”We’re interested in being a test league and we hope that we could achieve that,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Thursday while speaking to the Associated Press Sports Editors. ”I would be open to whatever it is that could be done to ensure that we have goal-line technology.”

”There’s a lot more that we need to learn about it, understanding the process,” Garber said. ”The bottom line here is that I would be open to using goal-line technology as soon as it is made available.”

Right now there are two systems up for review. The International Football Association Board meets July 2 and could approve Sony Corp.’s Hawk-Eye or GoalRef, owned by a German-Danish company.

Hawk-Eye is a camera-based ball-tracking system used in tennis and cricket. GoalRef employs a magnetic field with a special ball. The report does state that both systems could be approved as well.

Garber is willing to bring in the technology before any other league in the world if approved. The Premier League hopes to use it for its 2012-13 season, which starts in August.

I had every intention of posting this last night but had other things come up. Anyways, yesterday MLS commissioner Don Garber gave his media call and during the Q&A he threw out a big nugget on the New York expansion situation.

Garber stated that the league has taken the lead on getting a stadium plan together for a potential expansion team in the Big Apple, a first done so by the league. So far the league has looked at 19 different stadium locations.

“We want to ensure that when this project is complete that we have the perfect site for a stadium,” Garber said. “We’ll take the time — as long as it takes — to ensure we have the right site. That’s how important the second New York team-project is.”

“When the stadium’s done, there’ll be no shortage of owners who will line up and want to pay $100 million for our 20th team in New York,” Garber said. “We are working closely with the Mayor’s office, and they have been a great resource for us in helping to steer us to sites that they think can be developed and work in areas where they think there will be great community support and a great opportunity to achieve success. We still have work to do to finalize even a timeframe for the 20th team in New York, but we continue to be optimistic.”

As you saw earlier in my “bold season predictions” I claim that something does get done this year with a New York expansion team. I’m optimistic that it will happen and we’ll put to bed this whole race for the 20th club*.

(* saying this I do also think that the league isn’t nearly done expanding…Orlando is definitely in the mix and so will about a half other dozen cities once the league gets to 20…soon enough it will be the race for the 24th club)

(** and a second side note…I also really hope that the league gets a little more serious in helping both New England and DC out in their stadium quests as well. There were questions yesterday about each team and their stadium. In a way that really should be a higher priority for the league. Also, I’d throw Chivas USA into that mix as they’ll be hunting for a stadium location soon enough)

Garber visits Orlando to gage their expansion process. (Photo via Orlando City.)

Yesterday was a big day for the city of Orlando and for it’s soccer team, Orlando City. Both were on center display to Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber as he spoke to a group of fans at an Orlando pub.

According to Garber, until now Orlando had never really been on the league radar. But after his first public visit to the city he clearly stated that it is now.

Orlando got creative with their pitch to MLS and Garber. Fans showed up with some cool signs and banners while the club pitched in for some clever billboards that welcomed MLS and Garber to the city. In all, not a bad way to try to convince the league that they are in this for real.

“This is a really great statement about what you have going down here in Orlando,” said Garber, who compared the gathering to the fan rally he held with the Sons of Ben in Philadelphia before their successful bid for expansion. “This is an amazing statement about what is happening with soccer in America.”

Garber stated that the league looks for three things in a potential MLS city: quality ownership, the right market and a solid stadium plan. The commissioner stated that currently Orlando is doing well at the first two things.

Garber laid down a pretty stiff challenge that I think Orlando can match. He wants them to get to 3,500 season tickets to an average attendance of more than 10,000. Basically he wants Orlando to have a strong enough base to enter the league with, a challenge that I totally think is fair.

If any group in the second or third division of soccer in American can do it, it is probably this group in Orlando.

One thing is clear, Garber laid out a pretty clear set of items that the league is looking for (though we’ve kind of already known most of them anyways thanks to the last five years of expansion) in an expansion city. With several second and third division cities expressing interest in moving up to MLS down the road, they should have a pretty clear understanding of what it will take. Throw in the season ticket numbers and average attendance and you have to think that any group that can match or break that number will get the league’s attention.

As for Orlando, I like their chances. Can they pass New York now is the key question. I have my reservation about saying that they will but you can’t deny their momentum at the moment.

That price, $100 million big ones. Wowzers.

He also mentioned that there were several suitors for the club in New York but nothing new on that front really.

On expansion:

We are focused on New York. It’s a big market. The Cosmos have a great legacy and they have a great soccer history that so far the Red Bulls have not been able to tap into. For the most part Red Bulls fans come from New Jersey. The challenge for [the Cosmos] is to build a stadium, and as we all know New York City is not the easiest place to build. And we’ve put a high price on the 20th team. In 2007 we were asking around $7 million, and last year [teams] sold for $40 million. This could be in the $75 to $100 million [range].

Dang. That’s a hefty price-tag for a new club but honestly we shouldn’t be shocked by that number. Plus it is a team presumably in New York, so driving up the expansion fee makes a little more sense in that manner to me.

On the Wilpon family:

We have talked with [the Wilpons] about MLS. They have a good situation when it comes to stadiums in the site around Citi Field. Willets Point is one of the largest pieces of undeveloped property in New York.

Like I’ve said before, it all comes down to stadiums in New York and if the Wilpons have the land for it, MLS needs to find a way to do something with them. I have a small hunch that before long the Wilpons and the Cosmos will get together and iron out some stadium details for a MLS team. But the clock is ticking on that.

On TV Ratings:

I had lunch with [an NHL friend] and we spoke about their deal with NBC and Versus, and talked about our situation as a challenge and an opportunity. We have to convert those fans who are part of the global game. We are similar to the NHL; however they are not competing with Russian hockey like we are competing with the Premier League. We need a product to convert those fans, and we do it by having good stories in local markets and better promotion. You think about what has driven hockey, it was strong local teams that had great local TV deals and passionate supporters. The soccer audience is big. Chelsea versus Manchester United had 550,000 viewers this year.

Good point about the NHL where MLS is and isn’t like them here. MLS has a lot of things to go up against, they are a small fish in a very large pond. The NHL is just a big fish in a smaller pond, at least in a hockey-sense (in a US sports landscape they’re a smaller fish).

A lot of interesting points here by Garber. He had some other interesting quotes about Kansas City and their stadium. For the full article, click here.

“This is a transition,” Garber told MLSsoccer.com. “SuperLiga was a great tournament which served its purpose during its time.

“CONCACAF got more and more committed to a continental tournament with the Champions League, which we’re very supportive of. It has delivered the value we intended [in SuperLiga] to put our teams against the best competition in this region.”

There, finally, the announcement we’ve been waiting to hear. SuperLiga is no more. While Garber said the new WFC tournament is meant to be more of an additive to SuperLiga rather than a replacement, we all can read between the lines on that one. The WFC will certainly bring in better clubs, which will bring in higher gate numbers for the clubs and hosts involved. This was always a struggle with SuperLiga and the league and it’s clubs had to have seen that over the course of the tournament.

It seems now that the summers will be packed with a couple MLS clubs hosting teams like Barcelona and Manchester United instead of playing teams down in the middle of the FMF standings. In a way you want your clubs to be able to beat up on FMF clubs at any point but there is something to be said about playing competition like Barcelona once in the summer. I’m fairly sure most fans and players would agree, they’ll get more out of a game with Barcelona than they would a game with Atlas.