Major League Soccer

Early expansion idea is apparently shelved; two teams will join in 2005.

By Robert Wagman
SoccerTimes

(Wednesday, October 8, 2003) -- Major League Soccer expansion will almost certainly wait until the 2005 season -- as has always been the plan -- commissioner Don Garber said Wednesday at the Sixth Honda Symposium in Los Angeles.

When Chivas of Mexico committed to starting an MLS franchise, there was thought about the team starting play next year. Now, it appears that Chivas will be joined by another team - possibly in Cleveland for the 2005 campaign.

The challenge is to find an appropriate city for (Chivas) to play and also to find an appropriate facility for this team," Garber said. "San Diego is a good market, and right now we are trying to finalize a facility where the team can play. Houston is also a good market, but we do not want to play in Reliant Stadium and we are looking at several different options."

A Chivas team in MLS will be owned by Jorge Vergara, the multi-millionaire businessman who owns not only the club in Guadalajara, Mexico, but teams in Brazil and Spain. Vergara has said he wanted to get into MLS as soon as next season, but it appears that Garber wants two teams to join the current 10 at the same time so there will not be an odd number.

Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego has become the leading candidate as a venue for the Chivas team. The city of San Diego is actively wooing MLS and with tens of thousands of die-hard Chivas fans living within an easy drive on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, the club could be an instant money-maker.

It appears that Cleveland is fast emerging as the favorite for a second expansion team in 2005. "Cleveland is the leading contender since they have an owner who is committed to soccer, and committed to building a soccer specific stadium," Garber said.

The Cleveland bid is backed by real-estate mogul Bart Wolstein, the former owner of the Major Indoor Soccer League's Cleveland Force, who says he is willing to both buy into MLS and to build a soccer-specific stadium, possibly as part of a major suburban development he already has on the drawing boards.

Philadelphia had appeared to be at the top of the list for MLS expansion, but it now appears doubtful that any immediate deal can be worked out with the Jeffrey Lurie organization which owns the new Lincoln Financial Field, as well as the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles. Lurie has signed a 15-year deal for Temple University to play football at the Linc and Garber said that MLS wants to take time to study the results of this agreement before committing to a Philadelphia team. So Philadelphia seems to have been moved to a back burner.

Houston was also high up on the expansion list, but Bob McNair, who owns the NFL's Houston Texans and the new Reliant Stadium, has been playing very hard-to-get. So not only is Garber seeming to say MLS has crossed Reliant off its list of potential venues for an expansion team, but has also ruled it out for the Chivas team. Reportedly Houston is still possible, if another venue can be found.

One question relating to a Chivas-owned expansion team is whether MLS will modify its limit of foreign players to allow more Mexican players on the team. Under present rules, a team can have three full senior non-American players and up to four so-called transitional internationals and junior internationals. Garber said the rule will not be altered, but maybe a loophole will be found for the new team.

The media owners of Mexico's Club America have also expressed interest in buying into MLS. Garber confirmed that some discussions have taken place, but said he was not prepared to comment on the progress. Insiders say one possibility is that the Club America owners might buy Anschutz Entertainment Group's interest in the San Jose Earthquakes, rather than an expansion team. AEg currently operates five MLS teams.

"I love the idea of Mexican teams playing in Major League Soccer. I know that it is only a matter of time," said Guillermo Caņedo White, the newest member of the executive committee of CONCACAF, the confederation of North America, Central American and the Caribbean. White is the former chairman of the board and chief corporate officer of Grupo Televisa which has a stake in Club America.

On another topic discussed at the symposium. CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer said he expects the four-place finisher in the region's World Cup qualifying will, as has been reported, play a team from the Asian Confederation in a playoff for a spot in the 2006 Cup in Germany. "Both CONCACAF and Asia expect to play each other in a playoff," he said.

CONCACAF originally was granted 3.5 World Cup berths. Since FIFA withdrew an automatic berth for the Oceania Confederation winner, however, Australia has come forward with a number of different proposals, all geared towards guarantying a spot for Oceania. If adopted, any of these would eliminate the half spot for CONCACAF and Asia.

Robert Wagman is a SoccerTimes senior correspondent and can be e-mailed at bobwagman@soccertimes.com.