Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber is at BMO Field tonight to take in Toronto’s game against Chicago, but before the match he dropped a potentially telling piece of news as it concerns those four expansion teams that are supposed to come into the league between 2015 and 2020.
As you might remember, Garber recently made public MLS plans to expand to 24 after New York City FC joins the league in 2015, expansion that will take the league to 20 franchises two years from now. While it was generally assumed the southeast United States will be strongly considered for some of the teams, little other information was known about MLS’s expansion plans.
Today, however, Garber revealed most of those expansion slots may already be taken. From TSN’s Luke Wileman, posted before tonight’s kickoff:
Speaking in Toronto this afternoon #MLS Commissioner Don Garber said 3 of the 4 expansion franchises are "already spoken for."
— Luke Wileman (@LukeWileman) September 11, 2013
Amazingly, encouragingly, and a bit surprisingly, the process of identifying those that will get MLS to 24 seems like it’s almost done. At least, it’s three-quarters of the way done, leaving only the details of who they are and when, exactly, they’ll be phased in. In addition to deciding on that fourth team, of course.
Given how little time it’s taken to settle on three, Orlando has to be among them. At least, that’s when makes the most sense. Orlando City SC owner Phil Rawkins has been talking a big game, saying his team will be among the four, and it’s starting to look like that was more public relations. The 20,000-plus crowd that packed the Florida Citrus Bowl this weekend may soon be doing so for an MLS team (albeit in a new facility, in all likelihood).
As for the other teams, one of these has to be Beckham’s right? Former LA Galaxy star David Beckham has the right to purchase a team, and rumors have linked him to a Miami franchise for some time. It’s hard to see MLS settling on three new franchises so quickly without Beckham’s being among them.
As for the third, there are a litany of options always bandied about here, all of which have their virtues and problems. But if hitting the southeast was a major goal of this round of expansion, MLS looks ready to accomplish it.