Miami MLS Expansion Bid Discussion

[Ramp]

Spanish football giants Barcelona are to launch a bid to become co-owners of a US Major League Soccer franchise in partnership with Bolivian entrepreneur, Marcelo Claure. Barcelona: Set for Miami counterparts? The giant Catalan club will announce details of their plan to form a new MLS side in Miami on Wednesday, when the deadline expires for applications for two new expansion teams to be added for the 2011 season. ''The idea is to set up an investment company involving FC Barcelona and a Bolivian entrepreneur living in Miami, Marcelo Claure, who is the chief of an investment group featuring Americans and citizens of different South American countries,'' the club revealed in a statement. ''Claure is already the owner of FC Bolivar, with whom FC Barcelona already collaborate. The company's sole aim right now is present an application for a franchise and promote it to the MLS''. "The company's sole aim right now is present an application for a franchise and promote it to MLS," the Barca statement continued. "If the candidature is successful, the company will become a reality, otherwise it will fold." At present the MLS is contested by 14 teams but expansion plans will see that figure grow to 16 with new franchises in Seattle and Philadelphia joining the league in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The MLS want new franchises to play at 'soccer-specific' venues - stadia specifically built for the game - and Barcelona have said they have already held talks with Florida International University to that end. ''The most likely solution will be Florida International University, with whom negotiations are already at a late stage as the potential club seeks to use the facility for at least the first two years of its existence,'' the club said. If successful in its bid Barcelona are expected to name to the Miami franchise after the Catalan club itself, and will view the MLS as an opportunity to expand the Barcelona brand into the United States. Miami, and the state of Florida, have been without MLS football since 2001 when the Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny franchises lost their places when the league was reduced in size. The Fusion were founded in 1998 but failed to establish itself, with many citing the fact that the club's stadium was based in the neighbouring city of Fort Lauderdale, a long journey for the urban Latin community the league had hoped to attract. Cities including Atlanta, Portland, St. Louis, Vancouver and Ottawa have also expressed an interest in gaining an MLS franchise on 2011.

ESPNsoccernet - Europe - Barcelona to bid for Miami MLS franchise

[St. Jimmy]

This deserves a thread of its own.


If MLS is ever going to work down here, FIU Stadium is the perfect location. Minutes from the major middle class Central and South American neighborhoods in Miami-Dade.

I don't know if this will work though. Is MLS major league enough for a five team town?

