I had every intention of posting this last night but had other things come up. Anyways, yesterday MLS commissioner Don Garber gave his media call and during the Q&A he threw out a big nugget on the New York expansion situation.

Garber stated that the league has taken the lead on getting a stadium plan together for a potential expansion team in the Big Apple, a first done so by the league. So far the league has looked at 19 different stadium locations.

“We want to ensure that when this project is complete that we have the perfect site for a stadium,” Garber said. “We’ll take the time — as long as it takes — to ensure we have the right site. That’s how important the second New York team-project is.”

“When the stadium’s done, there’ll be no shortage of owners who will line up and want to pay $100 million for our 20th team in New York,” Garber said. “We are working closely with the Mayor’s office, and they have been a great resource for us in helping to steer us to sites that they think can be developed and work in areas where they think there will be great community support and a great opportunity to achieve success. We still have work to do to finalize even a timeframe for the 20th team in New York, but we continue to be optimistic.”

As you saw earlier in my “bold season predictions” I claim that something does get done this year with a New York expansion team. I’m optimistic that it will happen and we’ll put to bed this whole race for the 20th club*.

(* saying this I do also think that the league isn’t nearly done expanding…Orlando is definitely in the mix and so will about a half other dozen cities once the league gets to 20…soon enough it will be the race for the 24th club)

(** and a second side note…I also really hope that the league gets a little more serious in helping both New England and DC out in their stadium quests as well. There were questions yesterday about each team and their stadium. In a way that really should be a higher priority for the league. Also, I’d throw Chivas USA into that mix as they’ll be hunting for a stadium location soon enough)

Chuck Blazer could throw a massive monkey wrench into the New York expansion fun. (Getty Images)

The writing was possibly too much on the wall for this not to happen. We heard the whispers for a little while that something could be going wrong in the New York Cosmos to MLS expansion camp. With the news the other day that Cosmos chairman and CEO Paul Kemsley resigned, you just knew something else was going on.

Apparently some folks from the Middle East – from Saudi Arabia to be exact – are in talks to take over the Cosmos and their expansion effort. You have to think it is a group with some serious scratch.

But that isn’t even the biggest part of this story. Earlier this week both Soccer America and The Sporting News reported that a new group is in the hunt for this elusive New York expansion team in MLS.

Enter Chuck Glazer.

MLS commissioner Don Garber has said a few times over the last several months that there have been more than one group in New York pushing for this expansion slot, not just the Cosmos.

Blazer, who will retain his seat on FIFA’s executive committee, will be joined by former Cosmos goalkeeper Shep Messing and retired New York Jets running back Curtis Martin in an effort to land the New York City franchise that MLS so desperately wants, Soccer America reported this week.

The Sporting News mentioned that there are no other mentions of the other groups that are said to be out there. My bet, this is the big fish the league is hoping for in New York. Sure the Cosmos name and brand is iconic but at the end of the day it comes down to one important thing in New York – money.

Blazer and his group will likely have a bigger pile of money to throw at getting a stadium in New York and to getting a team in MLS. Who knows what this Saudi group that could take over the Cosmos will bring to the table, if anything it means it will be another group with a lot of scratch.

I think soccer fans in New York will enjoy hearing this news, others around the country that hope to get a MLS team in their city will certainly hate hearing this. Again, money is what drives all of this in the first place. Most of these “hopeful” cities are lacking at the moment. Until someone in Detroit, Miami, Tampa, Minnesota, San Diego or whatever flashes a few hundred million in front of the league’s front office, they likely won’t get too much of a sniff from the league.

Citi Field wasn't bad but it looks like a step in the right direction for New York's expansion hopes in MLS. (Getty Images)

Most soccer fans in the US had their attentions on Detroit last night (who have MLS ambitions of their own) but the one place Major League Soccer would like to expand to next had a little international game of their own last night. Citi Field hosted it’s first international soccer match last night between Greece and Ecuador to nearly 40,000 fans.

The game ended 1-1 but that isn’t the story. The story is still the potential MLS expansion team in New York, possibly playing in Queens. Don’t take this in the manner that I’m saying a MLS team will play at Citi Field here either. No, that will not happen. As you see, Citi Field is great but not for soccer. MLS has seen and done enough sharing with baseball teams in the past that we know it isn’t a great idea.

This won’t be the last international friendly at Citi Field though. The New York Times is reporting that baseball’s Mets are hoping to get another big summer friendly on the books here this year. Mets executive vice president Dave Howard said a match between a “very well-known” European club and a comparable Central America club. I hope he misspoke as a Central America club doesn’t sound nearly as good as a South America or Mexican side. But we’ll see.

