MLS currently sits at 23 teams that will compete in 2018, but could see new teams joining the fold in the near future. 12 cities are currently in the running for just four MLS franchise spots. December 14 marks the annual league owners meeting in New York City where, among other things, the potential expansion teams will be discussed.
As of just last week, two cities look to have taken a big step forward in preparing their bids for the impending decision, while others are very close to having everything in place.
Last Tuesday, the Nashville Metro Council passed a $275 million plan for a potential MLS stadium. The plan is contingent on if MLS awards Nashville with one of the coveted franchises, so the stadium would still be a few years away from completion, even if they received a spot in December.
Nashville still has yet to have a permanent soccer team in it’s city, so the jury is still out on how well the team would be embraced by the community if it were awarded. Nashville SC, a USL team owned by the same people behind the city’s MLS bid, will start play in 2018. They’ll play all their games at First Tennessee Park, the home of Minor League Baseball's Nashville Sounds.
Meanwhile in Cincinnati, the hype behind the USL team, FC Cincinnati, has the team and ownership group on the cusp of having everything in place for a potential MLS team. The last thing needed for them to move forward is a funding plan in place for their proposed stadium.
The current deal is that just more than half would be put up by the team’s ownership, while the other half would potentially come from the city. That plan would have to be approved before the team is able to move forward in their plans, but after smashing USL attendance records over the last two seasons, there shouldn’t be any doubt to if MLS is a good fit for Cincinnati.
The last of the more recent potential updates comes from Detroit, where the prestigious Ford Family jumped into the ownership group comprising of NBA owners Tom Gores of the Detroit Pistons and Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their latest stadium plan is to share their stadium with the Detroit Lions, much like what Atlanta United and the Atlanta Falcons do now.
With this not being a soccer-specific stadium and the latest ownership developments, their MLS potential takes a bit of a hit and has caused some concern among other owners. The city of Detroit currently have a small market soccer team, the 4th division Detroit City FC, which has done incredibly well over the last few years. As far as the MLS potential goes, Detroit City’s supporters have made it clear that they do not want an MLS team in Detroit and prefer supporting their local, grassroots club.
