Former Sporting Kansas City goalkeepers Eric Kronberg,
Andy Gruenebaum taken in Re-Entry Draft


Former Sporting Kansas City goalkeepers Eric Kronberg and Andy Gruenebaum found new homes in Major League Soccer on Friday via the first stage of the MLS Re-Entry Draft.

The only other player selected in the draft was former Real Salt Lake forward Robbie Findley, who was selected with the sixth overall pick by Toronto FC. Findley, 29, scored one goal in 16 games for RSL this year, his second season since returning from Europe in 2013.

MLS releases list of eligible players for Stage Two of Re-Entry Draft


http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2014/12/11/mls-releases-list-eligible-players-phase-one-re-entry-draft

As MLS keeps getting larger I think they need to break into four divisions rather than just the two conferences:

Pacific: Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Jose, LA FC, LA Galaxy
Mountain: Salt Lake, Colorado, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota
Central: Chicago, Columbus, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, DC United
East: Montreal, Toronto, New England, NY Red Bulls, NY FC, Philadelphia

The division's can shift slightly as the league grows from 24 teams to 28 with expansion in cities like St Louis, San Antonio, Phoenix, Charlotte/Raleigh, Indianapolis, & Sacramento. Eventually they could move to 32 with a a true West division, South Division (Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte), Midwest Division (Columbus, Chicago, St Louis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Indianapolis) and Northeast Division.

MLS has a compounding issue with people on one side of an argument who want to throw everything at people who don't fall in line with their view that promotion and relegation should be enforced by USSF...

...which doesn't include Jurgen Klinsmann and, say, Eric Wynalda, who merely say that US Soccer will never get far in World Cup without a more competitive structure that happens to include promotion and relegation.

MLS gets asked about this with more frequency. Wynalda is seen today to say that something is on the verge of being done about this. I have serious doubts about Wynalda's sanity. I think he's wrong.

But now I have doubts about mine. Here's the whack-a-doodle idea that came into my head yesterday.

24 teams will be the maximum. Going forward, I think MLS wants to keep the 34-game schedule. So a 12-and-12 will probably emerge once Atlanta/Minnesota/LAFC/(Miami or who knows who else) are added to the league. That way, teams play home and home in their own conference and once per year against teams in the other conference.

At the start, it'll be west and east.

If Wynalda is correct, it's because Fox is going to up the money to MLS on condition that other leagues and new teams are included. The theory will be that there's crazy amounts of TV money in things like promotion playoffs. This money will have to also cover domes over some current stadia, because Fox has tended to want a Fall-to-Spring schedule instead of the current summer schedule.

However, MLS wants to protect what they see as the TV bounty. So I bring up the possibility that the two conferences shift around, in a very unfair manner, as follows:

The UNTOUCHABLE (or less touchable) CONFERENCE
Chicago
Colorado
Columbus
DC United
FC Dallas
Houston
Kansas City
LA Galaxy
New England
NY Red Bulls
Philadelphia
San Jose

(You will note this: It's the 9 remaining original franchises + largest markets)

The OTHER CONFERENCE (In both cases, I'm sure better names for the conferences will come forward)
Atlanta
LAFC
Miami (or Sacramento or San Antonio)
Minnesota
Montreal
NYCFC
Orlando
Portland
Real Salt Lake
Seattle
Toronto
Vancouver

Relegation happens from THE OTHER CONFERENCE. Probably only two teams a year, and unlike England and most places, those two teams probably are involved in the playoff to fix places.

HOWEVER

If your team finishes last in the UNTOUCHABLE and your major market (or in-state, though not in all circumstances) rival finishes above you in the OTHER, those teams switch places. (Not that it isn't possible that there's some one-time way for Colorado and Columbus and KC to be shuttled out in favor of NYCFC or LAFC, which seems the likely thing to do in many minds.)

The 24 teams will schedule the way I mentioned above. One won't actually be above the other except for relegation issues.

Of course, with promotion and relegation below this level, the cities will change, but with MLS managing the whole thing, money is made from franchise sales all around PLUS an "entry fee" when a team is promoted. What is currently the NASL level will expand immensely, and will probably align regionally. What is currently the USL level is already expanding to that point, HOWEVER, teams in USL owned by current MLS teams cannot promote beyond the 3rd level. That may tweak further, for all we know.

Can you put money on this happening? Oh hell no.

Will American soccer fans tolerate the way the NFL does things? Probably not as long as you think.

Is there another middle ground? Don't know. Possibly.

MLS Board of Governors:
approved latest Miami site (Overtown);
outlines support for future expansion to 28 teams,
two week hiatus during Copa America 2016.
per release. #MLS

I think the shortlist for spots 25-28 are:

Sacramento
San Antonio
Indianapolis
St Louis

Cincinnati
San Diego
Charlotte or Raleigh
Jacksonville

The first four are the ones I see being the most likely. The second 4 are more likely to be members 29-32. I think 32 is the very max that MLS can support but that threshold could just as easily be 28 or 30.

I also foresee a system similar to MLB where each MLS team owns a third tier team that resides in the same market as the parent club (about half currently do), and then either owns or is affiliated with a 2nd tier team in a small to mid-market city. NASL is in trouble and I think whatever clubs that end up surviving from that league will be in that middle tier.

I live in St. Louis.

Having just been spurned by the Rams, there is now quite a bit of talk about seriously pursuing an MLS expansion team.

Some potential stadium locations are being discussed.

One might be the north riverfront, where the proposed Rams open-air stadium was supposed to go.
Another is directly south of Union Station (almost attached to the area covered by the old "train shed".
Union Station is currently served by the Metro Link light rail / subway.
Not sure we have a potential ownership group or not.
At one time, Albert Pujols expressed some serious interest.