Still the talk with this game centers around MLS in New York. On Wednesday the Times released this bit of information from MLS about their expansion hopes in New York:

The developments come at a time when Major League Soccer is moving to expand to New York City, with Flushing the likely destination for the league’s second team in the area. The Red Bulls, the area’s only M.L.S. team, play their home games at the 25,000-seat, $200 million Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J.

“We remain focused on securing a 20th team for Major League Soccer in New York,” the M.L.S. spokesman Dan Courtemanche said via e-mail. “We do not have a set time frame on when we will add a 20th team. Our goal is to have a second team in N.Y. at the earliest opportunity. The N.Y. market is a priority, but it may take a couple of years before we have the team and stadium finalized.”

Mets ownership, led by Fred Wilpon, has discussed the possibility of owning a club with the M.L.S. commissioner, Don Garber, over the last few years. Howard said the sides had talked again “recently.”

But an M.L.S. club operated by Wilpon may be unlikely given his financial issues the last few months, and Garber has said that there were other ownership groups interested, including a group that has bought the rights to the Cosmos name and is aggressively seeking a team in M.L.S.

One obstacle is the lack of a soccer stadium in Queens as teams across M.L.S. have moved away from all-purpose stadiums.

“The New York market is a priority, but it may take a couple of years before we have the team and stadium finalized,” Courtemanche said.

Of course its a long way to go here for this expansion hope for New York. I think getting a stadium in Queens is in the right direction. But they better act fast, places like Detroit are trying to get hot on their tail here (more on that in a bit).

Cosmos will partner with a Queens youth club to form the The Cosmos Academy. The academy will field teams from U12-U18 and participate in the US Soccer Development Academy.

But as the announcement states, their main goal is fielding a MLS club in the near future. The idea is a big one and one that can be reached with the right folks involved and the right amount of money. Some are suggesting the expansion fee for the 20th club could be upwards of $50 million but if the league and Don Garber want this club so bad they may be willing to lower that fee a bit to make it work.

Its going to be a long process to get this done in New York but one definitely worth watching. I love the effort to launch their youth side first while making progress elsewhere for the MLS side of things. Getting their name back out in the local community with the youth was the right step forward to get the ball rolling. Its just a matter of time really before this thing really kicks up and get interesting.

“We are very focused on trying to have that 20th team in New York – a second team in New York, a rival for the Red Bulls,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

“We have got a lot of work to do to achieve that. We may or may not achieve that but that is our goal and our main focus for the 20th team. That would be pretty cool,” he said, confirming any new team would be in New York City proper.

Some don’t like the idea, some do. Either way we know from his chat yesterday with USA Today that this 20th club won’t start until 2013 at the earliest. Looks like MLS is very focused on getting the politics and everything on their side to get a team in New York City.

My gut feeling is the league will halt expansion after the 20th club for a few years. I know a lot of folks are worried over the quick expansion with the talent pool being stretched but I see no reason to think that the league will continue their quick expansion after they get to 20. Then again if the money is there for a couple more clubs in various markets and the time is right then who knows maybe they will.

Last week’s announcement for the expansion to Montreal in 2012 gave way (quickly) to who would be the 20th club in Major League Soccer. Of course the two obvious comments from MLS commissioner Don Garber were for putting that club in the Southeast or a second one in New York.

That much we know but today I wanted to discuss a little for and against with the second New York club. I may do this with other cities, I haven’t decided yet but I know a lot of you have let me know that you do enjoy my insight into the expansion of this league.

I saw this list of reasons against a second club in New York over at Goal.com. Some reasons against were good ones while others seemed like total rubbish and were there to merely fill a list of 10 items to probably make an editor happy. I’ll use some of those items here and expand on them a little further.

I must say I’ll be up front about putting a second club in NY right now, I’m a big supporter behind it. Not to say I’m not a supporter of another quality town getting a club in the future but at the moment this one does lead my list of potential cites I’d like to see a club. If you want to know my list just ask me on Twitter or through email.

Now the article lists a couple cities as reasons against and that’s all good too. I do agree that there are a couple mid-sized markets out there similar to a Columbus or a Salt Lake that would support a MLS club greatly. Cities like St. Louis, San Antonio, Charlotte, and Minneapolis-St. Paul come to mind. Those towns would support another professional team. Only Minneapolis-St. Paul has a team in each of the four major sports in America right now, the others are a little more open in terms of adding another pro team to the mix.

