Montreal Gets In

Friday, May 07, 2010 | View Comments

By the time you read this, Montreal will likely have already been named the 19th MLS franchise, to begin play in 2012. What has long been a foregone conclusion will finally be done, and the league will have added a third Canadian franchise in the span of a five years.


With the long history the two countries have in professional sports, I'm happy to have another Canadian team, from a city that supports the game and provides natural rivalries in several permutations across the league.


MLS could do much worse by placing teams in American cities without proven track records of supporting soccer, particularly if those expansions teams land in stadiums far from city centers; it's not easy to find stadium deals in the rights places, and Montreal requires almost no leaps of faith.


Montreal finally being officially named will inevitably lead to the "Who's 20?" discussions across the blogosphere. There seems to be at least a few candidates and factors to consider. Garber's continued proclamations that the league needs to get back into the Southeast is just one, though its difficult to see MLS choosing Florida without an absolutely perfect set of circumstances.


Who is next is made more difficult because cities we might consider possibilities won't have the built-in infrastructure that Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and Montreal did. Essentially, there are no more obvious "promotion" candidates, so number 20 will likely follow the Philadelphia model rather than the Seattle one; handicap the situation at this very moment is difficult, but a second New York team are my slight favorites over Atlanta with Miami and St. Louis as long shots. Still, none of those cities have successful teams currently (though that might be a bit unfair to the newly formed AC St. Louis), none have optimal stadium possibilities, and only one or two have potential ownership groups we might call "solid". It doesn't appear to me that this next round will be as easy as the last few.


MLS has hit on almost every expansion choice they've made in this latest batch, with results still to be seen in Vancouver and Portland. They've leveraged interest in the sport, owners who wanted in, and cities ready to support first division soccer into a league with more passion, attention, and relevance than ever before. Despite any ill effects it might have had on the quality of play around the league, expanding rapidly while the possibility existed, and into markets with proven or vocal fan bases, was the right decision.


I'm just glad Montreal is finally done. Do something about that name though, Monsieur Saputo.


I'll update this post after the announcement press conference with any details pertaining to Montreal's entry.
blog comments powered by Disqus
    KKTC Bahis Siteleri, Online Bahis

    Archive

    Legal


    Privacy Policy