Tag: MLS Expansion

Garber: MLS expansion on hold ‘for a period of time’

Commissioner Garber’s declaration may be bad news for Indianapolis

MLS is just months away from fielding its 30th team, but after years of constant growth, that number may be in place for a little while.

Addressing reporters at a press conference ahead of Wednesday night’s MLS All-Star Game, MLS commissioner Don Garber said that expansion — a near constant for a league that has added at least one team in seven of the last eight seasons — may be paused for an unspecified period of time.

“It’s going to be the end of expansion for a period of time, until we’re ready to expand again,” Garber said. “Right now there isn’t a specific plan to expand.”

Later asked if he could clarify how much future expansion might cost an incoming team, Garber laughed before stating that “it’ll be more than $500 million.” That figure was reported as the price San Diego FC’s ownership group paid to gain its place in MLS.

Garber did not close the door on expansion, conceding that if the right situation presented itself, MLS would continue adding teams.

“If there’s a good market for us to expand in, if that market makes sense, if we have the right owner and the right city — like any league — we would consider strongly expanding beyond 30 teams that we have now,” stated the commissioner.

MLS to Indianapolis? Not so fast

Garber’s declaration will be bad news for Indianapolis. Mayor Joe Hogsett declared in April that he had discussed the city’s expansion prospects with Garber, causing a local uproar over a related decision impacting a planned stadium project for USL Championship club Indy Eleven.

The commissioner acknowledged that Hogsett is in Columbus and has been seen at events relating to the All-Star Game, but did not further clarify the status of the city’s bid to get itself an MLS team.

MLS will become a 30-team circuit in 2025 when San Diego FC begins play, which — despite being the norm across U.S. sports — is uncommon in soccer. Global standards for larger countries skew towards 18- or 20-team top-flight leagues.

The only modern example of a 30-team league is Argentina’s three-season experiment with a 30-team Primera Division from 2015-17, which saw multiple competitive formats used. That league scaled down to 24 sides in the seasons that followed, only to expand back up to 28 from 2022 to today.

MLS started the 2016 season with 20 teams, but has moved aggressively to grow since then. San Diego FC will be the 10th team to join the league over that timespan.

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The newest MLS team will have a very uncreative name

FC San Diego or San Diego FC will join the league in 2025

The newest MLS franchise will use one of the oldest name templates in the books.

At Thursday’s official unveiling of San Diego as the league’s 30th team, club CEO Tom Penn said that it would either be named FC San Diego or San Diego FC.

“We want to be either be San Diego Football Club, so San Diego FC, or should we put the football first? Should it be Football Club of San Diego, like FC San Diego?” Penn told reporters.

“So we had to pick one to start, and we’ll see which way it goes. But that’s the fundamental question right out of the block: Should we put the football first or put San Diego first? We’re going to listen to everybody on that. And then we’ll come up with our crest and our colors. And I would say sometime summer or early fall, we’ll do another big announcement to show our real brand.”

The naming convention would put San Diego alongside eight current teams whose names are a variation of their city plus the “FC” abbrevation: Charlotte FC, FC Cincinnati, New York City FC, Toronto FC, Austin FC, FC Dallas, and Los Angeles FC.

In other words, when San Diego enters MLS in 2025, those teams will make up nearly one-third of the league.

The club could have really gone on a limb if it just tweaked one letter: Nashville SC is the only MLS team to use the aforementioned naming convention, but with a SC instead of an FC.

We’ll just give Cozmo the last word here.

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New MLS stadiums: Future sites and rumors

MLS’s construction push continues apace

Over the last eight years, MLS has really upped its game in terms of stadiums.

Between new expansion teams coming into the league and existing clubs building new homes, MLS has found itself in 12 new venues over that time period. Of that group, 11 are soccer-specific, meaning the league has never had better conditions on gameday than it has right now.

If anything, MLS’s pace in terms of building stadiums has accelerated of late, with five new arenas opening since the start of 2021. That push will continue in the years to come, with projects in Miami and New York City in progress and expansion in San Diego bringing another new venue into the league.

Here are MLS’s future stadiums.

MLS announces San Diego expansion team for 2025

Team No. 30 is officially going to San Diego

MLS is set to welcome its 30th team.

The league announced on Thursday that it will launch an expansion team in San Diego, with the new side beginning play starting with the 2025 season.

The expansion side will play at Snapdragon Stadium, which is also home to the San Diego Wave of the NWSL and San Diego State football. Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour — whose Mansour Group already owns Danish top-flight club FC Nordsjaelland — will lead the new team’s ownership group, which includes the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado, and other local investors.

