And then there was 18............

[Tennessee Blue Mike]

Major League Soccer: News: MLS awards 18th franchise to Portland

Portland Timbers next francise to begin starting in 2011 with Vancouver.

Philadelphia in 2010.

Two more to go. Who will they be? Remember the Tampa Bay Rowdies? Surely a Floridian francise.

 

[Rook]

Major League Soccer: News: MLS awards 18th franchise to Portland

Portland Timbers next francise to begin starting in 2011 with Vancouver.

Philadelphia in 2010.

Two more to go. Who will they be? Remember the Tampa Bay Rowdies? Surely a Floridian francise.

Portland is a wise choise. No competetion for tickets with any other pro teams. Plus the USL team is well supported.

I think St. Louis will get a club, its a decent footie town. Then...well the MLS wants to go to Miami but that would be a disaster. Its just too hot, no one will go and the stadium will look like Kansas City's. Montreal would be the best pick.

I would wait at least 5 years after Philly to expand so that the MLS could get a deal for a footie specific stadium.

 

[leningan]

The rowdies are here the rowdies are there...

and they're back in Tampa, in the USL.

 

[Tennessee Blue Mike]

So Miami has been talked about. How many teams in the USL presently? Could they be a sort of Division two or championship division so relegation and promotion can be factored in. It would give the main league more credibility like other nations leagues.

 

[leningan]

seeing as the USL completely outperformed the MLS in the North American version of the CL, I wouldn't label the USL as a second division. The USL allows for the development and sale of players without any "league meddling", like the MLS, and already has lower divisions in place. I would love to see a relegation promotion model but the two leagues would have to merge and adopt the structure of the USL (or a combination of the two).

 

[Tennessee Blue Mike]

Good post lennigan once I got researching a little there is a bunch of teams out there in the USL. I do hope in the future we seem the whole structure come together for the fan.

 

[Rook]

So Miami has been talked about. How many teams in the USL presently? Could they be a sort of Division two or championship division so relegation and promotion can be factored in. It would give the main league more credibility like other nations leagues.

There are about 17 million clubs in the USL, I'm not sure how the league is structured. Its a bunch of regional leagues loosely tied together. As far as relegation/promotion in the MLS, it will never happen. No one would buy a club.