David Beckham will be a club owner in the near future. (Getty Images)

While we don’t know where the location of the 20th Major League Soccer club will eventually be we do have a pretty good idea of who the owner of the club will be. It’s been reported nearly everywhere that David Beckham has an option in his mega-MLS contract that stipulates he can own a club once he is done playing in the league.

So in 2012 when his contract is up he will likely stay in the league as an owner.

“We’ve got options of which team [to buy],” said MLS commissioner Don Garber, declining to name them or potential cities. “It will happen eventually, yeah.”

Beckham’s option starts with the 20th MLS club according to Garber but that won’t come until at least 2012. With Montreal set to be number 19 you have ti figure the list of potential cities for a Beckham owned team is pretty short. I don’t see Beckham taking over an existing club at the moment and relocating it. Expansion seems to be the way the league wants this deal to work out so more than likely the city has to be big. More than likely it will have to be a New York if it is an expansion team.

From what a few folks are saying this morning like Steve Goff, some former expansion sites like St. Louis and Miami are out of the question right now. Goff said there just isn’t the right money involved in those areas to be considered a strong candidate at the moment.

I know the league does need to be in the Southeast at some point but I just think a Beckham-owned team is better suited for New York here.

Montreal inches closer to a MLS expansion bid.

By now we’ve all seen the lovely quote from MLS commissioner Don Garber yesterday about future league expansion.

“We’ve had productive conversations with Montreal to be our 19th team,” said Garber.

With all the issues going on with the USL/TOA crap you have to think that Montreal owner Joey Saputo is trying to figure out the best way to get his club into the top-tier league instead of a new breakaway league. Saputo probably would have gotten an expansion bid for the 2011 round had he not gone crazy over the expansion fee this time last year. Instead he is busting his ass to get a deal done as soon as possible from what folks up north are saying.

We mentioned last week that he was invited to MLS Cup this weekend by the league as well. That should definitely be a place that he is able to boost his club’s ratings up a bit to get into MLS.

But after Montreal we still have no idea who the 20th club will be. Garber didn’t bring up a name for who he thought was even in the running for the 20th club. Some folks sure jumped on the Detroit bandwagon real quick yesterday with the news about the Silverdome being bought to be used as a soccer facility. Honestly, like I said yesterday I just don’t buy that at all.

What about New York though? I know a group that seems keen on the idea still of a club in the city. And based on some recent news (or another mention) of David Beckham’s group looking at owning a club in either Miami, New York or Montreal when he is done with his time in MLS definitely sparks some interest for those guys in New York.

Go ahead and throw Montreal out of the mix for Beckham. We’ve known for ages it was always going to be either Miami or New York for him. A lot will come down to where the potential club would play and probably support from the local area. Are the Miami Ultras better than the Borough Boys? Only time will tell.

My money is still on New York even though we do need to see a club in the Southeast again sometime down the road. Continue Reading…

I know these photos have been out there for a couple days now but I bring them here since some guys at the Borough Boys were nice enough to email them to me today. They are trying to show that they are deserving of their own MLS club in New York City.

According to the email, some New England fans set these banners up earlier this season at Giants Stadium. They snuck into the Red Bull section and hung these up for all to see. Then this past Sunday they were at it again at their own stadium.

It does comes to show that other club supporters are in line with what the Borough Boys are doing here.

At the end of the day there are seven cities competiting for a MLS expansion bid. Two cities will win out and begin playing in 2011, while the rest will wonder and hope if the league will put up another round of expansion for the 19th and 20th clubs.

Once more those in the mix:

Atlanta (Arthur Blank)
Miami (FC Barcelona, Marcelo Claure)
Montreal (Saputo and Gillett families)
Ottawa (Eugene Melnyk)
Portland (Paulson family)
St. Louis (Jeff Cooper group)
Vancouver (Greg Kerfoot, Steve Nash, Jeff Mallett)

Those not in the mix:
Las Vegas
New York

Interesting word out of Miami though too about their bid. Scary as it seems the club could be named Barca Miami. The thought of that makes me want to puke up something awful. I’d much rather keep it simple with Miami FC or something similar to that. Hell even bring back the Fusion name for all I care but just not Barca Miami. That just sound tacky.

I guess too I was wrong about New York for this round of expansion. Don’t sleep on that bid though, it will come around for the next round in a couple years.

There still seems to be a lot of question over whether or not New York Mets (MLB) owner Fred Wilpon and his group will be putting in an expansion bid or not to Major League Soccer. News coming out of Queens today is that Wilpon is hoping to turn the land at the old Shea Stadium into a soccer stadium for a MLS club.

Major league soccer officials are currently talking with Mets owner Fred Wilpon about development of a new pro soccer team that would be headquartered at a stadium to be built on a portion of land currently occupied by Shea Stadium.

The report, released last month by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office, indicates the proposed new pro soccer stadium would be built near what is now the pitcher’s mound at Shea Stadium

There’s still no actual mention of a bid to the league but I still have a feeling deep down that there is one on the table that we just haven’t seen yet in the press. Maybe today’s announcement on MLSnet’s ExtraTime at 5pm ET will shed more light on the subject. We all know MLS Commissioner Don Garber wants a club in New York and has been working to get one for a few years now. With possible land available for a stadium he may still get his wish.

Tomorrow is the deadline but let’s go through and see who all has sent in their bid to the league for an expansion club. Right now there are a few cities with some big bids on the table for MLS to go over for the next two clubs. But floating out there is also the possibility that the league would expand to 20 clubs and take on two more clubs in the very near future, potentially by 2012.

This is comment from Jack Bell at the New York Times got me thinking about 20 clubs instead of 18.

Major League Soccer will announce on Wednesday the bidders for two, perhaps four, expansion teams after the 5 p.m. ET deadline for bids.

Now nothing has actually been said but you just never know. With MLS having a few solid bids on the table right now they may not want to shy away from a couple of them, thus meaning adding four more to 20 clubs makes sense.

Look at this list of who is wanting a club and how I think they stack up. For the next two my money is on Portland and Miami. Montreal and St. Louis are a close second in that as well. Continue Reading…

You better believe it. From the emails I’ve gotten from the Borough Boys in New York, this process to get a second team in New York is still a go. Today on Bloomberg.com, baseball’s New York Mets say they are in discussions with MLS about placing a club in a separate venue near their new baseball stadium in Queens.

“We’re not resting,” David Howard said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio’s “On the Ball” program, airing Sept. 13. “Before even Citi Field is completed, we’re looking to see what might be next for us. There’s a lot of opportunity and potential.”

The league would welcome another New York team, Dan Courtemanche said.

“We’ve had preliminary discussions,” he said. “A second team in New York would provide a true local rivalry for the Red Bulls and increase the overall popularity of the league in the area and nationally.”

We all know this has been called a ‘pet-project’ of MLS Commissioner Don Garber for some time. And with Fred Wilpon leading the charge, that is a good thing too. He’s got some very deep pockets and would instantly make a splash in this league.

Should those other expansion hopefuls be worried that the league is having discussions with Wilpon and his group? If I were St. Louis or Portland…or Montreal I would be.