Soccer By Ives

Who would you hire to coach your MLS expansion team?

 

                                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

With rumors circulating that the Philadelphia Union has already selected its first head coach, you have to wonder just who are the best head coaching candidates in MLS these days. With foreign coaches in recent years showing that coaching in MLS without experience in the league is extremely difficult, it is difficult to imagine that Philadelphia, or any of the upcoming expansion teams, would turn to coaches who didn't know the league well.

So who are the best head coaching candidates out there? New England assistant Paul Mariner (pictured), Houston assistant John Spencer, New York assistant Richie Williams, U.S. national team assistant Peter Nowak and Kansas City general manager Peter Vermes are among the most respected names, while several former MLS head coaches, such as Puerto Rico Islanders head coach Colin Clark and LA Galaxy assistant Dave Sarachan are also possibilities.

Who would you hire? If you were set to launch an expansion team next year which head coach would you look to be signing up this summer?

Share your selection, and why you would pick them, in the comments section below.

Trouble in Timber Land?

Could the dream of having three Pacific Northwest MLS teams be in danger of not happening? According to this Bloomberg story on the Portland MLS expansion bid, the stadium projects necessary for Portland's bid to work are in jeopardy unless a $15 million spending gap is addressed.

Yes, you may recall that the vote taken a month ago by the city council, which helped clear the way for Portland's MLS expansion, included an amendment that left a potential $15 million void in the funding for the two stadium projects associated with the Portland MLS bid. Back then it was unclear what that funding gap would do to the project, but now with Portland expansion head Merritt Paulson insisting that his group cannot pick up that $15 million difference, that funding gap could create serious problems.

MMCB: Discovering the Pacific Northwest and why it's perfect for MLS

 

                                                                                  Photo by ISIphotos.com

I am an East Coast guy. There is no denying that and I have never made a secret of it. You can call me on my "East Coast Bias" and I probably won't argue that in the past I have preferred trips up and down I-95 to cross-country flights (unless Las Vegas is involved), but a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest has opened my eyes to a part of the country that some East Coast folks like myself just aren't that familiar with.

Places like Seattle, Portland and Vancouver were never more than just places on a map to me before last week, cities tucked away from the rest of the United States. They were cities that might as well have been on the other side of an ocean because there never had been much reason to go there or know much about them. That changed for me last week after spending the better part of four days taking in life and the soccer scene in the top left corner of the country.

In short, it was an experience to remember.

The reality is that the people in cities like Seattle, Vancouver and Portland genuinely love their soccer, and they are ready to embrace Major League Soccer with open arms. This isn't about rich guys stroking their egos by paying for teams in their hometowns. The recent MLS movement toward the Pacific Northwest is about a league going where the fans are and where the passion for the sport is.

Garber: 20 MLS teams by 2012 is NOT a lock

When MLS commissioner Don Garber mentioned that Major League Soccer would look to add two more expansion teams by 2012, bringing the league to 20 teams, MLS fans were left wondering whether MLS wasn't going too fast in its expansion plans.

The league may not be moving quite that fast.

Garber clarified the comment he made at Vancouver's MLS expansion announcement on Wednesday, saying on Thursday that the league is not locked into a plan to add two more expansion teams in 2012.

"We've not said 20 by 2012, we're saying that we have to decide what we are going to do in the next round (of expansion)," Garber told SBI on Thursday night. "That next round would come no earlier than 2012, but we've got a lot of work to do to figure out when those next two teams come in, where they should be, where they should be geographically located and how we will manage the player pool."

Portland awarded 18th MLS Franchise

   

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber is in Portland this morning to announce the 18th franchise in MLS and Portland has been selected as the lucky city.

Just a day after Seattle made an amazing debut in MLS, Portland will join Vancouver as one of the two cities chosen to be awarded teams set to begin play in 2011.

The decision puts an end to a lengthy expansion process that saw several markets in the United States and Canada make pitches to join MLS. St. Louis and Ottawa ended up as the runner-ups in a race that has resulted in the creation of a cluster of teams in the Pacfic Northwest that should provide MLS with some amazing rivalries.

The announcement of Portland as Major League Soccer newest franchise will take place at 1pm. You can follow the ceremony on the MLS website.

What do you think of Portland being chosen? Wish it had been St. Louis? Loving the Portland-Seattle-Vancouver inclusion in MLS? Ready to start planning some trips to the Pacific Northwest?

Share your thoughts below.

Garber: MLS to expand to 20 teams by 2012

 

MLS commissioner Don Garber was in Vancouver today to announce Vancouver's inclusion as the 17th team in MLS, but he also revealed an interesting nugget on MLS expansion. Garber revealed that MLS plans to expand to 20 teams by 2012.

Yes, you read that right. Major League Soccer is planning to add two more teams the year after adding two teams. That's four teams in two years and a total of six new MLS teams in four years.

With Portland looking like the pick to be team 18 (rumors are circulating that an announcement is coming on Friday) that means we can start focusing on the candidates for the next round of expansion.

