Garber will meet with the Miami Ultras and other soccer fans this Saturday, taking time out of his schedule to meet with the very folks that apparently flood his inbox on a daily basis with requests of brining MLS back to Miami.

Miami fans should be excited and thrilled about this chance to sway Garber’s mind about their city. Their passion for their city is commendable to say the very least but you have to wonder will it even be enough considering how bluntly Garber and the league front office has been about New York being the next expansion target.

I wonder too if this is just Garber putting on a nice face for the league by meeting with these groups. There certainly is a core group of fans that believe with their whole hearts that MLS should indeed return to Miami as the 20th team. But the big concerns continue to surround Miami like they always have. Locals there need to face the harsh reality of those truths and get past them here at this meeting. That’s one thing that will certainly help them get a MLS club again in their city down the road.

I’m sure Garber will make Miami fans feel good about what they are doing but like Jason Davis pointed out it will likely be a polite way of telling them to stop the constant emails. He’ll leave the fans there with some new hope about a team in their city and possibly even surprise us all by saying there are investors in the area looking to help out that we’ve never heard about before. Who knows really what Garber’s true intentions of this meeting really is here .

But in all Miami fans really do need to put up or shut up here. If they are truly passionate about a team they need to show up to this little meeting in a big way by bringing in lots of folks. Not just the core group of fans because let’s face it that won’t be enough*. The better the numbers showing up the better this meeting can go for you. At least he is throwing your city a bone here when you really look at it. He’s not doing this for Atlanta, or Detroit, or Tampa, or any other possible expansion city.

* That comment isn’t meant to say that the core group of fans is a small group of people. Just saying that folks there need to flood this meeting room with people like they flood Garber’s email inbox each day.

The meeting with Garber will be held at 3030 Restaurant at Marriot Harbour Beach Hotel, 3030 Holiday Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316.

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

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.

At first we all thought Montreal would be in instantly including yours truly. Montreal already have a state of the art stadium that can easily expanded to meet the needs of MLS. The Impact already have a rivalry with Toronto FC and it would be enhanced in league play. Of course not forgetting fan support. It looked like potential ownership had deep enough pockets but maybe not deep enough as we thought.

Arthur Blank and his Atlanta bid dropping out was not a complete surprise as he has apparently lost some money in this downturn and it was always an underdog at best. Atlanta should be kept in mind for the future though, but at the moment other cities are better fits currently then them.

Then the biggest surprise of them all thus far, was Miami dropping out of the race. Not only having a billionaire potential owner from Bolivia, but with the help of arguably the biggest club side in the world joining the bid was something MLS simply could not ignore not only because of what the name FC Barcelona stands for globally, but because the club already have a marketing partnership with SUM for the next five years.

I for one was never a fan of the Miami bid for a number of reasons and the only reason why Claure and company lasted as long as they did was because of the Spanish giants involvement. In the future MLS should try the Miami market again depending on the economic climate and measuring it up with other bids that may come into play. Currently there are just more deserving cities right now.

So with two near enough certainties dropping out early the field, it then became an open race for the most part.

Vancouver has been the one bid that nobody heard a peep from and at the moment, that is good news. Everything has seemed to fall in place in BC: deep pockets, stadium deal done and fan support. Of course stranger things have happened such as two early favorites dropping out so don’t count them in until it’s officially announced, but it does look an almost certainty.

If Vancouver is in, that leaves a closer race for the last spot. Portland got what they needed Wednesday, however, they were not counting on Anheuser-Busch joining Albert Pujols and Jeff Cooper the same day. Who would have thought competition for expansion franchises in MLS would get this competitive five years ago?

It doesn’t take a Ivy league graduate to figure out that Portland would be an excellent fit for MLS. They have the owner with deep pockets, extremely strong fan support with an instant local rivalry with the Sounders and Whitecaps (if Vancouver gets in) and now have officially a stadium deal in place. Although it seems that $15m must come up from somewhere which looks like the final hurdle that needs to be cleared.

