the hiatus report came yesterday. And it's not really a hiatus. MLS is dressing up a contraction and expansion like what will eventually be happening in Miami to avoid the bad press that comes with a contraction. This isn't an Earthquakes deal where they're simply putting the team on pause for 2 years, this new LA team will have no ties to Chivas.

So basically instead of being a direct continuation of Zombie Chivas it will only be the spiritual successor of Chivas USA.

I don't even know if it'll be that. Other than playing in Los Angeles and not being the Galaxy this team will have nothing in common with Chivas. They're going to be separated by 2 seasons, no common racially limiting identity, have no common history, no common records, no common logos, no common players, no common owners, not even a common legal holding company owning them.

They don't want anything to do with the disaster that has been Chivas USA. I don't even imagine they'd mind if Chivas' fans and SGs stayed away seeing as how there's only a couple of hundred people left who make up that group.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

How many years separated the NY Giants and NY Mets? Seems like that scenario, but with a shorter distance between teams.

I think renaming and moving the franchise to Sacramento would be better in the short-term, but get the long-term benefit of an LA franchise in a growing league. If you're a multinational oligarch, $100M is kid's money.

However, if Chivas is gone next year and with Orlando and NYCFC on board, you're looking at 12 (mostly crappy) teams in the East and 8 (generally good) teams in the West. The most likely candidates to move west would be Houston and Sporting KC, leading to an even more unbalanced alignment. I don't want to REEL LINE MINT, but given a generally more-limited travel schedule than other sports, could MLS pursue an NFL-style American and National conference system? Or maybe Northwest, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest?

[bosrs1]

How many years separated the NY Giants and NY Mets? Seems like that scenario, but with a shorter distance between teams.

I think renaming and moving the franchise to Sacramento would be better in the short-term, but get the long-term benefit of an LA franchise in a growing league. If you're a multinational oligarch, $100M is kid's money.

However, if Chivas is gone next year and with Orlando and NYCFC on board, you're looking at 12 (mostly crappy) teams in the East and 8 (generally good) teams in the West. The most likely candidates to move west would be Houston and Sporting KC, leading to an even more unbalanced alignment. I don't want to REEL LINE MINT, but given a generally more-limited travel schedule than other sports, could MLS pursue an NFL-style American and National conference system? Or maybe Northwest, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest?

They need to do something. The competitive imbalance has become ridiculous. And with Chivas gone and Houston and KC moving west its just going to get worse. At the very least they need to go to a top team in each conference gets in and the rest are "wild cards." If this means the east only sends one team to the playoffs so be it.

[-kj]

The last time they did a crossover of sorts, people got their panties in a bunch because of LA/RSL and Columbus/NY finals.

[Nyk33]

Looks like Chivas isn't really being put on hiatus as we were originally told. They're folding them after this month and LA2 will be a completely new franchise when it begins play. Also they have their new ownership group which includes the Warriors/Dodgers part owners Peter Guber and Tan from Cardiff City.

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/09/30/chivas-usa-ownership-mls-vincent-tan-henry-nguyen-peter-guber-tom-penn-la

The Los Angeles Dragons would be an interesting name for them since Tan supposedly wanted to rebrand Cardiff City to the Cardiff Dragons before the fans revolted over the thought of even more Cardiff City traditions being tampered with.

Edit: According to ESPN they are going on hiatus after this season.

http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/story/2061689/chivas-usa-to-suspend-operations-after-mls-seasonsources-say

Yeah the hiatus report came yesterday. And it's not really a hiatus. MLS is dressing up a contraction and expansion like what will eventually be happening in Miami to avoid the bad press that comes with a contraction. This isn't an Earthquakes deal where they're simply putting the team on pause for 2 years, this new LA team will have no ties to Chivas.

So basically instead of being a direct continuation of Zombie Chivas it will only be the spiritual successor of Chivas USA.

I don't even know if it'll be that. Other than playing in Los Angeles and not being the Galaxy this team will have nothing in common with Chivas. They're going to be separated by 2 seasons, no common racially limiting identity, have no common history, no common records, no common logos, no common players, no common owners, not even a common legal holding company owning them.

They don't want anything to do with the disaster that has been Chivas USA. I don't even imagine they'd mind if Chivas' fans and SGs stayed away seeing as how there's only a couple of hundred people left who make up that group.

But then what is going to happen to the Chivas USA academies? Aren't they going to go to the new owners of LA2?

If so then there will still at least be some sort of connection between Chivas USA and the new LA2.

[Gothamite]

Are the Chivas academies worth holding on to? Or will the new soccer people in place want to create their own organization?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Are the Chivas academies worth holding on to? Or will the new soccer people in place want to create their own organization?

Based on the on-the-field results, I don't know how that could be possible. Chivas USA has produced Erick Torres and that's it, and he's more a product of the parent club than anything the USA team did.

Get rid of everything having to do with Chivas USA. You could see what they were going for when they launched the club, but it's been an abject failure. There's nothing worth holding onto there.

[Nyk33]

Are the Chivas academies worth holding on to? Or will the new soccer people in place want to create their own organization?

I don't really know how they are doing but since MLS owns Chivas USA that means they also own the academies and I don't think they are going to just kick the kids there to the curb so I am predicting that MLS will probably hand over the operations of these academies to the new LA2.

[dbadefense1990]

The last time they did a crossover of sorts, people got their panties in a bunch because of LA/RSL and Columbus/NY finals.

Lest we're reminded about Dallas vs. Colorado (2010) and the sea of 10,000 no-shows in Toronto.

[DarkJourney]

MLS expansion the next 3 years

2015

Orlando City SC & NYCFC

2016

Sacramento & Miami (or Minnesota)

2017

Atlanta & LA2

[-kj]

I'm guessing there will be no teams added in 2016, and that the potential other two teams will come in after that.

[Gothamite]

That would be my guess as well. 2015, 2017 and 2019. Let each new expansion class build its way into the league.

Three expansion drafts in as many years would be crazy.

[bosrs1]

That would be my guess as well. 2015, 2017 and 2019. Let each new expansion class build its way into the league.

Three expansion drafts in as many years would be crazy.

They've done crazier things. But I agree. Between the expansion schedule they already have and the fact it's going to take more than 2 years to build a new LA SSS I don't expect to see LA2 before 2018.

[DarkJourney]

Ok let me revise: Orlando & NYCFC in 2015. Atlanta & Sacramento in 2017. Miami & LA2 in 2019.