Who is in the mix? St. Louis and Ottawa are obviously in the mix, but so too is Montreal, which will have to re-consider the decision to stay in USL-1 now that Vancouver is on the way to MLS. Then there is Miami, which may have lost FC Barcelona as an investor but still has billionaire Marcelo Claure.

What cities do you think should be in the MLS expansion class of 2012?

poll by twiigs.com

What do you think of Major League Soccer expanding to 20 teams by 2012? Is it too many, too soon? Is a 20-team league too big? Are you liking the idea of MLS being that big? Which city would get your vote if you had one vote for expansion?

Share your thoughts below.

MLS expansion race reaches final stretch

 

The race to MLS expansion in 2011 is in the homestretch and the race still looks too close to call even though two favorites have emerged.

Vancouver and Portland look like the most likely candidates for expansion, but St. Louis hasn't given up hope, making for a final stretch so tough to call that MLS appears ready to extend its own deadline for a decision to buy itself some time.

Portland looked to move into the lead after Wednesday's city council vote to approve stadium funding, but a $15 million reduction in the funding has cast some doubt over the strength and viability of the project.

Vancouver's bid has remained quiet but continues to be the most likely expansion candidate among the remaining four. According to sources with knowledge of the process, MLS and Vancouver ownership have been going through all details of the bid, as well as of league policies, in what can be called the final stages of their bid process.

Another potential decision delay by MLS could by St. Louis enough time to try and crash the Pacific Northwest party.

Portland closer to MLS bid after city council approves stadium funding

   

Portland, here comes MLS.

The Portland City Council voted, 3-2, in favor of a $114 million plan to build a new baseball stadium and renovate PGE Park in order to prepare to be the home of an MLS expansion franchise. The vote was seen as the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Portland's MLS expansion bid.

The vote itself means Portland is looking like a very good bet to be one of the two cities awarded an MLS expansion franchise in 2011.

The process leading up to the vote included an amendment that removed $15 million in government funding from the overall package. It remains unclear how that will affect the project.

Portland city commissioner Dan Saltzman cast the decisive third Yes vote for the measure, drawing cheers from Portland soccer fans at the council meeting in the process.

What do you think of the news? Excited to see Portland in position to join MLS? Still wondering what is going on in St. Louis?

Share your thoughts below.

MLS Expansion: Decision Day in Portland

 

The fate of professional soccer in Portland rests in the hands of a five-person panel of Portland city commissionerswho will decide today if a bill to fund the building of a stadium and renewal of PGE Park will go to the full city council for a vote, or if it will die before it gets there.

Needing three votes out of five, and reportedly having two in favor and one against, the Portland MLS expansion bid hinges on the ability to convince one of two remaining undecided commissioners, Dan Salzman and Nick Fish, that bringing MLS to the city of Portland would make investing city funds into stadium projects worth it.

MLS has already reportedly reached an agreement with the Portland expansion group to award Portland a 2011 expansion team if the stadium funding proposal is passed, leaving it up to today's vote to decide the future of MLS in Portland.

What do you think of this situation? Do you think Portland will pull it out and join Vancouver (which SBI identified as one of the expansion winners last week) in the MLS expansion class of 2011? Are you still holding out hope that St. Louis gets a bid? Not crazy about MLS adding two teams from the Pacific Northwest? Are you a soccer fan from that area who is loving the idea of Seattle, Vancouver and Portland facing each other in MLS play?

Share your thoughts on Portland's MLS expansion chances below.

Vancouver on verge of earning MLS expansion bid

With the Miami MLS expansion bid officially in its grave, Major League Soccer needs a new favorite to emerge in the expansion race, and sources tell SBI that one expansion city has done just that.

Vancouver has become the new front-runner in the MLS expansion sweepstakes, moving ahead of remaining MLS expansion candidates Portland, St. Louis and Ottawa. According to multiple sources, MLS is on the verge of putting Vancouver's bid up for expansion approval and the Canadian city has become what one source called "a lock" for the 2011 expansion cycle.

MLS is expected announce its 2011 expansion entrants before the start of the 2009 season on March 19th and signs are pointing to Vancouver being one of those entrants.

Why Vancouver? Three major factors are in the bid's favor.

Miami's MLS expansion bid is dead

The Miami MLS Expansion bid has been removed from consideration after the league and the ownership group agreed that the time wasn't right for an expansion team in Miami, MLS announced on Tuesday.

The bid began to crumble as the global economic crisis left FC Barcelona cautious about going forward with its involvement, while also leaving billionare investor Marcelo Claure concerned about the viability of a soccer team in the Miami area in the current shaky economic climate.

Miami's exit from the process leaves Vancouver, Portland, St. Louis and Ottawa as the final four candidates for two expansion spots for 2011.

What do you think of this development? Surprised to see Miami go from apparent front-runner to out of the race? Who would you pick from the remaining teams to be the two cities chosen? Are you starting to wonder if the league will expand at all?

Share your thoughts below.