St. Louis must be thinking what else have we got to do to impress Don Garber after losing the 2010 expansion race to Philadelphia and possibly the 2011 race. The question that remains is not so much a potential ownership group with deep pockets now because of the events that took place last week, the question is are they too late? One wonders why Jeff Cooper could not get Anheuser-Busch on board much earlier. However, it certainly gives MLS much to think about by extending the decision to March 31st.

The other Canadian bid in the capital did raise a number of eyebrows when the bids were announced. Classed as an underdog just as Atlanta was is a credit to the Ottawa bid that they have lasted this long. However, just as the Atlanta and Miami bids before them, they should be considered for future expansion should the league choose to expand further. Right now, there are other bids that just fit better currently plus the stadium deal hasn’t been officially put in place yet.

Jeff Cooper said recently in a interview with Gol TV he thinks all original seven bids were good enough and in an ideal environment MLS would like all seven bids to join the league. It’s hard to disagree with that statement. Unfortunately, putting aside all the paperwork and obstacles that need to be cleared, the truth is the talent pool is not big enough to accommodate seven new clubs all at once in North America. Include the current salary cap in the equation then it would be more difficult to bring in more foreign players. However, with roster size changes, number of foreign players per team, the cap will increase and therefore teams will have a little bit more room to be flexible in bringing in new talent. Should MLS continue to expand by another two teams in 2012 or 2013, the choices should be obvious ones.

MLS should do whatever it takes to get the Montreal Impact in the league simply because it makes so much sense in every way and there is too much potential there to ignore. The other should go to either Portland or St. Louis whichever is the one that loses in the current race.

At the moment Portland is favorite and all signs point to them winning, but just as Miami and Montreal showed us nothing is guaranteed.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Instead, they continue to wait.

Sun Sentinel soccer reporter Jeff Rusnak writes the group will have to wait at least another month.

“No specific date has been set for an expansion announcement,” MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche wrote in an e-mail. “However, we do not anticipate an announcement until [prior to the MLS season in] early March.”

Some reports had suggested Miami would know by the middle of this month that they would have a MLS club. The clock is still ticking on that rumor.

However the group remains confident that they will still receive a club based mostly on the bid’s ownership group.

Some in Miami thought to stage a rally to promote the club and increase the efforts. But the concern is still there with this bid.

There may be some merit in staging a rally to show MLS there’s support for a team in Miami, though it also carries a risk if attendance is poor. More likely, a rally wouldn’t make a difference.

MLS is aware of the challenges Claure and Barcelona would face in filling FIU on a consistent basis. In fact, concern over the area’s level of support for the MLS brand is the counterweight that threatens to sink this dream partnership between Claure and Barcelona.

Their biggest competition is pretty much down to Portland and Vancouver. The more we hear about of St. Louis the worse it gets for them. Going up against two soccer-rich towns like Portland and Vancouver isn’t easy but Miami will more than likely still get in even though most believe they will struggle to fill stadiums on a consistent basis.

I still believe this delay hurts Miami a little bit. The league is seriously looking at these bids to make sure it fits right within the league. Not getting that announcement when FCB and Claure had hoped surely doesn’t mean the bid is dead or won’t come through but I do believe it means that league isn’t caving in on the fact that they will be one of the richest ownership groups (if not the richest) in the league.

[Note: Please refrain from posting comments like "Miami is in, announcement soon" or "Miami 2010" ...or anything of that notion...if you are excited about Miami getting a team and want to comment be thoughtful and not annoying...too many comments come in that have little thought put into them like that...]

Miami is still the front-runner for the expansion race.

We started a few months ago with seven hopefuls. Now we are looking at just five. Montreal cooled their jets about MLS expansion back at MLS Cup  and Atlanta did the same last week during the SuperDraft.

Five cities remain in what is starting to sound like a nasty episode of Survivor. Portland, Vancouver, Ottawa, Miami and St. Louis remain. Only two will move on.

Yeah, sounds too much like a reality show.

Anyways, what do we make of the final five here? Will another fall through before the league announces their plans? It’s possible with comments Don Garber made about St. Louis and their situation recently.

