Joan LaPorta, president of FC Barcelona, visited Philadelphia on Feb. 28 and toured the site of the franchise’s future stadium being constructed in Chester, Pa. The tour took place days before FC Barcelona announced it wouldn’t pursue an expansion franchise in Miami.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber declined to comment on the visit but said, “FC Barcelona has expressed for some time an interest in Major League Soccer financially and strategically. They spent a great deal of time with us looking at Miami and are continuing to look at opportunities around the league.”

MLS Philadelphia CEO Nick Sakiewicz said he didn’t discuss investing in the franchise with LaPorta but acknowledged that the Philadelphia franchise is still looking for strategic partners.

There has been loads of talk surrounding the financial health of this expansion club. Adding a backing like Barcelona as we all know would be a huge step for this club. Plus for Barcelona you could see Philly being just as important to them as Miami was going to be.

Barcelona’s involvement could help ease the blow of some financial loss that the Philly owners are having right now. Plus having them as even a sister club would be huge.

More details will come of this soon. Either way we will see Barcelona help someone out here.

“I wish we could give you hard commitments today, but we’re not even sure the stadium is going to be built,” Sakiewiecz. “If the markets tank next month, then we won’t build this thing. We’ll be out $15 million and everyone goes home.”

The full story doesn’t sound nearly as bad but still his comments sounded pretty bad here. There are a lot of rumors floating around out there right now about the Philly group and their fianancial status right now.

It makes me wonder, if something does happen to fall through with this group and their expansion plans, would the league pull the plug on them and give a club to a city begging for a club in 2010 (Miami)? Time will tell but hopefully things will get resovled before it gets worse.

Should Philly fans be concerned here? What do you all make of this mess?

Happy voting.

And even though it looks similar to others around the league, I think this one will be fine and dandy here.

The 18,500-seat stadium will be constructed at the foot of the Commodore Barry Bridge in Chester, 13 miles from downtown Philadelphia. The multipurpose stadium will feature an 11,000-square-foot club, 30 suites, and a special 2,000 seat zone for members of the Sons of Ben supporters club. Additionally, the new structure will have a waterfront park and plaza used not only for stadium entry, but also for city sponsored events such as festivals.