Going head-to-head with the Southeast cities mentioned in the article I wonder why Tampa Bay is left out. I know Miami and Atlanta are considered strong candidates but don’t sleep on a potential return to Tampa in the future. Not saying it will happen anytime soon but the thought is there with the league even though it failed once there.

The biggest thing going for a New York bid is the Borough Boys, who have been around long enough to make some noise. Some how the article didn’t look them up to mention them and even said there wasn’t a grassroots effort in the city like the Sons of Ben. They just need to take the same steps that the Sons of Ben took to get a club in Philadelphia.

Obviously some challenges with a lack of stadium and even a lack of owners surrounds this bid. If the New York Mets’ owner Fred Wilpon is apart of the ownership group that will be a positive thing. I know the Mets haven’t done a darn thing since the Wilpons took control of them a few years back. But their willingness to spend money on a club should be positive enough to see in this league.

The politics within the city to get a stadium will easily be the biggest hurdle to overcome. It won’t be getting the fans and support or even a quality owner involved. Professional teams in the area have had a tough time in the past in getting new facilities built. But the Mets were finally able to get a new ballpark, which makes me believe the Wilpons at least know how to work the politics involved to get a deal done.

A wildcard in all of this too with the ownership group could be David Beckham’s involvement. I know there has been rumor of him with a Miami club in the past but you have to figure New York makes as much if not more sense for him to be apart of here. Major market and his brand would go hand in hand I would think.

I also don’t buy into this thought that the Red Bulls need to continue to establish themselves more in the area and that a rivalry within the market won’t help. Soccer is different from other sports where the local derbies are a big deal. I understand the point that locals just want a team that wins but there are always folks that want to see another team beat the big club in town. I’d argue the Red Bulls have had enough time to establish themselves and adding another club to the area would only increase their chances to grow.

We still have plenty of time to think things through for the 20th expansion club into MLS. I hope to look at a bunch of cities over the next few weeks and give you a pro/con kind of post about each with a summary at the end. I’m sure by then we’ll have a better understanding of who will likely be the top candidate for that 20th spot.

Just as I write about the Borough Boys earlier today news comes out of New York that baseballs’ Mets are still interested in owning a MLS club. The New York Daily News added that while the owners of the Mets are still very interested in a club, getting a stadium to play in won’t be easy.

[David] Howard said the biggest hurdle is the stadium, which would have to be a multipurpose facility.

“It would be very difficult to justify the building costs for 20 or so dates that you get for soccer for regular season and exhibitions,” he said.

In a perfect world, the stadium would be near Citi Field in Queens, but Howard said the team “would be open to other possibilities as well.”

“It would make a lot of sense to be somewhere in this area, but again it’s something that we don’t have any rights to,” he said.Howard added: “This is something that is on the horizon for us, something that we are giving consideration to. But I can’t say it’s hot at the moment. Depending how certain circumstances present themselves, we can certainly move relatively quickly.”

I mentioned earlier that the Borough Boys would be a big driving factor in getting a second club in New York City. I wonder exactly what they think of this news, no doubt it lifts their hopes a bit.

The Mets owners still remain the best option for a ownership group in NYC, but the stadium issue may be tougher to overcome here.

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.

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No GBS Next Year?

Link

This is not what I would call good news for the Columbus Crew or even for Major League Soccer. Apparently the Crew’s owners are going to low-ball their MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto for a new contract. Are they stupid or just stupid? Low-balling their best player is not a way to stay competitive and if he doesn’t go for the lower contract then they are going to be shit out of luck come next season. The Hunts really need to get their act together about their two clubs.

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Lee Nguyen Talks

Link

A nice little interview with Nguyen who has been playing in Vietnam of all places. Now he is currently training with FC Dallas and would even like to play with the team in Frisco if things can work out that way. Definitely an interesting interview that is worth a read.

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Clark Leaving Dynamo

No link just yet on this one, the Houston Dynamo quietly announced that midfielder Ricardo Clark would not be returning for next season with the Dynamo. Tough break but one that we shouldn’t be totally shocked by as we knew he was looking in Europe this past summer for offers. The bright side thought for the Dynamo is the salary cap break they will get as losing Clark off the books means about $220k is now available.

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Evening Links and Thoughts appear on WVHooligan typically each day (Monday � Friday). We try to cover topics that surround MLS, the US national team and other items that are of interest. If you have a link for the ELT send them in!

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.