Update: Montreal Still Wants In

Montreal owner Joey Saputo told the press today that he and his ownership group still want in Major League Soccer but just not at any price.

So in a way it did come down to the money after all.

“I’m disappointed — the bid was taken out without explanation,” said Saputo. “Does MLS really want Montreal? I don’t know.”

“We were OK with that (amount), without hurting where we are today and without hurting our plans for the future,” said Saputo, whose team has been an attendance leader in the USL and its predecessor, the A-League, for 15 years. “We thought we had a sound bid.”

“Maybe the mistake I made was to put in a price,” he added.

He said the team will get on fine without MLS, as it did this season.

It sounds to me like we may never see Montreal in MLS with this kind of talk. Its about the money in some ways but it’s also the league not carefully looking at the bid for what it was worth. Maybe in 2012 or 2013 things will be different and the stadium his club plays in will be bigger and “league standard” by then.

For me it sounds like they are just buying a little more time to be “MLS ready” as a club and as an organization. Not like that is a bad thing overall but its sad to see this bid not be in the running as I thought it was one of the best.

But as a hole the league did what they thought was best I think. Sure there was probably a misunderstanding or some communication issues somewhere in all of this but I think in the end it will be the best for both parties involved.

What do you make of this mess with Montreal? Will the league bring their bid back or will we have to wait a few more years to possibly see them in the league?