MMCB: With Miami bid shaky, MLS expansion race is even tougher to predict

 

There are officially no sure bets in the MLS expansion race. Not after shaky developments out of Spain put the FC Barcelona-backed bid for a Miami team, the top bid in the race, in jeopardy.

So what's the issue now? Barcelona club members have voiced concerns over the team investing a large sum of money in MLS at a time when the global economic crisis is impacting even Barcelona's bottom line. Barcelona management responded by stating that, at the very least, the club is taking a closer look at its MLS bid and whether it might not be more prudent to hold off on a bid, which would launch in 2010.

That sound you just heard is Don Garber chugging some Pepto Bismol.

These latest developments don't necessarily mean the Miami-Barcelona bid is dead, or even mortally wounded, but it certainly casts some doubt about the bid after it had seemed a foregone conclusion that Miami would receive of the two winning bids in this round of expansion.

MLS Ticker: McCarty deal nixed, Sounders land Cuban and league bosses meets Ottawa group

 

                                                          Photo by ISIphotos.com

The San Jose Earthquakes and FC Dallas had the framework in place for a trade involving out-of-favor FCD midfielder Dax McCarty but the deal fell apart after Dallas tried to extract more out of San Jose.

According to sources with knowledge of the discussions, FC Dallas attempted to sweeten its end of a proposed swap of McCarty for a draft pick, only to see the Earthquakes walk away from the negotiating table.

Both San Jose head coach Frank Yallop and FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman have denied that a trade was ever in the works but sources have informed SBI that trade talks did take place and an agreement was nearly reached before FC Dallas asked for a better deal, which lead to talks stalling.

So what now for McCarty? If FC Dallas is asking for too high a price you just might see McCarty in limbo for the foreseeable future. It will certainly be interesting to see if FC Dallas finds a better offer than the one it originally had from San Jose.

FC Dallas did get one deal done on Tuesday, signing Costa Rican defender and former Columbus Crew and Real Salt Lake player Daniel Torres. The 31-year-old spent 2008 playing for Bryn of the Norwegian second division. He played for FCD assistant John Ellinger with RSL in 2007.

Five cities left as MLS pushes back expansion decision to March

After months of having January as the target for a decision on expansion in 2011, MLS will now wait until March to make its final decision on which two markets will be given expansion teams in 2011.

The five remaining candidates are Miami, Portland, Vancouver, St. Louis and Ottawa and all except for Ottawa have been visited by MLS officials in preparation for a decision. MLS commissioner Don Garber and president Mark Abbott will travel to Ottawa next week to survey the city's bid.

Now that Montreal and Atlanta are out of the running, it is time to start thinking about which two cities are the most likely to be chosen. Miami is looking like a front-runner with the backing of FC Barcelona and the financial strength of billionaire investor Marcelo Claure. St. Louis was thought to be a favorite but continued questions about the financial strength of the ownership group have suddenly left St. Louis look like anything but a sure bet.

If you have not seen it yet, here is my ESPN.com column on the remaining candidates.

Here is the question for you. Now that we are down to five cities, which of them would get your vote for 2011?

poll by twiigs.com

Share your thoughts on the remaining expansion candidates in the comments section below.

Atlanta drops out of MLS expansion race

And then there were five.

Atlanta dropped out of the MLS expansion race last week, citing trouble getting commitments from its potential partners for a 2011 target date. The news, which got a bit lost during MLS Draft week, means that St. Louis, Miami, Portland, Vancouver and Ottawa are the lone remaining candidates for the two expansion slots for 2011. Montreal had its bid removed from consideration.

Was Atlanta, led by Atlanta Falcons owner and Home Depot founder Arthur Blank (pictured), really an option for 2011? It appears we will never know, although Atlanta still seems to be holding out hope for 213.

So who are the favorites? I would still say Miami and St. Louis are the picks, although Don Garber continued his tradition of telling the St. Louis ownership group that it needs to get stronger financially. That would give some hope to the bids in Portland and Vancouver. I'm still not sold on Ottawa being a viable option.

What do you think of Atlanta dropping out? Share your thoughts below.

Monday Morning Centerback: Time for MLS to add St. Louis

 

With the New Year upon is, it is time to start thinking about which two lucky cities will be granted MLS expansion franchises. While the FC Barcelona-backed Miami bid has received plenty of attention in recent weeks, it isn't the bid that makes the most sense.

The bid that remains the best of the bunch is the St. Louis expansion bid. Boasting a much stronger bid than the one that barely lost out to Philadelphia in the last round of expansion, St. Louis just makes too much sense to not be one of the two cities chosen by MLS later this month.

Jeff Cooper, the head of the St. Louis expansion bid, feels the same way and he believes the city's bid has all the necessary components to make a St. Louis expansion franchise a rousing success.

"First of all, if you look across at all the bid, you have a lot of great cities and great bids, and my hope is that every city that bids gets a team eventually so MLS is a true national coast-to-coast league," Cooper told SBI. "That being said, our bid is certainly as good or better than any other bid when you look at the scope of the project."

What is so special about the St. Louis bid? Where do you want to start?