Garber: League 'probably done expanding in the southeast for a little while'

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https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/9fkf4z/garber_league_probably_done_expanding_in_the/

Garber: League 'probably done expanding in the southeast for a little while'

Nah, that's more Miami for you. Tampa has pretty decent local support.

Seems like it could just be NHL in the Southeast for ya. Atlanta already relocated, and Carolina has bad attendance also. How's Tampa Bay's attendance?

The Lightning sellout most games and their team was voted the best overall sports team by either sports illustrated or espn in the past year. I would say they break the mold for Southeast teams.

Tampa Bay is 6th in the NHL for attendance, so very healthy. Partly because of Canadian "snowbirds" (what we call people who escape our winters) attending games. The Panthers are 28th, so bad. They should move to Quebec City.

North Carolina, Tampa, or New Orleans are the only markets left that could maybe support a team. You can probably scratch New Orleans off the list though due to the nature of the city and it’s small size

The Jags benefit from Orlando not having an NFL team, so they pull fans from central Florida. With OCSC being in the league, I don't know how much Jax can support a team.

Tampa's probably the only viable option for a third FL team.

To be honest, the Jaguars don’t really draw well from Orlando. Perhaps that will change as time progresses and there are more fans who grew up with the team close by, but my experience has been nfl fans in Orlando are split amongst the three teams in the state, with the dolphins and buccaneers being more popular than the jaguars. I would ageee that Tampa is a better, more viable market for a third MLS team. A guy can dream though, right?

Put teams in JAX, ORL, and TB, and i guarantee those derbies would be rockin. That would build up local support hopefully to the point of getting people interested in other teams in the league.

either JAX or TB would come in, i doubt if both. I prefer TB because they have a rich history in the sport from the 70s and till today. But you never know.

In an open system, we'd have a shot at seeing both, with TB/ORL being the stronger squads because of the local economies there.

I hate that we have a closed system that forces people to choose.

Raleigh, Charlotte, or Tampa. But none of those are as likely as Detroit, San Diego, Phoenix, or Sacramento.

I personally think Detroit is basically in and there will be a battle out west for the final slot.

Tampa. I read this exclusively as a way to say that the Rowdies have no chance

Tampa, Memphis, or New Orleans

I wonder if this means that the Charlotte, NCFC and Tampa Bay bids aren't being seriously considered for the next two MLS expansion spots.

I admit, it would suck if Tampa didn't, they left a good first impression on me with their publicized bid submission

I don’t think Florida is going to be seeing three teams any time soon, if ever.

Tampa fans are also awesome. Up there with Minnesota fans as some of my favorites.

No, you're awesome

I think Miami securing their bid really undermined Tampa. Granted Texas may get three teams and Florida is similar size.

Florida is similar in size to Texas?

Florida: 65,755 sq. miles

Texas: 268,597 sq. miles

Florida: 20.98 million people

Texas: 28.3 million people

Now do the market share!

Cue the "everything is bigger in Texas" crowd.

People get this point confused because they compare the total square miles and population of the two states, rather than the population of the actual areas that MLS would be interested in.

Sure, Texas is bigger than Florida, but MLS isn't going to put teams in places like El Paso, Laredo, Corpus Christi, Amarillo, Midland, Lubbock, Abilene, Beaumont, Nacogdoches, etc.

What matters is the population size of the metro areas that MLS would be interested in; in Texas, that would be Dallas-Houston-Austin-San Antonio. In Florida that would be Miami-Tampa Bay-Orlando-Jacksonville.

The Florida population MLS is interested in is almost entirely within the Miami-Tampa Bay-Orlando-Jacksonville metro areas (the Florida panhandle would fall outside of that, so, no Tallahassee), whereas Texas has a larger portion of its population (larger than Florida I mean) lying outside of the Dallas-Houston-Austin-San Antonio metro areas (very loosely, North Texas, West Texas, South Texas, and East Texas, lying outside of the Dallas-Houston-Austin-San Antonio metro areas).

Florida has a smaller population, yes, but it's concentrated in a smaller area, which is a plus, not a minus; Texas' population is larger but it is also spread out over a larger area, which, outside of the Dallas-Houston-Austin-San Antonio metro areas, is of no interest to MLS. Bigger isn't always better.

So yes if Texas can support 3 MLS teams, so can Florida. Just comparing the two state's total populations does not give an accurate picture about what MLS is actually interested in.

I think either Charlotte or Tampa should get a team eventually if MLS expands to 32. Three way Florida or Southeast derby would be fucking awesome

Sooner or later Orlando might make it a four way derby.

See you guys in 2028.