Breaking Down MLS Expansion By: Greg Daurio Everyone else has weighed in on MLS expansion, so I figured it’s my turn. When push comes to shove, there are two ways to look at the seven cities that are vying for the two available teams that will begin play in 2011. One is the utopian view (team x really deserves a team so lets give it to them). The other is the pragmatic view (MLS weighs their preset criteria against the strength of the bids and then sees who is going to write them the biggest check a la Seattle). The simple fact is, as much as advocates for certain cities want to hype up certain bids, there is no slam-dunk. Also, to think that all seven bids are independent of each other would be foolish. There are multiple scenarios where if city A gets in, then city B pretty much has no chance. The most blatant example of this is in Canada. Three Canadian cities submitted expansion applications last week (Ottawa, Montreal, and Vancouver). As I’ve said before, an expansion team in Canada is not only going to struggle like every other expansion team in recent memory, but it is going to make TFC that much weaker. Toronto has struggled in its first two seasons to field a competitive roster, in part because the best Canadian players don’t play in MLS. Furthermore, the best Canadian players in MLS don’t play for TFC. MLS made a special exception for Toronto, giving them extra international slots, but that exception will have run out by 2011, compounding the problem. Toronto is already fighting for the scraps of Canadian players available, so the thought of them competing for those same scraps with another Canadian team isn’t a pretty picture. That being said, people are all but giving Montreal a five star lock for this round of expansion. Montreal and Toronto are natural rivals in other sports, and Stade Saputo just needs to be expanded in order to make it MLS ready. It’s not quite that easy though. Stade Saputo was built on the cheap and would need a massive facelift to meet MLS standards, which wouldn’t necessarily happen overnight. Also, MLS is looking for a national television rights deal in Canada, and choosing a city a few miles up the road from Toronto isn’t exactly a national footprint to attract coast-to-coast viewers or sponsors. Ottawa is in an even worse position, tucked right between Toronto and Montreal, and lets be honest, if MLS chooses to put a team in Canada, it’s not likely that Ottawa is going to get chosen over either Montreal or Vancouver. Which brings us to Vancouver. Vancouver certainly gives MLS a broader Canadian footprint, and with Yahoo money involved, there is no questioning the wealth involved in the ownership group. The problem is the stadium issue. The Vancouver group is hoping to get approval for a waterfront stadium, but that has been caught up in red tape for years. In the interim, Vancouver has already signed a deal to play at BC Place, a gargantuan stadium that holds nearly 60,000 and houses artificial turf. That kind of arrangement is exactly what MLS is trying to get away from. Vancouver would provide a natural rival for Seattle, but that would in essence eliminate Portland from the running. The Portland bid is coming from Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson. Officially the investment group is listed as the Paulson family by MLS, but even still, the pockets aren’t nearly as deep as some of the other investors in the running. While PGE Park is in an urban setting right on public transportation lines, and the Timbers already enjoy great fan support, the stadium isn’t ready for MLS. In order to get PGE ready, Paulson will need to get public funding to build a minor league baseball stadium as well as public funding to renovate PGE. In today’s economy, that’s an extremely tall order, no matter how supportive the community is. By contrast, St. Louis already has a stadium deal in place, with mixed public/private money paying for the project. Bulldozers are supposedly just waiting for MLS to wave the magic wand so they can start building. The problem is, lead investor Jeff Cooper has already been rejected once for no having deep enough pockets, and he has been very clandestine about his new mystery backers that will supposedly make his new bid too good to turn down. Unlike St. Louis, or any of the other expansion bids, Atlanta has really just started to figure out where a team might play. There’s no denying that Arthur Blank (founder of Home Depot) has the money, and Atlanta is the largest U.S. television market without a MLS team. But Blank has really just begun to explore stadium options, and while Kennesaw State University seems interested in potentially housing an MLS team, discussions are in the very early stages, and it’s unlikely that a deal would be in place, let alone an actual stadium in time for the 2011 season. Which brings us to the most mouth-watering bid of the group, at least on the surface. Barcelona is teaming up with Brightstar billionaire Marcelo Claure to bring a team back to Miami. A deal has already been struck with FIU to use their football stadium while they secure a permanent soccer specific facility. On the surface, this looks like a deal that is too good to pass up. Unfortunately, Barcelona president Joan Laporta is managing to say all the wrong things. First off, he’s calling Barcelona’s bid a chance to expand the Barcelona brand in the U.S. Should the first words out of his mouth be something about building a competitive team that will win championships and serve the Miami community? Second, he’s already saying that he wants to fill the roster with players from their academies in Latin America, and aging players from Big Brother that have reached the end of their European career. Problem is, MLS only allows 8 foreign players on the roster. When push comes to shove, Barcelona seems extremely naïve when it comes to the rules of MLS and this smells a lot like Chivas USA part 2. That has been a marketing disaster since day one. What it might come down to is who can MLS afford to make wait another round. If St. Louis gets rejected for a second time, and Cooper has to watch the expansion fee rise again, they may lose that city for good. The same might be said for a Portland bid. All the other bids are backed by ownership groups that could easily swallow a hike in the expansion fee. In a perfect world, St. Louis and Portland will start playing in 2011. We don’t live in a perfect world, and it seems likely that Miami will replace Portland in this round of expansion.

Breaking Down MLS Expansion: 90 Minutes Soccer Magazine

[Juanky]

I'm really excited about this. But is it FIU Stadium football edition? Or the soccer stadium?

[St. Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Juanky I'm really excited about this. But is it FIU Stadium football edition? Or the soccer stadium?

