A good thought experiment from Manuel Veth at Transfermarkt on the potential cities MLS could expand or move into—
North America is indeed a massive region and there are plenty of candidates to land a franchise when MLS opts to expand, or a current team opts to relocate. But which cities are currently in the running to potentially land a team? Transfermarkt provides an overview of markets that could support a team and have moved forward with soccer specific stadium projects.
Mostly on board with his list, except for the following:
- I would swap Oklahoma City with San Antonio.
OKC currently has no soccer team whatsoever. Their USL Championship team, the Energy, ceased operations after the 2021 season with a promise to be back by 2027. The stadium they played in seated 7,500. There are plans to build a new stadium, which would seat 12,300, but again those are just plans at this point. It sounds like current ownership is gone and any new team would be under new ownership with a new name.
San Antonio, on the other hand, has had an existing USL Championship team since 2016. They’ve seen success—winning the regular season and cup in 2022. Their current stadium seats over 8,000 and can be expanded to 18,000. They would immediately join the triangle of MLS teams in Texas, making the MLS edition of Copa Tejas a 4 team affair. They are owned by the same organization that owns the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. And San Antonio is still in the central time zone like you’d get with OKC. - I would not consider any city that doesn’t have plans in the works to build a soccer-specific stadium.
That cuts out Las Vegas and Phoenix by Veth’s own words. It also cuts out Oakland, which is far from having a permanent site. - But by MLS’ own conflicting standards, does a soccer-specific stadium really matter?
In the last 10 years, MLS has added 12 teams. And while they say having a soccer-specific stadium is key to landing a team, 9 of those 12 teams either started their existence (ORL, MIN, CIN, NSH) or continue to play (NYC, ATL, MIA, CLT, SD) in non-soccer-specific stadiums.
My list would consist of:
San Antonio
Louisville
Indianapolis
Detroit
Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay
Sacramento