Since FC Barcalona gave up on Miami soccer for Major League Soccer the fans in the area have had little to get excited about when it comes to MLS talk. Turns out today the supporters down in Miami are trying to do something about it.

Mad About Futbol and Miami Soccer Fan have begun a drive to return MLS to Miami.

Miami does have some quality buzz surrounding it right now as a market for MLS. For a league that needs TV ratings, the league does need a town like Miami that gets great ratings for soccer games on TV. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale TV market however finished 1st in the Nielson ratings for the US-Brazil game, 3rd for both US-Mexico games this year and 4th for the US-Spain game. For a league that finishes behind poker, softball and sometimes even bowling, this may be the chip that Miami supporters need to bank on.

To get more information on the drive and to join the pledge drive for MLS Miami go here: http://www.miamisoccerfan.com/Soccer/Tickets.html

Editor’s note: This is the second column but Geoff Reid. As mentioned before Geoff will be writing on WVH from time to time. Today he tackles the fun that has been the 2011 expansion race.

With the 2009 MLS season about to kick off this week and everything that’s happened the week gone by, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the future regarding our league.

Last week we saw drama from the Pacific northwest to the Gateway City. The fact that the vote in Portland on Wednesday would not only dictate how far their own bid would go, it would also influence the Ottawa bid and especially the St. Louis bid. However, even before all this 11th hour drama began, what looks like the one certain lock has been the quiet, yet steady bid the whole time since all original bids were announced back in the fall. Continue Reading…

We started with seven and now with a couple weeks left before the league’s decision on expansion we have four cities in the running. With today’s news about Miami getting dropped from consideration one has to wonder which of the final four will the league go with?

For weeks I had said that since the league didn’t go a head and grant Miami a bid like most had thought they would before today that something was going wrong. A few months back most expected Miami to already be planning for 2010. But instead there was a delay and that delay ended today as bid died.

Sorry Miami fans, it just wasn’t in the cards for you after all. And to be real honest it is a smart move on the league’s part to not try that market just yet here. One day down the road for sure but definitely not now.

I liked the passion some people had about the Miami bid. Believe me there were plenty of commentors on here about how Miami would get a club in 2010 and that good news was around the corner for the bid. Turns out their wishful thinking was just that.

Today all we will see is a flood of Miami bashers out there and a slew of Miami fans that will just be upset more than anything.

In the end we have four left on the floor to pick from. Portland, a strong bid that is close to getting the public support that it needs to get a bid; Vancouver, a well-backed bid in a city that would probably handle a MLS team pretty well; St. Louis, once seen as a front-runner is now probably more of a dark horse than anything today; and Ottawa, the most laughed at bid in the bunch.

I am still hopeful that St. Louis can get it done in the end but money has and will probably continue to be an issue with them.

My money today, just like it has been for the last several months is on Portland for one bid and now more than ever I believe Vancouver is the other. We will see in a couple short weeks.

Where do you see the league going to now? Miami, the bid seen as a front-runner for months is gone…so who is now in line to take the bids?

Now we are down to four.

Major League Soccer has made their decision today. No Miami Expansion.

The biggest reason being adverse market conditions.

“I want to thank both FC Barcelona and Marcelo Claure for the tremendous effort to bring an MLS expansion team to Miami,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber. “FC Barcelona is one of the best managed and strategically operated sporting clubs in any sport in the World and I appreciate the opportunity that we have had to work with them and Marcelo Claure over the last few months.”

“The U.S market continues to be a priority for FC Barcelona,” said FC Barcelona CEO Joan Oliver. “We will continue our comprehensive game promotion and marketing agreement with Soccer United Marketing and will look for additional ways to strengthen our relationship with MLS and America’s soccer fans.”

“I remain a believer in MLS and the future of professional soccer in America… particularly in South Florida,” said Marcelo Claure. “Although we have not been able to move forward at this time for a wide variety of reasons, I will work with FC Barcelona on other soccer projects in South Florida.”

What do you make of this news? Anyone actually surprised by this? I have to say that I am not in the least surprised to see this bid get pulled off the table now.

It sounds like another MLS expansion bid could be dead. Marcelo Claure told newspapers in Bolivia (thanks to Marc S. for the translation) that there is now a 50% chance that Miami could get an expansion bid with Major League Soccer.

Claure states that “today I would say that this [Miami franchise] will not happen”. “I think, and this is being optimistic, we have 50% chances to get the franchise”, he added.

Claure also stated economic reasons and even put some blame on the whole David Beckham soap opera.

Either way this doesn’t sound too good for the Miami bid going into the final stretch of days before the league announces the two expansion sites.

You can read more of this article here (in Spanish). I hope to have more on this later.

Sorry Miami folks. There just won’t be any news regarding your potential MLS club today. Earlier some had thought there would be news regarding Marcelo Claure and his visit with Barcelona FC in Spain. But according to Total Futbol in Miami there will be no news given today.

Any notion that an announcement would be made by the league regarding Miami today was indeed premature.

But if some news does come down about Claure’s meeting with Barca and if he was able to keep them on board in the bid we may get that later on today. Its just a wait and see game right now for this bid.

Talk about some crazy and potentially huge news for some. According to the Miami Herald (and some other Spanish reports) Barcelona could be backing out of the Miami expansion bid due to the current economy.

But on Friday, FC Barcelona director Jean Oliver said at a news conference that the club’s quest to have an MLS team is “very delicate, and we are evaluating if the situation allows for the model planned to be implemented in Miami or not.”

He said the team is reviewing the deal, negotiating, and that he would rather commit when “there was not financial risk to the club.”

Oliver added: “The economic situation in the United States is very complicated. What are we doing? Evaluating with great care to see if the change in the economic situation means the project is not viable right now. We said we’d have a team in MLS if there was no financial risk to the club. But the situation with the American economy right now forces us to be more prudent to make sure this risk doesn’t exist. The risk now is greater than it was when we made the announcement.”

With a couple weeks left before the announcement of the two expansion spots this is a big break for some expansion bids and terrible news for Miami supporters.

I’ve read over a few things and it looks like both Barca and Marcelo Claure are just evaluating the current landscape of things. Claure has always been seen as the one that would be putting the cash behind the majority of this club and Barca would throw in whatever else was needed. At least that’s how it has always been present to me, I could be wrong on that.

Still for the biggest chip on the table to possibly leave this bid before the expansion bids are announced by the league is a huge thing. I’ve said for a while that since the league hasn’t granted Miami anything by now that something is going on with it that maybe the league didn’t care for. And this could be part of it.

I still believe Miami is in even with this news but I am slowly starting to think that we could see two more Canadian clubs in the league before it is all said and done here. Just a weird hunch.