Money is still a big issues with most of these bids. Even if the owners have deep pockets that still may not be good enough for the league. And even if the bids have good stadium projects it may not matter.

So where do I see the remaining five? I figured it would be best to rank the final cities before the league made their decision. Here is where I see them standing right now. You may agree or disagree with what I am about to say, and that is fine. Just because a city is ranked above another does not mean I fully support it’s bid for expansion. I think you all know that already though.

[And please spare us all from the typical "City Name and 2010 or 2011" comments...if you have anything to say about this stuff please actually put a thoughtful comment on here and not something that I will want to delete. Believe I get way too tired of saying those kinds of comments everywhere I go that has an expansion discussion. Sorry for the rant. ]

1. Miami

It’s pretty clear that the league won’t be able to pass up this bid. Barca Miami or whatever it will be called (God I hope they come up with an actual name and not that) is bid with loads of money…and a big name in FCB. The league’s relationship with the Spanish club would probably go to waste if this bid is passed up for some reason. I have my doubt about it as I have probably made clear but for right now they are the clear favorites to be selected for a bid.

Now I also don’t think they will be a MLS club in 2010. Even if Philly continues to have issues I just don’t buy into Miami being back in the league as early as next year. Just my opinion though. I’m sure there will be floods of comments with Miami 2010 or whatever.

I still believe that the Barca owners have no idea what they are really getting into as far as dealing with MLS roster rules and such go. I know it will be more on Marcelo Claure to do the day-to-day running of this club but even he won’t be able to handle the weird rules that the league imposes on clubs. But that is a story for another day.

Pluses on the bid: Loads of money, big name.

Minuses on the bid: History in Miami, Stadium deal isn’t as sweet as some think it is due to two words: Field Turf.

2. Portland

The more bad press St. Louis gets the better for Portland. I know their owners are trying to do whatever they can to get a bid in place for 2011. Right now I have them getting in because I do see Paulson ponying up the cash to get the renovations in place at PGE Park and enough to pay the expansion fee. But if St. Louis get’s their act together in the bank department they may get the nod above Portland…it just all comes down to who the league sees having more money and right now it is Portland.

Pluses on the bid: History in city, supporters group larger than any other bid, most MLS-ready of any bid.

Minuses on the bid: Stadium situation needs to be resolved, money still not all there.

3. St. Louis

This one was tough for me but right now it looks like St. Louis may get left out yet again. The money is the real issue with this bid still and the league continues to discuss it. Not a good sign. Thing is the league wants to be there and they will before long. It just may not be in 2011. In 2013 or whenever I would have to think a deal will finally work out. Sad part too since they actually have a legit stadium plan and not some shared facility with a college.

Pluses on the bid: Stadium deal (the only one with a legit stadium and not a renovation or shared deal), history of the sport in the city.

Minuses on the bid: Money situation.

4. Vancouver

Montreal dropping out really opened the door for Vancouver but right now the bid just isn’t as strong as the other American bids. Sure the makeover to BC Place is nice but let’s be real honest about it here, the league doesn’t have to go to another Canadian city right away again. Toronto has been great but the next Canadian city can wait a little while longer.

Vancouver could still sneak in over Portland but I just don’t think they will right now. The league wants a true rival to Seattle and Portland would be better at that than Vancouver. I know Vancouver supporters will claim that they will be a rival for Seattle and Toronto but I think TFC will be fine without Vancouver where as Seattle will not thrive as well without Portland.

Pluses on the bid: Rivalries to Seattle/Toronto, money situation may be just as good as Miami.

Minuses on the bid: Stadium deal isn’t that great, would be better with a true soccer stadium.

5. Ottawa

Why was this a bid in the first place? How it is still standing is another thing. At least they can say they won’t be dead last in this since Atlanta and Montreal backed out. Its just sad this ownership group wasn’t in another city or we may be talking about it more.

Pluses on the bid: Stadium deal was pretty nice.

Minuses on the bid: Everything else. Just a waste of a bid really.