The MLS situation is weird. I think San Antonio will have to make some major changes to its bid for it to work. We have some hurdles to get over, some specific to San Antonio, others related to the state of soccer in the country right now in general.
First, the stadium. Toyota Field is relatively new, but it isn’t exactly centrally located---it's also not big enough for MLS as it is, though it was planned to be expandable. I’d love to see a new stadium built downtown. It would be more accessible for the entire city, and it would be far easier to reach on foot for those living near downtown---that's key for the younger demographic (so-called millenials living/working in urban cores) that MLS is trying to attract. There’s also just a lot more to do pre and post game downtown. Toyota Field could easily be used for football, so maybe they could sell it to one of the school districts or something. That would make it overnight one of the top high school stadiums in the state.
The MLS attendance issues are complicated and vary greatly from city to city. Cities like Seattle, Portland, and Orlando have amazing support and attendance. Last season was Atlanta's first, and they had incredible support as well. That's the good side; the bad side is some teams can barely get people in the door.
American soccer in general, though, is facing a bit of a crisis. And that affects MLS and, indirectly, MLS in San Antonio. As was already mentioned in the thread, the men’s national team not qualifying for the upcoming World Cup this summer is a total and utter catastrophe---the first time we haven’t qualified for a World Cup in thirty years or something. The worst part is that the region we play in (CONCACAF) is basically set up to guarantee that the two major players (Mexico and the US) qualify every single time: our region gets three guaranteed spots for the World Cup, plus a potential fourth spot. Given our population, the facilities, plus the sheer amount of money that's pumped into the sport, we're basically a shoe-in every time around to finish first or second, along with Mexico, and then other smaller countries from Central America and/or the Caribbean. If we don't win the region, no problem, second gets us in. If by some act of god we don't even finish second, third is still there. And even in a once in a millenium disaster, we can still squeak in if we finish fourth.
We finished fifth. Behind Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras.
And now there is a huge crisis within the men's national team and the US Soccer Federation (which runs the men's and women's national teams). How could this happen? why are we not developing better players? etc etc. There is a new election for the presidency of the USSF in just a few weeks, and all the candidates have their own vision for how to "fix" US soccer.
What does this have to do with MLS?
Well, the USSF has no *official* relationship with MLS, but there's implied mutual interest; the standard of MLS isn't very high right now. The better MLS gets as a league, the better the players get, and the better American players get, the better the men's national team gets.
The problem is that the MLS does things differently from every other soccer league in the world. First, there's no promotion/relegation. Secondly, (and here's where SA comes in) the schedule is different. Around the world, almost all soccer leagues mirror the academic year here, starting in August or September, ending in May, with the summer off. Not MLS. MLS plays from March through to November. The main reason is weather. There are teams in New York, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Columbus, etc etc; it would be incredibly difficult to play when it's snowy and zero degrees outside during the winter months. The other main reason is that MLS has less to compete with during the summer. No basketball, no football, only baseball. They don't want to schedule games the same day as an NFL game, for example, because they think fewer people would attend.
I have seen a few of the Houston Dynamo games on TV; they barely get a crowd at all, let alone in the dead of July and August when it's hot and humid. Hell, they couldn't even sell out their games in the playoffs this season. I can't imagine that things would be very different here in San Antonio, where an 8pm summer kickoff time would still see temps in the 90s.
Some of the USSF presidential candidates think the MLS schedule should be changed, which would bring the player schedules in line with the rest of the world. So the players would be on the same schedule and as such they wouldn't have such long breaks in play before important national team games. So if MLS went to a traditional schedule, maybe one that was closer to the NBA schedule, San Antonio would be a great option; 60s and 70s from November through March and April.
Anyway, that turned out way longer than planned. But I'd keep an eye on the USSF presidential election in the next few weeks. It could spell major changes for MLS and for us getting a team.