The football stadium. Which, as it stands now, would be perfect for soccer at 21k capacity. But it will become a problem when the MLS team would take the field and the stadium is expanded to 45k.

[Juanky]

Which would be by 2010. It's still more feasible than building a whole new stadium, though.

My only concern would be that it's not a soccer-specific facility. Would MLS really make a big stink about this?

[bobbob1313]

Actually, I don't think they really know when the rest of the expansion will be. I think the lower bowl will be fully complete by 2010 (bringing it to 23,500, I believe), but everything after that is tentative. I think currently they want to have the 2nd deck up by 2015.

[St. Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Juanky Which would be by 2010. It's still more feasible than building a whole new stadium, though. My only concern would be that it's not a soccer-specific facility. Would MLS really make a big stink about this?

Apparently FIU and Barcelona have an agreement of 3-5 years:

To show our serious interest in MLS, we want to start play in 2010. We have asked for a special concession to begin play in 2010, because the city is ready and we have an agreement with FIU about the use of the stadium for 3-5 years. Miami has all the ingredients to be successful. We are happy to have a relationship with FC Barcelona and FIU. We will wait and hope that MLS make the right decision and award Miami MLS.”

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Since it appears temporary that will help our chances A LOT!

[Daft]

wow this is the first time I heard about this. I would totally look into a season ticket package. From when to when would the season run?

[St. Jimmy]

MLS gave FIU Stadium two thumbs up:

The group has entered into a 5 year agreement to play at Florida International University's recently completed soccer compatible stadium. The stadium, which was recently completed to house the Golden Panther's football team was also built with MLS regulations in mind, as such, the stadium is virtually "soccer ready" and can serve as a home for a MLS franchise with little, if any at all, aesthetical changes needed. In fact, last Tuesday, upon news of the potential bid, MLS sent a representative to inspect the Stadium and gave it a thumbs up.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fiu-joins-fc-barcelona-marcelo/story.aspx?guid={73597685-01FC-4DC2-BFAF-A7A2E5A20478}&dist=hppr

[Juanky]

What is the feasibility of us actually getting a turnaround on a franchise so soon?

I mean, realistically, they'd get less than a year to put this thing together if they want to start play in 2010.

[nolesmarlins]

this is so gonna happen. other than montreal the other bids are pretty weak. there is no way the mls says no to a club like barcelona, they would destroy their reputation. in the next couple of years soccer is gonna explode in south florida. remember, they were talking about building a soccer stadium next to the new marlins stadium... construction has been delayed until at least after opening day in the new ballpark but it hasnt been shelved completely. expect a major announcement in a few months. here is the official site, sign up as a fan. you can even put a deposit down on season tickets.

FCB Miami

[bobbob1313]

I like this mostly because MLS involvement and dollars will only speed up the construction of FIU Stadium.

[St. Jimmy]

Originally Posted by nolesmarlins this is so gonna happen. other than montreal the other bids are pretty weak. there is no way the mls says no to a club like barcelona, they would destroy their reputation. in the next couple of years soccer is gonna explode in south florida. remember, they were talking about building a soccer stadium next to the new marlins stadium... construction has been delayed until at least after opening day in the new ballpark but it hasnt been shelved completely. expect a major announcement in a few months. here is the official site, sign up as a fan. you can even put a deposit down on season tickets. FCB Miami

Well, MLS looking to become a more legitimate league in the eyes of the world could say no to European club ownership because Barcelona wants to use the Miami team to expand its market. Would that not be in a sense like MLB teams and AAA teams?

I know MLS has done the opposite with clubs like Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake. But that can be an argument I'm sure those looking to propel MLS to a league the rest of the world sees as world class are saying and it would not hurt the league's reputation at all.

But that is my opinion as a soccer outsider looking in.

[Juanky]

Originally Posted by bobbob1313 I like this mostly because MLS involvement and dollars will only speed up the construction of FIU Stadium.

Have you heard about the plans for the area around the stadium? That place is going to be insane.

[bobbob1313]

Originally Posted by Juanky