Well, if you want to balance out the conferences, It'll be 2 western teams, and of course if you want to talk about bidness metriks, then there are markets such as Pheonix, LV, Sacramento, and San Diego as well as San Antonio/Austin. Of course, if the Crew move to Austin and there's a huge stink of it in Columbus, then Columbus could be awarded an expansion and that leaves one more team, that will most likely be SAC, LV, SD or PHX. SD has an advantage that a stadium will be built in mission valley that can support soccer to replace Qualcomm. That being said, if Detriot, Tampa, and Charlotte/RDU pick-up, then Chicago will shift west...which would be weird for me.

DC, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Orlando, Houston, Dallas is pretty normal a distribution for leagues.

MLB has Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, DC, Houston, Dallas 1 fewer

NHL has Tampa, Carolina, Florida, DC, Nashville,Dallas, 1 fewer

NBA has DC, Charlotte, Memphis Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Houston,Dallas 1 more

NFL has DC, Carolina, Atlanta, Jax, NOLA, Miami, Tampa, Houston, Dallas 2 more

However all but the NHL have more American teams

I am so mad at this roller coaster of emotion. MLS is garbage I dont want it. MLS is actively making soccer worse in this country.

How are they done expanding in the South east??? They missed NC! We are the fastest growing state in the south. The 7th most populous state! I hate this bull@#$# commisioner and this stupid league. We need pro/reg. We need to build a paramid and we need to punch Don in his stupid face. In any order that timeline gets us where we want to be in the world. Not closing off entire populations of fans.

Where is Steve Malik?!? I need a hug.

Edit: sorry I would delete it but there is truth in there somewhere. Why does NC get passed over for pro teams?

Oh, Don. You can't really mention Miami and Orlando in the same breathe as "southeast." They might as well be in New Mexico, as far as I'm concerned

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https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/expansion/mls-commissioner-don-garber-southeast/

MLS Commissioner Don Garber: League ‘probably done expanding in the southeast for a little while’

ORLANDO — MLS Commissioner Don Garber has watched soccer survive and thrive in the South.

The league’s marquee event, the MLS All-Star Game, was hosted in Atlanta this year and drew a record crowd of more than 72,000. The All-Star Game will be at Orlando City Stadium in 2019. Nashville and Miami are set to join the league in the near future — with Nashville recently securing approval for a soccer-specific stadium.

Garber said he’s confident soccer can survive below the Mason-Dixon Line, and, for now, he doesn’t see any more southeastern clubs joining the league.

“There was a real strategy, strategically, as we were developing our league, to get south of Washington D.C. That was an important development for us. That then goes to Orlando and Atlanta and Nashville, and soon in Miami. We had a very, very focused effort to expand to the southeast,” Garber said to reporters after the announcement of the 2019 MLS All-Star Game in Orlando.

“It’s a hotbed of soccer in the grassroots level. There’s enormous energy and diversity that exists in this part of the country. I think we’re probably done expanding in the southeast for a little while, but we’re feeling pretty good about it.”

During a later meeting with Pro Soccer USA, Garber said Charlotte and Raleigh are still very much in play, but the league is being careful about growing the right way and giving new teams the best chance to succeed. As a result, he has no timeline for when more expansion teams will be added.

MLS is still reportedly looking to expand to 28 total teams. Cities such as Phoenix, Detroit, San Diego and Sacramento are in the running. The Tampa Bay Rowdies, currently in the United Soccer League, also submitted a bid to become an MLS expansion team. They were one of 12 ownership groups to submit bids. FC Cincinnati was the most recent club to join MLS and is expected to begin play next season. The league is expected to announce two additional expansion by the end of the year. The expansion process has been fluid, with flexibility on deadlines and frequent adjustments.

The league has history in the southeast. The Miami Fusion and the Tampa Bay Mutiny both folded in 2001, though the league was far less stable back then.

Inter Miami, backed by superstar David Beckham, recently unveiled its crest and colors.

TWO Florida teams out of four hardly covers the Southeast. Charlotte? Hampton Roads? Raleigh? New Orleans? Louisville? The Southeast is where the growth is (thanks to low taxes, less regulation, and better weather). Let's cram more teams into Texas or California instead. Why does Garber still have a job at MLS?

He said "a little while," not forever. There's Phoenix and either San Diego (if they win the vote) or Detroit (if they are serious about making their roof retractable) to look at in the meantime. And there is still the unfinished Sacramento business, and, behind the scenes, a possible San Francisco/Oakland franchise being schemed about.

Louisville is building a new stadium for their USL team. Charlotte, Cary NC, Richmond, Charlotte and Richmond also have USL teams. Birmingham, Memphis and Leesburg VA will have teams from 2019.