Is MLS About to Over Expand?

By: Daryl | May 13th, 2009

It was made official on Monday, the Philadelphia team joining Major League Soccer in 2010 will be known as Philadelphia Union. And they will have a pretty kick-ass logo (left) which is explained in more detail on their website.

Philadelphia will be joined in 2011 by teams from Portland and Vancouver, giving MLS a grand total of 18 teams. No doubt it’s good for MLS to have teams in more cities, especially cities that already have fanbases (Portland and Vancouver have well attended USL teams, while Philadelphia fans have been know to show up randomly and taunt New York fans despite not having a team). It’s going to be exciting.

But – playing devil’s advocate here – is there a danger of MLS expanding too quickly for its own good?

The most obvious problem is players. Are there enough potential MLS players out there to add three extra teams to the league without spreading the talent too thinly. Because it’s definitely possible that the short-term upside of adding new teams (and therefore new revenues) to MLS has a long-term downside in the watering down of the talent on display. Overall, that could leave MLS viewers watching a lower quality league than previously.

The level of play in MLS is better than the naysayers and Eurosnobs would have you believe, but it’s still got a long long way to climb before joining the bigger European Leagues at the top of the mountain. In some ways adding extra teams just makes that mountain even higher.

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Category: MLS

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Uwvie

if they lax the rules about foreigners on teams(which they should, as they'll now have enough spots for american players to develop) the league can stay competitive.
Phil M.

I think its a good idea it brings more competition and diversity
alex w

lol what about quaresma, hes washed up at 25
Nolan

Not if they bring the Impact into MLS!
tim

who do you think is the odds on favorite to be the washed up european player used to sell tickets in philly?

shevchenko?
Rob

@ Lord Quas:

What do you mean you can't over-exapnd? Sure, there is football talent all over the world, but lets remember the games aren't put on for free and staidums do not get built for fun. This is a business; the world is a business.

The only good part is that the markets coming into the league are good ones. After Vancouver and Portland, fix the ones that are struggling, then look to expand again if its necessary.

Slow and steady wins the race.
matt

i thought this was gonna be about that guardian article mentioning the amazingness that might be the mexican league and mls combining? pipe dream? probably...still fun nonetheless:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/foot...
SP

well rob, that's why i was saying that the youth academies are important to keep kids' interest in soccer
Andre Ronald

Over expansion is what I'm afraid of. Who can forget the ridiculous number of teams in the old NASL which played a large part on the lead imploding on itself.

I think the league should stop at 20 team and have a first and second division with relegation and promotion.
Lord Quas

I don't think you can over expand in soccer, MLS can get talent from all over the world. Unlike American football or hockey, every country plays soccer and thus there arent the same limits as their are for other sports. Specially since MLS players are far from being the best in the world.
mike

Actually the expansion will be done properly, their is no reason to believe it won't be. American talent is developed it is just playing in Scandanavian or 2nd division leagues of Europe.
Not only African players but other players from other leagues will come over as well. As our league grows others are getting smaller, as of yet no more Scottish teams are folding but who knows with economic downturn.
It may seem unfair, but maybe Portland, Vancouver, and Montreal can keep more of their USL talent then what Seattle was able to keep. Why not? All the other teams in this league have been in business for a while and well they don't exactly all do the best job of finding and retaining talent.
Closer teams does mean rivalries, rivalries do mean attendance. The EPL is a modern creation, English, French, Spanish, and Italian "football" are very old. As we age and get to where we want to be as a league younger stars will come. Anyway, not every team in the EPL draws what ManU or Liverpool draw, some only have 25,000 seat stadiums. So we are on our way! Keep Expanding! Please get Chivas out of HDC, send them to Anaheim/ Santa Ana or San Diego.
Johnny1987

Well the good news is that there is still time for me, a 21 year old, to crack into the League. WOOHOO! The bad news is that DC United, the Leagues most decorated team, is having trouble finding a stadium.... so how is that everyone has so much confidence that the new teams will be terribly accepted? Also, if all else fails, why not upgrade some of the USL teams to MLS? There rosters are made-to-order... Hopefully this might draw Troy Perkins back, i would love to see him and Kasey Keller throw down.

Oh and NYC, in my opinion, DOES NOT need another team... Miami needs a team (Boca and Barcelona have both shown interest)
Rob

@ SP from Poland:

Sure, a lot of kids play soccer (AYSO, the American Youth Soccer Association is the leader). But the problem is retaining that interest over time. I have buddies that played High School soccer and a couple that play in college, and they have no interest in MLS whatsoever. I would have kept playing if I had an interest in the sport overall as a youngster, but I mostly played because my parents signed me up. I think that happens a lot around the country.
Rob

The only one of the three that will be expansion teams in the coming years I am worried about is Philly. Portland and Vancouver will have similar situations with Seattle in that the moment they enter MLS their season ticket number will be huge.

Philly on the other hand might have a nice first season, but the second season will be interesting to see how many tickets are renewed. A solid first season would help, but we will see.

KC getting a SSS will be good, however after 2011 when MLS reaches 18 it needs to sit on that number I think. I would like to add Montreal at some point, but its not in the cards at the moment.
SP

USA: 300 million people
England: 50 million people

Now, I know that there is the (pretty crushing and convincing) argument that there is much more fervor and passion for football in England, but there are A LOT of American kids who play soccer (most non-Americans would be shocked by the percentages). As Laurie said, the youth academies will be uberimportant to the talent pool for the MLS in the next 10 to 20 years as it will keep soccer-playing kids into soccer and super develop their game.

If we compare the USL to more like Football Leagues 1 and 2 in England, the MLS can sort of become the Championship/Premier League of America, which equates to 44 teams. Now, I'm not stupid enough to say that MLS should have 44 teams, but I think that 20, 22, or 24 teams is very viable, since that way there will be that many youth academies that could easily be filled by the American youth.
Laurie

MLS is starting to get very good at discovering talent in South American and Africa, and they're also now requiring youth academies. They seem to be doing a good job of choosing the locations for their expansion teams as well; two of the last three -- TFC and Seattle -- have sellout crowds for every single home game. I'm guessing that Portland and Vancouver will too.

In other words, I'm cautiously optimistic that this will work out. (Crossing fingers.)
Ira Socol

I think MLS must get to 24 teams within 6 or 8 years, in order to be a truly "North American" league. Desperately needs a 2nd NYC team, Montreal, St. Louis, Atlanta, Florida (that's five of the six), a second Chicago team might make the whole set.

Only with that number of teams can they build real rivalries in enough places for fans to truly care about these games.

As for quality, it will come, allow some more non North American players (without eliminating the rules), build up youth academies, develop better relationships with colleges (get NCAA to use FIFA rules, run college/MLS double headers), do a MUCH better job of promoting the US Open Cup (sorry Lamar Hunt, your name has to go - it can stay on the Trophy) to encourage lower levels of the game.

Treat this as a sport in US/Canada. Stop comparing it to the EPL, and MLS will be fine.
sherpaco

The talent pool is immense, as this is a worldwide sport. There will never be a shortage of talent for "the world's game."
Jason Davis

If MLS relaxes the rules, there's plenty of talent already in this country to fill out three rosters. The talent pool is not as thin as some people think (just like the quality of MLS is not as bad as some people thing).