Comments on: More on MLS expansion; let’s talk about Orlando

By: sdbeisbol

sdbeisbol — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 04:38:33 +0000

San Diego?

By: trhendricks5966

trhendricks5966 — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:32:29 +0000

I would love to see a three division pro-rel system myself – except the southern-fried goober billionaires that control MLS want to keep real football second fiddle to that eggball, nothing-but-set-piece rubbish…. Lord forbid we should do anything to hurt the oh-so-holy SEC.

By: mmancini99

mmancini99 — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:18:34 +0000

I wish MLS had gotten involved in the 2nd division a few years ago. That way, they could take this clubs with good but not perfect situations, and nurture them with league assistance until they were ready for prime time. It would be a model almost similar to player development. In around 10 years, you could open up those that flourished to expansion, or even have the option of moving to promotion/relegation.

By: dfstell

dfstell — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:14:14 +0000

I agree…..I’d love to see a more pro-rel system. That’s why I’d rather see money poured into the second and third divisions and let them mature.

By: thekingofnorway

thekingofnorway — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:34:06 +0000

I think Steve meant to emphasize “the stability” of Paul Allen money, not just the large sums of cash itself. Even within the Sounders, the ownership isn’t all Paul Allen — it’s also Joe Roth (Hollywood producer and majority owner), Drew Carey (entertainer) and Adrian Hanauer (local entrepreneur).

That was Cooper’s problem in St. Louis. He would be like Hanauer, but his business partners didn’t have the resources and reputations that Hanauer was able to work with in Seattle.

So it doesn’t take one of those 19 people to lead building a club, but you do need depth in the ownership team you put together.

By: mmancini99

mmancini99 — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:59:21 +0000

I wish MLS had taken hold of the second division a few years ago. Now would be an ideal time to start bringing clubs on at that level, so that the league could nurture and grow them much as a developing player. From there, you would have the option of expansion or even 10 years down the road, a promotion/relegation system.

By: panchomiguelmoralesdeconejo

panchomiguelmoralesdeconejo — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:49:17 +0000

There are exactly 19 people in the United States with Paul Allen type money- 2 of them the Microsoft partners of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer & 4 of them of the Walton clan.
If you are right and that is the depth of pockets the MLS wants…that there is some Slim Pickens (and he’s dead and unavailable!)

By: Steve Davis

Steve Davis — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:41:36 +0000

Your point is well made … but it’s really about financial stability, and avoiding the potential calamity of financial instability. They’ve seen it before with Miami … and they may even be dealing with instability in some ownership groups that we don’t know about.

Even a small chance of bringing the entire house down may be too big a risk. Not saying that would happen with Orlando, necessarily, just saying they aren’t so much looking for profit as maximum fiscal protection. Based on pro soccer’s spotted history here, hard to blame them.

By: whordy

whordy — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:14:57 +0000

At some point the MLS needs to reconcile the reality of running a financially stable league with the fact that in this sport a domestic league is tasked with at the very least starting off the careers of young players with future NT, top domestic league talent.
Money may buy a down payment on a stadium and make look good when signing the check to buy a MLS team, but it doesn’t buy a culture. It doesn’t ensure success or a fanbase or what happens when it turns out your team isn’t very good.
What Orlando has may not seem important to the accountants running this league, but it’s the most important part of running a franchise. Especially alone one in the unique position as soccer is.