According to the Ottawa Sun, Ottawa city staff’s evaluation of two major stadium proposals favors Lansdowne Live over the potential bid by Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk.

The city deems Melnyk’s business plan “below expectations.”

The report says Senators Sports and Entertainment “was deemed not to have satisfied this criteria (business plan).”

It says that the revenues expected from their plan were too optimistic.

A tough blow to this bid indeed. It doesn’t mean it is totally dead but it sounds like it isn’t far off from being the case. Its not like any of us really expected this to be a MLS city in the end anyways.

Just as we all expected once Miami dropped out of the running, Vancouver will be getting an expansion club in Major League Soccer with an announcement tomorrow morning. The CBC is reporting that the Whitecaps will be holding a press conference tomorrow with commissioner Don Garber.

The Vancouver Whitecaps are expected to hold a media conference on Wednesday to announce that the club has been selected for one of two MLS expansion franchises scheduled to begin play in 2011.

The move to the MLS has been anticipated for some time. Last week, Vancouver radio station TEAM 1040 reported that MLS officials would be in Vancouver this week to officially award the expansion team.

Vancouver is expected to keep their current nickname the Whitecaps once they are in MLS. So in a way you could make the case that the Whitecaps are just getting a promotion to MLS from the USL first division. Finally promotion in MLS…sorry no one will be relegated to USL-1 from MLS in 2011 though.

The story still remains about who will be the 18th club and join the Whitecaps in 2011. Portland seems like the most likely candidate at this moment but the league has pushed back any announcement on their front for the time being. Some are already reporting that Portland is in, which isn’t a huge shocker while others remain hopeful it is St. Louis.

Also, some are also saying that Portland could be announced Thursday morning too.

Portland has voted in soccer. In a tight 3-2 vote, the city passed the plan to get Portland an expansion club in 2011 along with Vancouver.

Stay tuned for more.

Wow. If Major League Soccer was looking for a serious deep pocket for the St. Louis bid they may have gotten it. Today Anheuser-Busch has joined Jeff Cooper and his group to get a MLS club in the Gateway City.

“It’s huge. It’s a turning point,” Cooper said. “This commitment brings a lot of credibility to our bid, and shows the league how serious we are.”

“This is the best situation we could have hoped for,” Cooper said. “Whether it throws us over the top, that’s up to the MLS.”

Of course it all depends on the vote in Portland today. St. Louis is hoping to hear good news out of PDX later tonight. The league has already stepped up and posted a report on this matter.

I guess if things go well in Portland tonight St. Louis will turn to the USL for a club. Right? More than likely. Its kind of weird to think that they don’t already have USL-1 team right now anyways.

But for hype-sake here is a lovely video via The Offside Rules.


Portland Mayor Sam Adams Pitches MLS from The Offside Rules on Vimeo.

Two sources requesting anonymity said this week that Greg Kerfoot, the reclusive Vancouver businessman and owner of the Whitecaps, was negotiating the final details of an agreement with MLS commissioner Don Garber.

The new MLS team would replace the existing Whitecaps club, which competes in the less prestigious United Soccer League’s First Division. The new team would take the name Whitecaps and begin play in 2011.

Yesterday, Dan Courtemanche, MLS vice-president of communications and marketing, said the league hopes to announce its two successful applicants by March 31. He added that an announcement could still come before the MLS season begins on March 19.

Funny how it looks like the league could be pushing their announcement back to after the start of the season for the two bits. Earlier it was going to be before the season kicks off next week but now it looks like by the end of the month.

Back to Vancouver though. The more I read into this the more I really begin to like this Vancouver bid. The city loves it’s soccer and the fact that there is no other big-time sports league to compete within the city really opens my eyes to the bid even more. Plus the history and rivalry with Seattle makes it pretty sweet as well.

Vancouver was quiet all along in this expansion process with very little hicups along the way. I guess slow and steady does win the race after all.

The article also brings up another point that the league could be working behind closed doors to help a bid get in if they are struggling with the expansion fee.

But the source added that MLS is well aware of the financial times and would be willing to discuss a method in which successful bidders could pay the fee over a longer period.

To me that sounds like St. Louis but I won’t go into that at the moment. A lot depends on Portland this week. If something falls through there I could see the league getting a deal done with St. Louis. Just a hunch.

Paulson denys any fit that was thrown at the meeting. It appears both sides are playing some hard ball with one another to get a deal here. Thankfully this should all come to a resolution next week when the city votes on everything.

It all does give me a thought, and Duane Rollins over at the 24th Minute makes a good point about it as well. Does the league really have a plan if Portland falls through on their bid?

I’ve said it before, there could be a deal being worked behind closed doors with St. Louis to get a team there. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has stated a lot that he really wants a club there. “That being said, I’ve said many times before we want a team in St. Louis,” Garber said. “We’re working hard to help.”

Or could the league fall back on another plan to maybe get a city like Montreal in?

Man next Wednesday’s vote in Portland can’t come soon enough here. Once we hear what happens there we will really know for sure what the league is going to do and probably not do.

“Obviously I’ve always felt good about where we sit with this,” he said from San Francisco, where he was at WPS league meetings. “We’ve got a lot of good things going. At end of the day, do I feel like we’ll get it? Yes I do.”

“What I do know is, we don’t have the problems Miami has in terms of bids,” he said. “We have a stadium that’s revenue controlled. It’s going to be a good run for us over the next few months.”

Cooper even mentioned that economic reasons have not troubled the bid.

“We stand as ready as we’ve been,” he said. “Nothing has deterred us. I feel good about our bid and where we stand. Personally I think it’s a shame Miami is out, it’s a great city, and I thought the same about Montreal and Atlanta. They need to be in the league. But the league needs to come to St. Louis first.”

Yeah, even though Miami is out you gotta believe Cooper is loving the fact that the big dog is out of the running here. I still have a feeling he and the league are meeting a lot these days to discuss a deal to get the city a club before long. If Cooper can get an expansion fee at a discounted rate like what Miami and Montreal have been reported to trying to do.

As much as I really want to see St. Louis in the league, at this point I just feel like they’ve been passed up here by the two cities in the Pac-Northwest.

The task force recommendation “leans heavily on caution” though but even with that caution the city looks like they are very close to getting a MLS club.

The city council will vote next week on a preliminary deal. Merritt Paulson must make a formal bid to MLS by March 19.

Not a total shocker when you see the final four bids on the table. St. Louis has been knocked for a lack of money and Ottawa as never really been taken serious from the start.

With MLS not moving on it’s $40 million price tag it really means the ones with money are the most likely to walk away winners here. Vancouver has the deepest pockets left and Portland really isn’t too far behind with Merritt Paulson already stating he will gladly put up the $40 million fee.

If all goes well tonight in Portland I would expect the league to go forward (based on these reports) by the middle of the month (remember the league wants to announce the two winners before the season starts).

Again, I am not shocked by this news that Portland and Vancouver are in the front seat here. But I will say this the 2013 race (if there is one…could be bumped the 2015) for the next two spots will be even crazier than this round when you consider possibly a New York club, Montreal back in the mix, and possibly Miami again.

And lastly, for the night, if these two do win it could be time for the league to go single table with an overflow of clubs in the western conference. Though don’t be too shocked if the league gets stupid on us and splits the league into four divisions or something crazy like that. That’s a whole other issue for another day folks.