Big day for MLS huh? With plenty to talk about I figured I would just run down the line of some key points that I didn’t include in my initial post about the expansion announcement from earlier in the day.
- The stadium. MLS officials thought they were close in negotiations with New York City suits on league plan to develop a 25,000-seat facility in Queens, just east of Manhattan. The facility, at a price tag of around $350 million. They hope to have it up an running by 2016.
- Expansion fee. That $100 million price tag for the expansion fee is huge. That is $60 million more than what Montreal paid to get into the league. the Yankees and Sheikh Mansour, Manchester City’s owner, represent the kind of deep pockets MLS has long sought. No one else buying into this league has their kind of money. The only one that could rival it would be Carlos Slim but he’s not taking over Chivas USA anytime soon.
- The MLS CBA expires in 2014, one year before this new club enters the league. I’d imagine this new CBA won’t be as much about players vs league like the last round of updates to the CBA went. No, this time around may focus more on owners against other owners in getting more money for salary cap space and DP limits. Seriously, things will get very interesting following the 2014 season.
- The salary talks. Another big money owner likely means another big talker at the table for the owners meetings that usually take place. The number of clubs that want to spend are quickly going to outnumber those who would rather kept things tight. Throw the soon-to-be David Beckham club into that mix and the days of low salaries caps could be out the door.
- Current TV deals also expire in 2014. You have to believe that adding this club for 2015 has every bit to do with the TV deals that the league will be going after. Adding a new club in NY for the following season is certainly going to help the league’s case in getting another and possible better TV deal with the outlets they currently have.
- Nike/adidas. Man City has a deal with Nike for 8 years, MLS deal with adidas ends in 2018. Curious to see if there are any conflicts there or not.
- Impact. Garber calls this a ‘transformation moment’ in MLS. In other words, this is just as big as the David Beckham signing.
- YES Network. NYCFC on the YES Network hasn’t been discussed yet apparently. But you can go ahead and expect it. Another big ‘get’ for the league to be on a very widely watched network in NYC.
- Temporary venue. Yankee Stadium is a possible temporary stadium solution for 2015. So is Giant’s Stadium. I do wonder if they could go the route that Vancouver took and place a temporary stadium in some random location like the Caps had with Empire Stadium. Hey, just throwing out suggestions.
- The Cosmos. It sort of sucks to be them right now, don’t ya think? The new version of the famed club begins play in August in the second-tier NASL with games at Hofstra University. They have big plans of their own that don’t include MLS. We’re talking a fancy stadium and the whole nine yards. Makes you wonder that if NYCFC finish their stadium and the Cosmos end up getting their’s as well, that NYC will have three really nice stadiums in the same area.
- Those future expansion sites. So it may be a tough day too for Orlando, Miami and other expansion hopeful cities out there. I can’t imagine any of those future cities having to pay $100 million to get into the league though. We know a Beckham owned team won’t cost that much. I’ve long said that the league would not stop after 20 and more than likely the year following NYCFC we’ll include two more clubs. Yes, two more.