“We are thrilled to welcome San Diego to Major League Soccer as our 30th team,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “For many years we have believed San Diego would be a terrific MLS market due to its youthful energy, great diversity, and the fact that soccer is an essential part of everyday life for so many people. Mohamed Mansour and the Sycuan Tribe have an incredible vision for building a club that will inspire and unite soccer fans throughout the city and region.”

The team does not have any links with the city’s existing men’s pro team, the USL Championship’s San Diego Loyal. On May 10, that club’s owner Andrew Vassiliadis released a statement saying that the Loyal “aren’t going anywhere.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the expansion fee required to join MLS is “in the $500 million neighborhood,” which would by some distance constitute a new league record. In 2020, Charlotte FC was widely reported to have put $325 million up to become MLS’s 28th team.

Garber had mentioned San Diego and Las Vegas as frontrunners back in February, while also making mention of Detroit, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Tampa Bay at a February event launching their new Apple TV broadcast studio.

Solid prospects for MLS in San Diego

MLS has figured out a lot about expansion best practices. Every league newcomer from 2015 onward has, from an attendance, exposure, and business perspective, been a healthy addition at worst. Los Angeles FC and Atlanta United in particular stand out as two of the best expansion teams in league history.

The 17-month runway San Diego has before they’ll have to start doing things like making draft picks and conducting a preseason is enough time for them to build a club infrastructure. That is undoubtedly the hard part, as expansion teams like FC Cincinnati and Charlotte FC have discovered.

There are other potential stumbling blocks. Snapdragon Stadium’s full dance card (they also host pro rugby) will be particularly difficult in the fall, when the college football season begins. As D.C. United and the Washington Spirit have found while sharing Audi Field with the XFL’s D.C. Defenders, football is very rough on a soccer playing surface, and unlike that groundsharing situation, the San Diego State Aztecs are the stadium’s primary tenant.

Beyond the competition for soccer fans existing with the new MLS side, the Wave, and the Loyal, there is also at least some history of San Diego having affinity for Liga MX. To some extent, locals have adopted Club Tijuana, whose Estadio Caliente is just 24 miles south of Snapdragon Stadium.

That said, between MLS’s ability to bring new teams online in recent years and the deep pockets behind this San Diego expansion franchise, it stands to reason that the new team will enjoy a launch similar to that of the Wave, who despite being in only their second season hold the top two spots for single-game attendance in NWSL history.

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MLS expansion: San Diego and Las Vegas likely finalists for team 30, Garber says

The race to be team 30 appears down to just two cities

The race to be the 30th team in Major League Soccer looks like it’s down to San Diego and Las Vegas.

At a media event in New York on Wednesday, MLS commissioner Don Garber said the two cities were the most likely finalists as the league aims to decide prior to the end of 2023.

Garber added that although he’s previously said the league would pause after naming its 30th team, he was very much open to the possibility of expanding beyond that number in the years to come.

The commissioner gave an update on the league’s plans ahead of St. Louis City joining as the 29th team for the 2023 season.

“We have teams across three time zones, multiple climate zones, so we do need more teams,” Garber said. “The 30th team will come at some point soon. We would like to get that announced by the end of the year.

“Never thought we’d be at 28, never thought we’d be at 29, we say we’re going to stop at 30 but the other [American] major leagues are larger than that. I don’t ever say never in Major League Soccer.

“There are many other markets that are opportunities for us. I think San Diego and Las Vegas are the most likely opportunities for [team] 30. But we don’t have a team in Phoenix, we don’t have a team in Sacramento, we don’t have a team in Detroit — all big markets in our country. Tampa is another big city.

“Soccer is exploding professionally everywhere on the men’s and women’s side. So we’ll see.”

Garber talks up San Diego and Las Vegas

Garber naming San Diego and Las Vegas as likely finalists isn’t a major surprise, as he called both a “priority market” in an interview this month with Sports Business Journal.

“Las Vegas remains a priority market for us,” he said. “We love the energy in the city and all the focus on how sports can provide real value for an increasingly growing city. We are in discussions with investors on how they could come together, whether it be in a soccer-specific stadium or an alternative approach, but nothing new to add there.

“We’re also engaged in discussions with investors in San Diego about possibilities there. I love the market, it is a gateway city to Mexico, and with our increased programming and increasingly closer relationship with Liga MX, San Diego is a priority market.”

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