Quote:
Originally Posted by fawd
There are five spots for MLS Expansion after LAFC.
Nashville and Miami took the first two.
Cincinnati, Detroit, and Miami are the finalists for number 26th team.
Which leaves two spots, 27 and 28.
Now we have to assume, since they are already finalists for 26.. that two of the above would also be finalists for 27 and 28. IN ADDITION to those two: Sacramento, St Louis, Tampa Bay, San Antonio, Raleigh, Charlette, Indianapolis, San Diego.... and Phoenix are all fighting for the last two spots.
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I don't know how closely you've followed the expansion process, but a lot of those bids have had problems surface within the past year. Also, Miami was essentially confirmed as the quasi-24th team when David Beckham played for LA years ago. It was always going to get one of the 24-28 spots regardless and it has no bearing on the expansion race.
To name a few:
-Sacramento has basically come out and said MLS wants them to find a billionaire and is already super close to San Jose. They've been getting strung along by the league for years
-St. Louis ran into trouble with ownership, financing and public opinion given The Rams recent departure. It would take a lot to resurrect that bid.
-San Antonio is likely out given that MLS REALLY wants to move Columbus to Austin, and SA has come out and said as much.
-San Diego could put up a fight, but the city likely won't vote on the proposal until later this year.
-Charlotte couldn't come up with a public-private partnership in time last year, and while they can make a comeback, again bigger markets/ownership groups like Phoenix and Detroit seem to be what the league is looking for.
Outside of getting the land 100%, Phoenix has pretty much all of its ducks in a row relative to the other bids. I'm in no way suggesting it's our spot for the taking, but it is certainly
not mathematically out of the question. The are numerous reasons why a lot of those bids have fallen apart.