Major League Soccer received 12 new expansion bids on Tuesday as the league aims to add four more teams in the coming years to get to 28. With 22 teams right now, Los Angeles FC coming and possibly a Miami franchise, several cities are battling out to join the ever-growing league. The plan is to add two more teams to begin playing in 2020, and the entry fee is $150 million per team.
So many factors play into this, and a lot depends on stadium plans, but early favorites appear to be St. Louis, Cincinnati and San Diego. St. Louis is a soccer crazy city that, quite frankly, many expected would have a franchise at this point. The group has plans to fund a $140 million stadium, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.
Cincinnati FC is in the USL and is coached by former USMNT star John Harkes. They have averaged over 17,000 fans per game and brought in 35,061 for a friendly against Crystal Palace. The team does play at the University of Cincinnati, so the stadium situation would have to be worked out, but this is another good possibility because of the popularity and consistent attendance.
And San Diego, now without an NFL franchise, could soon have a 30,000-seat, privately financed stadium to replace Qualcomm Stadium, as the San Diego Union-Tribune points out. It would cost about $200 million for the stadium and it would be shared with the San Diego State University football team.
All of the 12 bids are promising, and each has made a case as to why it should be part of the league at some point.
Now, we sit back and wait to see how it all unfolds, as Major League Soccer review the bids, hold meetings, receive updates on plans and decide which cities are awarded expansion clubs. The expectation is for bids to be awarded at some point in 2017.
SC STL's quest to bring an MLS franchise to St. Louis has taken another step forward.
On Friday, the city's Board of Aldermen passed two measures dealing with SC STL's proposed soccer-specific stadium, both of which will now go to the voters for approval. The board first passed a measure backing a financing plan for the proposed stadium. Later on Friday, they approved a half-cent sales tax to fund an expansion of the city's MetroLink public transit system as well as other economic development projects. The stadium financing plan will depend in part on approval of the half-cent sales tax.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay has said he will sign both bills and petition a court to put them on the ballot for the city's municpal elections in April.
"Today marks another important milestone for the effort to bring Major League Soccer to St. Louis," said SC STL vice chair Jim Kavanaugh in a statement released by the group. "Our group appreciates the consideration and diligence of the Board of Aldermen over the past several weeks, and we thank Mayor Slay for signing the bill and asking a Circuit Court Judge to now certify the measure for the April ballot. This project will be a major victory for the City of St. Louis. We look forward to further sharing our vision with voters and detailing the merits of the projects in the weeks ahead."
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