quote:

SEATTLE -- Major League Soccer has granted an expansion franchise to Seattle and it could begin playing as soon as 2009, a league official confirmed Friday.

Commissioner Don Garber will announce the decision in Seattle on Tuesday, the league said.

MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche said Friday the team could start playing as soon as the spring of 2009. MLS seasons run from April into November, and it's likely the team will play at Qwest Field, at least initially.

The league is bringing a team back to San Jose for the 2008 season to create two, balanced conferences of seven teams each. MLS has already stated its intentions of expanding to 16 teams in the next few years.

This will be the first time the highest level of professional soccer in North America has a had a team in Seattle since the Sounders played in the North American Soccer League from 1974 until the team folded in 1983.

The reborn Sounders have been one of the top franchises in the second-tier United Soccer Leagues, winning four league championships in the last 12 years -- including in 2005 and again this past season.



Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

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MLS should be thinking about adding a second division somewhere in the future and have something closer to a promotion/relegation system like in England. Alternatively, MLS and USL could merge and the new entity create a multi-tier divisional format.

Considering that the most expensive team could still be had for $150 million dollars, this is doable. MLS might look like this in 2025: (this is just done at random with no preferences shown)

MLS Premiership
DC United
Revolution
Dynamo
Chicago Fire
Rochester
San Jose
Dallas Burn
Virginia Beach
Philly
St. Louis
Portland
NJ Metros
NY Cosmos
Columbus
Colorado
Hartford

MLS Championship
Salt Lake
Seattle
Wizards
Vancouver
Toronto
Milwaukee
Galaxy
Minnesota
San Antonio
Montreal
Cary, N.C.
Orlando
San Diego
Sacramento
Orange County
Indianapolis

2 teams automatically promoted/relegated at the end of each season, with the third-place finisher from the Championship in a playoff home-and-away against the 14th place finisher from the Premiereship.

And screw Chivas USA. Replace them with San Antonio.

I like that idea!

I thought more people would comment on this issue. Oh well...

Call me stupid but I don't get it. Are you advocating 2 MLS leagues? Similar to the American/National of the MLB? Or are you thinking of something else entirely? I can see 2 leagues but would not like one of the them to be considered the Senior or a "Upper/Higher level of play" status over the other developmental type league. In other words: 2 equal leagues with divisional teams would be cool.

If there's any league that would benefit from a competitive standpoint adopting a European-style divisional format it would be the MLS.

1. Barriers to entry are much lower for soccer than in most other sports, save pro basketball and handball worldwide.

2. In this format, there's nothing that guarantees that teams in the lower division stay there. The beauty of this system is that teams can catapult to the top division, allowing for a higher level of competition.

3. One big drawback would be the geographical spread of the country. Theoretically, it would be possible of having the top division be consisted primarily of teams from the East or the West. However, even then the chance of that happening is very slim:

a) Consider that although in England, the same four teams nowadays are the serious contenders to the title, the rest of the division have teams representing the different areas of the country, from the Northeast (Newcastle and Sunderland), the Midlands (Aston Villa) to London and even the south coast (Portsmouth).

b) The league that's closest to having a complete unbalance of representing teams is Germany, but that's simply due to the legacy of the Cold War and it's aftermath. Eventually, eastern German teams would get stronger and be more competitive against western German teams.

4. My idea isn't yet complete. A truer pyramid format would involve even more lower divisions. I would like to see a first and second division, followed by a Regional level, the last being divided into 7 or 8 divisions. Think of the Serie C, but with more divisions.

5. You want the top league to have the best and toughest competition possible. Imagine Italy without Serie A? You would have the northern teams in their own league, the southern teams in theirs and the Roman teams stuck in the middle. There would be no chance for a Napoli or a Palermo to have a good or great run if blocked from playing against the likes of Juventus or Milan.

6. Unlike baseball or basketball, soccer could use a lot of teams, which means more competition. But that shouldn't mean a league that has more than 18 teams. So many teams mean that there has to be tiers in place so that the best of the best can compete against each other and the others can aspire to join in the fun for the following season.

Siuslaw... one is the first division, the other is the second division. The second is not developmental by definition (though it might be by nature). England, by comparison, has many levels (should be noted that "new" teams with national aspirations often enter at level 8), and a quite consistent system of promotion and relegation. For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_football_league_system

It won't happen in my lifetime. Stan Kroenke didn't drop millions in Denver to watch the Rapids go second division. Furthermore, if you believe that media drives attitudes here (I don't really), nobody in this country believes they should have second division football. With the number of American investors on the rise, I wonder if the pyramid in England is endangered, frankly.

For it to happen in America, I'm thoroughly convinced that the 2nd division would have to be a series of regional leagues. There'd be nothing tidy about that.

I keep going back and forth on which American sport would benefit most from pro/rel. I almost tend to think basketball SHOULD consider it, since there are too many "never been there" franchises that would actually find competing for a second division title to be a boost, arenas are easier to build without taxpayer support for even mid-to-lower-mid-sized markets, and they probably need to start considering ways to boost regular season attendance.

