re: Cincinnati to MLS will officially be announced next Tuesday

Cincy will begin play in MLS next season. Nashville will in 2020, and Miami will join them if that ownership group gets their shite together soon.

As it stands, the race for the next 2 expansion spots will be interesting. MLS wants big markets before the current TV deal ends in 2022.

I think Phoenix will get one soon. Huge untapped market in a soccer hotbed and their ownership group is really picking up steam much like Nashville's did. Wouldn't be surprised if it happens later this year, even.

Sacramento has almost all of their ducks in a row, and even a shovel-ready downtown stadium site, but they have had huge ownership problems. They are in if they get that sorted out. But they need to do that soon, before bigger markets are ready to compete for that bid.

Detroit is interesting. Huge market with three billionaires in the ownership group. MLS likes that, but they are not keen on having a team play at Ford Field, which is not designed for soccer. If they can come up with a stadium solution, they are in for sure.

I think the next two will come from those three, but there are some wild cards.

San Diego and St. Louis have expressed interest in an MLS team, but both recently had stadium votes fail. Stan Kroenke and his bullshite with the Rams probably makes it impossible for them to get an MLS team anytime soon unless their ownership group re-assembles with the necessary money to fund a stadium.

North Carolina and Tampa Bay have expressed interest, as well. I think those locations will be in the fight for spots 29-32. Don Garber may publicly say "Oh, we're stopping at 28", but behind the scenes I guarantee he'll continue working with future markets until expansion "opens" again.

The wild card here is the Columbus-Austin situation. It seems that Precourt's goal of having the Crew play in Austin next season definitely won't happen at this point. Ohio is fighting like hell to keep the Crew with the Modell Law and Austin isn't playing ball like Precourt had hoped. That doesn't mean Austin won't get a team at some point, or that MLS won't fold the Crew, but the Crew moving the Austin looks very unlikely right now. Hopefully, the Crew stay in Columbus and get a real owner soon.

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MLS is doomed financially.

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What?

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but they won’t be a cheapskate clownshow like Minnesota, either. I expect they’ll be a decent team to start out.

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talk about a disaster letting them into the league

Have not heard nothing new on their ground being built

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Have not heard nothing new on their ground being built

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That's on you.

LINK to live stream of construction

To be fair to Minnesota, they weren’t oringially supposed to join the league until this season, but had to join early because Beckham’s Miami team wasn’t ready. Their GM hastily assembled a roster of NASL players, Scandinavian scrubs, and MLS bench-warmers and the result was simply a team that didn’t pass muster in 2017 MLS.

They’ve actually started to spend money in the team this year by getting an excellent DP from the Mexican league. Very unlucky that two of their best players are out for the year with ACL tears, or this season could going much better for them. They’re still an OK team.

Their stadium will be one of the best in North America when it’s done, and I won’t judge their team fully until the end of 2019. By then, they have no excuse not to have 3 DPs.

I think Cincinnati will be a wonderful addition to the league. What they’ve done in just three years is nothing short of amazing. Getting attendances of more than 30K is just crazy for second division soccer. They deserve it.

Sky Sports just did a 10 min segment on Cincy

OK, it means 30 cities