16 May 2008
Barcelona Looking To Own A MLS Club?
Posted by Drew Epperley under: MLS; News and Rumors; expansion talk .
Yeah, its possible. Yesterday we talked about the deal that Major League Soccer and FC Barcelona signed. While it was a commercial agreement between the two sides that will yield friendlies and probably some youth camps or other sorts of things of that nature.
The big talk now is that the La Liga giants are hoping to put their stamp on the US with a potential club.
“If you want to be a global brand, you have to be in the United States,” said FC Barcelona vice chairman Ferran Soriano, the club’s executive responsible for marketing. “We want to have a permanent presence here, and maybe that permanent presence will mean a team here someday.”
The concept is not unprecedented. Jorge Vergara, who owns Mexico’s Chivas de Guadalajara, founded MLS club CD Chivas USA in Los Angeles in 2005.
While, we know it would be a good thing to have a rich owner backing another expansion club in MLS. I don’t know if another Chivas USA type of club would work in MLS. Some will say that Barcelona has a bigger following than Chivas does but will a BarcaNY or something of that nature work? I have my doubts.
My bet is Barcelona will set up shop with a lower level side first before they even try to get into MLS with an expansion club or taking over a current club.
If they do try an get an expansion bid the best bet for them is either in New York or in Miami. My gut feeling is they would go to Miami if they had the choice but New York would easily make sense due to their strong showings in the area with past friendlies at Giants Stadium.
Still, they are a long way from doing such a thing and honestly I can’t see them doing anything like this until this new five-year deal is up. The reason being, they will probably want to take that time to gage just how good they will be able to do here in the US with a club and to see how strong their image in the US is.
What do you all make of a potential Barca-owned club here in MLS? Good idea or another Chivas USA type of thing?
3 Comments so far...
rorymiller Says:
18 May 2008 at 3:37 pm.
I know you’re always downing ChivasUSA, but how bad have things been for them? They seem to play with passion and have a passionate following, not to mention a great PR team. What problems do you see with them?
Paul Says:
18 May 2008 at 6:34 pm.
The problems with Chivas USA are profit and fan support. If you’ve ever watched any of their home games, you’d see that they don’t exactly have the best fans. Plus, their largest supporter’s section just boycotted two games because ONE member was suspended for getting into a fight. Shows a lot about their devotion to the team. Plus, they favor The Mexican version of Chivas over Chivas USA.
The fan problem, along with their stadium problem and lack of success at the box office leads to a lack of profit. They have to rent from the GalPals, which takes quite a bit of money away, and they can’t make up for it by selling tickets or merch, because they only have several thousand loyal fans.
George Says:
19 May 2008 at 1:47 pm.
Hey,
First of all, I enjoy your blog keep it going.
I hope you don’t think I’m nit picking, but could you define “best fans” ? Honestly, MLS should take anyone who pays, as long as they are not violent/racist/drunks and I know you just mentioned that some Chivas supporters got kicked out for fighting, but is that a one time thing and not a recurring event?
Honestly Chivas needs someone to support it because they are never sold out with the exception of Super Classico. I’m just concerned that your being to tough on them, hell I know Columbus was struggling earlier this season getting anyone out to the park and they had at least one ~approximate 6K game.
Thanks.