^Say if that happens in the NBA what happens to a team like Portland in the Early to mid 00's? Do they drop down a league until they become good again then come back up?

If this scenario would come about as discussed whether it is the MLS, NBA or whatever league you can bet there will be people in Portland arguing about whether Portland can support a major league franchise.....second fiddle always. I am definitely not in favor of this concept. I can't imagine the Blazers being in a second tier league....they would lose my support.

If people actually support this concept I can't imagine them being the same people who want MLB in PDX...OR is this always going to be a Triple A mentality kind of town?

OK, you're missing the point.

Say Portland DOES fall into the second level. They probably sell off some veterans, get younger, AND TRY TO WIN THEIR WAY BACK TO THE TOP FLIGHT.

Instead of all this economic junk about who's "major league" and "minor league," your team has to actually earn it's way to the top.

I guess you can tell that I like the system. Just wish anyone here would give it a chance (golf sort of does this, otherwise...). Unfortunately, I'm bound by this silly realism.

It's going to be much harder for the established leagues to adopt this idea. So perhaps start off with the newer, not-as-established leagues first and work your way up.

Hopefully, this would help people here better understand what's being talking about.

But back to topic. Would they be named the Sounders?

You can bet the "Top Flight" cities initially are going to be those with a large TV market share/population base.....Portland, again, would be initially considered minor league.

The ownership group is throwing the team name issue open, sadly.

Um, submitted for adult eyes: http://www.soccercityusa.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1194656669/0

Update on team naming.

There's a rumor. If you don't feel like losing your lunch, don't click until you're prepped.

http://www.soccercityusa.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1194656669/82#82

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5722557.html


Hmmm, maybe PDX gets MLS sooner than expected?

Paulson...get on it!

Very interesting article on PDX's MLS aspirations in today's Oregonian...sorry too lazy to post the link ...among the ideas being bandied about include a new Beavs ballpark in SE PDX's Lents neighborhood (sounds familiar --I'd love to see that happen if it meant MLS was PDX-bound (heck, I'd give the Beavs to Bend if it meant MLS was here)...minor league baseball is mildly fun (i.e. fun in the [sometimes] sun), but PDX obviously is in dire need of more major league sports...good thing is, Paulson is pretty close to 180 degrees from PFE, especially in its Marshall Geekman incarnation--Paulson really seems to have the will, vision, and resources to add something special (i.e. not minor league in scope and importance) to The City of Roses...

Agree that Paulson is the man, or at least the best man we can get for Pdx sports. However, I thought the idea of building a ballpark in Lents to be ridiculous. Lents is still considered one of the worst neighborhoods in town, and if you live anywhere on the Westside, (Please reference Cedar Mill on the map) you will likely be limited to Sturday night and Sunday afternoon games. Baseball is now, and always has had it roots in the gridlike pattern of the inner city. (thus the term sandlot, as opposed to cow pasture).

In regards to PGE Park, it has been ruined for a potential MLB renovation. (thanks again, Marshall Glickman.) And the park was initially set up for football, explaining the "j" shape on the North side, and the straight shape on the West side. Best to make it a more functional football/soccer stadium and try to complete a baseball only park somewhere IN THE CITY

http://www.oregonlive.com/soccer/oregonian/index.ssf?/b...940199200.xml&coll=7

It's funny you mention Lents when complaining about baseball belonging in the gridlike inner city patterns. I grew up in Cedar Hills. Is there ANY grid in Washington County? If anything, Lents is in the center of the grid that does exist. That's also a naughty sidestep, and I'm a bad boy for it.

My gut says Merritt Paulson says Lents because that's the only FREE land the city is willing to offer... at least for now. However, look for recent episodes of the "107 Report" (google should do) and listen to what one Oregonian writer thinks Paulson can do with Sam Adams. I don't think this is the end of the negotiation, just the start.

I agree baseball is clearly so much more enjoyable (e.g. ambience, ease of getting there/public transportation, central location) when it's located in or very near downtown, but unless we're talking about a MAJOR league baseball team for PDX, I just don't care that much if it means we're moving our minor league baseball team to make room for a major league franchise, though Arthur Thiel in Pugetopolis will argue that MLS IS minor league (I don't agree; MLS is the highest form of futbol in the USA, and that's enough for me--as great as I'm sure the Premiership is across the pond, I just can't muster any interest)...as I said before, if it meant MLS was coming to PDX, I'd happily ship the PDX Beavers to Winnemucca...and I attend at least one Bevos game every year; I'd go to PGE about 6-8X for a MLS team, and the atmosphere would, IMO, be 100X more exciting/interesting.

I agree with much of what you guys say in regards to LENTS. You may remember back in the senate bill days that it was bandied about as a possible site.

Of course, the reality is it was never even a remote possibility. It was only thrown out there for political goodwill.

No places out of the central city ever were looked at with any seriousness.

And Paulson knows that a minor league baseball park might as well be in LaCenter or Corbett as Lents..it ain't workin' in any of these places