The NPS, too, rquires derbies, and TFC vs. the Crew doesn't cut it.

Plus George Gillet has immense experience running massive football clubs. This has success written all over it.

Making this the North American soccer thread for the moment...

Estonia-Canada was AWESOME. Not really for the game, but for the going out and playing in the middle of a blizzard, 8 inches of snow overnight and like 90 people in the stadium, no markings or anything visible on the pitch, neon yellow ball, and grabbing fans out of the stands to shovel the pitch at halftime cause there's apparently no snowblowers in the entire nation of Estonia. That was just fun.

How long of a drive/train ride is Toronto to Montreal?

Seems like a good opportunity, but still, I hope it doesn't come at the expense of some of the under-represented areas. I think the northwest and southeast could both use some work.

Mtl-Toronto is 5-6 hours by car. By NPS standards, that's pretty close. But throw in some linguistic and political rivalries, some wholly unwarranted french-Canadian notions about the superiority of Montreal's quality of life and the fact that a substantial portion of Toronto's population are ex-Montrealers who fled between 1976 and 1996, and you've got a barn-burner of a match here. Probably with a high risk of creating the MLS' first serious hooligan incidents. Bliss.

Estonia...we're on the eve on CONCACAF qualifying, where our progress has traditionally been hampered by the unfamiliar heat and humidity of the caribbean and Central America, and the CSA decides that Tallinn is the place for a tune-up match. Unbelievable.

I think I'm going to have to choose between going to Vancouver on the 9th of July and going to Chicago on the 12th (this is a tough call...). Seriously doubt the wife is going to let me do both.

Cooeee! I'll be out here waiting for ya Big Boy! (pssst. I won't tell if you don't)

Psounder: The Whitecaps chances of getting in the MLS are mainly dependent on the proposed new stadium on the waterfront. If it gets approval then it shouldn't be a problem irrespective of what happens in Montréal. There are a lot of people who want a say on the issue because, geographically and socially, it's a controversial site so nothing is likely to be decided until after the Olympics.

Damn, is there a major city that doesn't want a MLS club?

Seattle next season and Philly in 2010 will take the league to 16. I think it's great to see the excitement bubbling up and cities competing with each other to land a team, but I'm nervous at the league growing too fast and losing money faster than it already is.

Don Garber spoke at DCU's annual lunch Monday and he said the league is going to slow expansion down. The league has apparently gotten two proposals for teams 17 and 18 (presumably two of Montreal, St. Louis, and Miami), but is going to put them on hold and draw up a strategic plan on how they want to expand. They've created an Expansion Committee, which Anschutz himself is chairing, something that is apparently shocking in and of itself.

I think that is the essential question that goldstone's excellent series has yet to address.

There seems to be a groundswell of MLS opinion that bigger is necessarily better, but having been burned by both the NASL and the NHL, I am not at all convinced that is the case.

In particular, I think that MLS has a responsibility to try to fix franchises that are widely regarded as "sick", and not just view expansion as the answer to all of its issues. At least at the moment, I would put NYRB and KC in the "sick" category, and would like to see those teams successfully transition to new stadia before the league expands further.

ursus arctos wrote:

QUOTE:
In particular, I think that MLS has a responsibility to try to fix franchises that are widely regarded as "sick", and not just view expansion as the answer to all of its issues. At least at the moment, I would put NYRB and KC in the "sick" category, and would like to see those teams successfully transition to new stadia before the league expands further.

I would also include Chivas USA. For the past two years, one of the best teams in the league, but one drawing some of the smallest crowds. That's a big problem. I suppose they're in better shape than they might be otherwise in only being tenants in their stadium.

I was actually going to ask you if you thought they qualified, as you are much closer to that situation than I am.

As someone who wants MLS to succeed, I'm cheered by SocScrim's report. Building a bigger house on flawed foundations is not a great idea.

I am absolutely with you, ursus. MLS is finally in a position where they don't have to hand out a franchise to every snake-oil salesman with a wad of cash and a promise to build a stadium, and it's good to see them recognizing that.

Here's Garber's full quote:

QUOTE:
"We are thinking about what should we be doing with teams 17 and 18 and what we do with teams 19 and 20 and what impact that has on our TV contracts, how does it fit with our player pool and our continued discussions with U.S. Soccer on the player limitations. There are so many different things now that are convincing us that we should take a step back and create a strategic plan before we announce 17 and 18. We do have offers for 17 and 18, two different markets, but we put those deals on hold until we have had a better chance to create our plan."

So not only are they slowing down the expansion, he seems to imply that the league is going to top out at 20 teams. Which is just fantastic news if true (and if they acutally stick by it)

More on Montreal. If MLS is planning on slowing down expansion, no-one's told them yet. Talking about 2009 seems a bit premature given Toronto's three-year Canadian exclusivity deal.

Very interesting. The counter-argument to the one made by Garber on Wednesday is that MLS is hot right now and needs to take advantage of that fact.

I'll be honest: as much as I agree with ursus that the league needs to shore up the teams it has now, Montreal being in the league really excites me.

Another counterargument is that the last club that saw Gillett as their saviour has had a bit of a rude awakening.

I think that I've made this point before, but Montreal was always a surprisingly poor NASL city. Surely the absence of a decent ground was a factor in that (as was the general economic and political malaise in Montreal in that period), but have the Saputos really turned it around?

Linus hasn't shown up here yet, has he? He would have an interesting perspective on this question.

Is Linus from Montreal?

I think that linus is originally Parisian, but has lived and worked in Montreal, as well as the Bay Area. I'm not sure where he is currently based.