If an ownership group materializes that can get a stadium deal in place St Louis will have an MLS team. Right now MLS is in a great position as they fill out the last pieces of their ranks. The dozen or so cities that are vying for inclusion all have to make their best pitch and that means fielding a minor league team that has great fan support and having the pockets and political connections to get a stadium. San Antonio and Sacramento is doing a great job at that. Indianapolis is making a good effort too. I think the league needs to decide what to do about Carolina--do you go for Raliegh and less competition from other pro sports or do you go with the sexier richer Charlotte? St. Louis has all the makings of a great soccer city they just need someone to take the lead.

Don Garber announced last week that MLS will be going to 28.

This observer's current assessment of probable and possible markets:

(First off, no matter how all my spidey senses said Miami wouldn't/shouldn't happen, Spice Boy and friends closed on the Overtown location recently. That'll be a curious mix, but it's going to happen. I have trepidation about this arrangement, but it's going to happen. The better part of wisdom for them, however, would be a 16,000-seat stadium. Yes, I know Orlando will probably end up with twice that.)

Sacramento: all but there.

San Antonio: current stadium needs only be expanded. San Antonio Spurs have assumed ownership.

Indianapolis: much momentum, but while there's a new stadium proposal as part of a redevelopment of "ring" land well off downtown, I question whether that's pie-in-sky. Indianapolis itself seems reticent. Peter Wilt seems to be moving on to an NASL Chicago project... though that might indicate Indy has an in, too.

San Diego: Padres owner John Moores seems to be backing something that might include a scaled-down Qualcomm once the Chargers leave.

St. Louis: Pretty much what tute said. But I bet the city holds out for more private contribution.

Detroit: definite supporter cred for what the low level team in town does. Furthermore, ownership is looking forward. Money not there for now.

Phoenix: There's been talk, that's about it.

Charlotte: no momentum from what I'm seeing.

Las Vegas: was an option going from 20 to 24. Probably out of the game now.

If you want to approach MLS from a Green Bay/Buffalo NHL/Salt Lake NBA kind of angle, the wee market that either draws in the "Heartland" or is the little market that could, note that Albuquerque and El Paso apparently have stadium proposals in storage. My argument is that either would draw a different kind of "Heartland" than you're probably considering, but maybe that's a smarter option for this league. Still, MLS will probably have better proposals for teams 25-28 than those.

If you haven't heard, Minnesota United will accelerate their expansion process and begin next year along with Atlanta.

Minnesota will play in TCF Bank Stadium until their park between the Twin City downtowns is complete.

BTW... FC Cincinnati began play in USL this year. Their attendance has been ridiculous. You may consider bumping them up into consideration and, perhaps, bump San Diego or Indianapolis off your top 4 list.

St. Louis has an ownership group in place, called STL SC.

They seem to have an agreement with Garber, that is they can get a new stadium financed using their money + public money, they will get a team in 2-3 years.

They have presented to the city that they will pay the $200 (?) million expansion fee to the league, and finance something between 40-60% of the new stadium cost.

So STL SC was asking the city to pay for the rest, and the city will own the stadium.

The city council was initially cool to this, perhaps because the 20,000 seat stadium was to cost $200 Million ($10,000 / seat, rather high for a simple open-air grade level field. Maybe this will be scaled back a bit.

This week, a city council committee voted 5-4 on a package of tax incentives and public financing for part of the stadium, which will go to a public election on April 4, 2017. Garber is throwing the promise of an All-Star game (in next 5 years) into the pot as an incentive.... Stay tuned.

The State of Missouri (new republican Governor Eric Greitens) initially refused to provide any state funding. However, the state may in fact rework the highway exit coming from I-64 / US-40, as necessary to make the chosen site workable.

2017 MLS Cup Playoff


Knockout Round
Wednesday, Oct. 25
No. 3 Chicago Fire vs. No. 6 New York Red Bulls (UniMas, FS1, TSN3/5, TVA Sports, 5:30 p.m. PT)
No. 3 Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs. No. 6 San Jose Earthquakes (UniMas, TSN Network, TVA Sports 2, 7:30 p.m. PT)

Thursday, Oct. 26
No. 4 Atlanta United vs. No. 5 Columbus Crew SC (UniMas, ESPN2, TSN4, TVA Sports, 4 p.m. PT)
No. 4 Houston Dynamo vs. No. 5 Sporting Kansas City (UniMas, TSN4, TVA Sports, 6:30 p.m. PT)

Conference Semifinals

Eastern Conference Semifinal Series

Eastern Conference Semifinal Leg 1 (2 games)
Monday, Oct. 30, Time TBD
Tuesday, Oct. 31, Time TBD

Eastern Conference Semifinal Leg 2 (2 games)
Sunday, Nov. 5, Toronto FC vs. TBD, Time TBD
Sunday, Nov. 5, New York City FC vs. TBD, Time TBD

Western Conference Semifinal Series

Western Conference Semifinal Leg 1 (2 games)
Sunday, Oct. 29, Time TBD
Tuesday, Oct. 31, Time TBD

Western Conference Semifinal Leg 2 (2 games)
Thursday, Nov. 2, Seattle Sounders FC vs. TBD, Time TBD
Sunday, Nov. 5, Portland Timbers vs. TBD, Time TBD

Conference Championships

Eastern Conference Championship Series

Eastern Conference Championship Leg 1 (1 game)
Tuesday, Nov. 21, 5 p.m. PT

Eastern Conference Semifinal Leg 2 (1 game)
Nov. 28 or 29, Time TBD

Western Conference Championship Series

Western Conference Championship Leg 1 (1 game)
Tuesday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m. PT

Western Conference Championship Leg 2 (1 game)
Thursday, Nov. 30, 7 p.m. PT

2017 MLS Cup
Saturday, Dec. 9, 1 p.m. PT