We’ve heard this before but it appears Montreal may be closer than ever to securing a Major League Soccer expansion bid. Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo tells the Montreal Gazette he hopes to have a deal announced with the league.

He can gaze out at one end of the stadium adjacent to the Olympic park where new stands will be added as part of a planned expansion to 21,000 seats.

At the other end, Saputo can point to the spot where corporate suites will be erected once the Impact secures a new Major League Soccer franchise.

It’s all part of his master plan to build a successful sports business and put Montreal on the soccer map. Saputo hopes that within a few weeks a deal will be announced that will award the Impact an MLS franchise for 2012, at a cost of around $35 million U.S.

Once the franchise is obtained, he expects to go ahead with a $25-million plan to both expand the stadium and build an indoor practice facility, a project to be financed entirely by the Quebec government.

Saputo also talks about increasing his sponsorship dollars once his club enters the league. Currently they are doing pretty well but getting into MLS will only increase their numbers he says.

Even during a possible strike by the league Montreal could still get an expansion bid is pretty interesting to hear. We’ve heard for months how close they are but it wouldn’t shock me at all to hear around the start of the season that they are going to expand to Montreal in 2012.

No doubt in my mind that Montreal is still a great market to tap into for the league. Sure three Canadian cities in the league may ruffle a few feathers in some folks but to me its a wise move by the league to go this direction. It only improves the game in the US and in Canada, something I believe we are all the better for here.

Major League Soccer tried with Real Madrid, then they tried again with Barcelona. Now MLS commissioner Don Garber is hoping he can get at least one English Premier League owner to invest into the league.

“We think it would be smart for us to have an international team sitting around our board table and helping to influence the way we think and perhaps connect us even more closer with the international community,” Garber said in an interview with The Associated Press at SoccerEx.

“We tried with FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, and we will continue to talk to the Spanish clubs while finding some way to see if there is an investment opportunity with any of the English clubs. We are not anywhere close to that on any level yet.”

One club sounds interested, Manchester City. Garber met Monday with City chief executive Garry Cook. No word yet on how those talks went.

I like this idea for Garber to target EPL owners here. I do wonder if he will try to put pressure on some of the Americans that already own EPL sides. He has one owner already with a EPL side (Colorado Rapids owner Stan Kroenke has a majority stake in Arsenal), so maybe he’ll have an easier time getting one of them to invest in MLS.

It won’t be easy though as a lot of clubs in England and in Europe are losing money left and right these days. Getting the right group like the Man City owners may be the right way to go here. Its still very early in the process here but I do like this step taken by the league.

I’ve thought long and hard on Orlando’s chances as a MLS city before. But something this past weekend gave me a reason to think about it a little more. I think the Pro Soccer Classic at Disney World was a hit for both the city and for the MLS teams involved.

Now of course it was preseason action which means it counts for nearly nothing but in the long run this tournament, which should become an annual destination for preseason play could ultimately help the southeastern part of the country get soccer back for good in MLS.

I still believe we are years away from seeing MLS-level soccer in Florida or in the south. Let me just say that from the start here. As much as some would love to see Miami, or even Tampa Bay (man I miss those days)…or even Atlanta or somewhere in North Carolina, the one city that we tend to forget is Orlando. Continue Reading…

Something we’ve known for a while is Montreal will be in Major League Soccer sooner rather than later. When the league decided to explore Montreal back in the fall as an expansion candidate it only meant the city was that much closer to getting an expansion bid.

Now it appears that the city could be possibly a year away from putting a MLS club on the field. Owner Joey Saputo told a French Canadian paper that if possible they’ll join in 2011, if not it should be 2012. (his quotes were translated below…my French was a bit rusty so I let Google do the work on some words I couldn’t remember)

“I met leaders of the MLS in Florida earlier this year,” he said today during the first day of camp the team. “Our bid is ready and even if we should be there in 2012, if necessary, can be as early as 2011. ”

“The leaders of the MLS, Don Gerber and Mark Abbott came to Montreal before Christmas and said they were well satisfied, he said. It is no longer whether, but when we get there. “

So 2011 huh? I suppose that means if Portland or Vancouver can’t make it for some reason they’ll step in as an expansion team. Have no fear Whitecap or Timber fans, that won’t be the case as both expansion bids there are looking far too good now to be replaced or even fall apart at this stage in the game.

I still believe Montreal will come in for the 2012 season. I also wouldn’t be shocked if they came in alone at that point too and the league stayed at an uneven 19 clubs for a couple seasons as they make a final push to find the best city available for the 20th club.

We’ve known for several weeks months that the next round of expansion in Major League Soccer would start with Montreal. The league has taken another step closer to getting to that point today as MLS commissioner Don Garber has traveled to Montreal to meet with Joey Saputo and some local government officials.

“We continued our discussions with the Saputo family about a future MLS expansion team in Montreal and had very productive meetings with Minister Bachand about securing funding for the expansion of Saputo Stadium,” Garber said following his morning meetings. “We’ve stated many times that Montreal would be a great market for MLS and we look forward to continuing our discussions.”

“We are very happy with the visit of the MLS executives in Montreal,” declared Impact President Joey Saputo. “The meetings this morning with Minister Bachand and Mayor Tremblay were very positive. It’s clear for us, and now more than ever, that the arrival of MLS in Montreal is only a question of time. We are hoping to have news in the first quarter of 2010.”

We all know it comes down to the stadium for Montreal and getting it expanded just enough to be MLS ready. In all honesty I would argue its MLS ready right now even at 13,034 seats. I mean a full Saputo Stadium will look better than a nearly empty Pizza Hut Park. I’m only half serious on that comment.

Expanding the stadium is a big deal though and I don’t mean to poke fun at any of it here. Its really a dealbreaker for MLS. But what I kind of find interesting is that why is Garber taking time away from dealing with the CBA to go visit Montreal here? That part seems weird to me.

Forgive me for the slow day, I’ve honestly just needed a little time away from the keyboard to focus on other things today. Blame the holidays if you will but sometimes a guy just needs a day off. Anyways, I did find one thing tonight that caught my eye and as you all know I love a good MLS expansion topic.

Portfolio has done a very interesting study of the top American markets available for expansion in sports, and those that are over saturated. (And here is the full article it comes from.) Click on the MLS logo for the MLS cities.

Pretty interesting huh? Continue Reading…

David Beckham will be a club owner in the near future. (Getty Images)

While we don’t know where the location of the 20th Major League Soccer club will eventually be we do have a pretty good idea of who the owner of the club will be. It’s been reported nearly everywhere that David Beckham has an option in his mega-MLS contract that stipulates he can own a club once he is done playing in the league.

So in 2012 when his contract is up he will likely stay in the league as an owner.

“We’ve got options of which team [to buy],” said MLS commissioner Don Garber, declining to name them or potential cities. “It will happen eventually, yeah.”

Beckham’s option starts with the 20th MLS club according to Garber but that won’t come until at least 2012. With Montreal set to be number 19 you have ti figure the list of potential cities for a Beckham owned team is pretty short. I don’t see Beckham taking over an existing club at the moment and relocating it. Expansion seems to be the way the league wants this deal to work out so more than likely the city has to be big. More than likely it will have to be a New York if it is an expansion team.

From what a few folks are saying this morning like Steve Goff, some former expansion sites like St. Louis and Miami are out of the question right now. Goff said there just isn’t the right money involved in those areas to be considered a strong candidate at the moment.

I know the league does need to be in the Southeast at some point but I just think a Beckham-owned team is better suited for New York here.