I just wrote up a little piece on how MLS Cup is going back to LA for SBnation.com. Yeah, I can’t say I’m overly thrilled with this news.

While I like the HDC as a venue and a host for MLS Cup, I don’t like the start time for the game. A 9pm ET start isn’t ideal in any way for the league’s showcase game. All MLS can do here is pray the NFL lockout continues on and goes through November here.

What do you make of the Home Depot Center hosting the MLS Cup again here?

I meant to comment on this a couple weeks ago when it was announced that Chivas USA would face their parent club from Mexico in San Diego this month at PETCO Park. The club came out and immediately said something along the lines of “hey we’re not looking at this market to move here” and other things like that.

Honestly I didn’t buy it at the time and still don’t to today. The whole Chivas USA thing just hasn’t worked in LA and more specifically in the Home Depot Center where they share the stadium with the LA Galaxy.

Times could be changing though as SBI writer Adam Serrano is reporting that the club is looking at options to find a new facility. The Communications Manager of Chivas USA admitted to the Mexican media that plans are in the works to construct a new stadium specifically for the club.

About. Freakin. Time.

Now the question becomes do they stay in LA or move south to San Diego like some have been hoping for now for a few years. I think if they can find land in LA they’ll stay there. I had been pretty vocal in the past about the failures of this club and its attempt to be a brand of Chivas de Guadalajara here in America. The name never worked for me and the attempt to just attract Chivas de Guadalajara fans in LA was rather weak at best. They alienated other fan bases in the area that would oppose the Galaxy and other Latino fans that would support this team had they not had Chivas’ name attached to it.

A new stadium is the right step forward for this club to as they’ve never been a good enough fit for the Home Depot Center in my mind.

What do you think of Chivas USA finally looking for their own stadium? Will they stay in LA?

Those cities are three mentioned above with LA being the fourth.

Deep down I see it coming to either Toronto or New York in the end here. But let’s look at each cities’ chances here.

New York (Red Bull Arena): A brand-new stadium, which happens to be the best stadium the league has ever seen to this date, in the league’s biggest media market. I think all they had to do was show up with a couple photos of the facility and the league was probably already hooked.

The thing about Red Bull Arena is most of the cool stuff that will be around the stadium hasn’t been built yet. I’d say the league may hold off until 2011 for the MLS Cup. By then all the cool little things around the stadium should be in place and this truly will be a great venue in and out for hosting a MLS Cup.

Philadelphia (PPL Park): The new stadium on the waterfront in Chester is a nice one. The thing going against their bid (which was a good one) is the fact that the stadium won’t be finished until summer. Which also means a lot of items around the stadium may not be done by then either. My wonder is if their bid contained PPL Park (which I assume it would) or if they went bigger by going with the Linc.

Toronto (BMO Field): I saw their pitch in PDF form, and it was pretty cool. We’ve all heard about the promise of Toronto hosting a MLS Cup by 2012 but this year would make the most sense with the new grass field at the stadium. Now that the FieldTurf is gone it makes more sense to go ahead and give Toronto this game.

What could go against Toronto is the two new stadiums in the US. I still see this being the year Toronto gets to host the game…even if it means hosting a game in November in cold weather. (note: remember the first few MLS Cups, they were in nasty cold weather in the Northeast)

LA (Home Depot Center): This venue is really a fail-safe for the league. Its in the second biggest market and the stadium can easily host a good MLS Cup. This really however is probably a backup plan for the league should something go wrong with one of the three eastern bids.

First up is the lovely discussion that will be on going for the next 20 or 30 years with Major League Soccer. Yes I am actually talking about Promotion and Relegation system with the league. I bring it up since Don Garber was wise (sarcasm intended) to mention today out in London that he hopes to see that kind of system introduced to MLS down the line.

Thankfully Garber did say that the league is far too young and doesn’t nearly have the money to do such a thing at this time. So we’d have to imagine that we are at least 20 years away from such a thing. Maybe by then I’ll have a different opinion on doing it here.

Most of you know I’ve always been in the boat that it is a system that will never work here. Basically it is one of those things that if the timing is right, along with many other factors (including money) that it could work here.

I just don’t see this as something that Garber or the league is actually willing to try anytime soon though. But I do believe that this will only get the debate going that much more with those out there that believe it will work here in the States with MLS. To this day I have still yet to hear a good enough reason why the league needs to eventually switch to that kind of a system.

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Beckham Allowed to be Loaned Out

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He’s free to be loaned out yet again by the LA Galaxy this winter. The thing is Galaxy boss Tim Leiweke wants a loan done before things get real muddy like they did last winter with the Galaxy and AC Milan for David Beckham.

”We have a deep appreciation of what he is doing over here with his national team,” he said. ”I wanted him to know that we will support him so we are going to lend him out.”

”We know he has to be playing in Europe leading up to the World Cup. That has been made clear to us, and we are going to support that. He will be somewhere come January and we will see him back in July.

”We have a contract and despite people thinking we’re going to sell him, we’re not. David is going to finish his career with the Galaxy.”

You know if this is how the Beckham contract is going to be then so be it. Let’s get it done and move on so the club doesn’t have a looming circus over its head for a few months this winter.

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Home Depot Center Closing Upper Deck For Playoffs

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A bold move by the LA Galaxy who return to the playoffs for the first time in a couple years. They will be closing off the upper deck at the HDC for the playoffs. Since they may only host a single playoff game it does sounds like a risky move. They will only open it up if the lower bowl is sold out for their playoff game(s).

I guess since they are averaging just slightly below 20,000 this season they can do this sort of thing to increase atmosphere. My gut feeling tells me they will end up opening the top deck though for the playoffs.

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KC Stadium Update

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Mike at Down the Byline checks in with another update for the KC Stadium. This time he guesses when the stadium will be completed if all things go well. Right now it stands a chance at opening in the middle of the 2011 season. I kind of wonder if they will get the usually schedule treatment like others have had when opening a stadium during the middle of the season and get loads of road games early on with a massive amount of home games late to make up for it. Guess we will see, I just hope the project gets done either way.

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Open Letter To Chicago’s Owners

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A while back I nearly did a ranking of each club’s owners and I thought at the time the Fire’s owners were one of the better owners in the league…okay honestly I did have them at middle of the pack. But after seeing a letter like this I have to wonder if they should be lower on that list if I ever come around to finishing it.