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  • Stadium, stadium, who’s got a stadium?


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    An optimistic story in today’s Vancouver Sun says the Whitecaps’ chance of winning a 2011 MLS expansion franchise have been boosted after MLS commissioner Don Garber said the Ottawa bid’s biggest obstacle is the lack of a soccer-specific stadium. This because any MLS team in Canada’s capital would be sharing turf with a revived CFL team.

    Vancouver, of course, doesn’t have one either – even though billionaire owner Greg Kerfoot has both the land and the financial means to build one, but cannot get local-government approval to do so.

    But hold the phone. If Garber is ousting Ottawa on stadium grounds – who’s actually left in the running?

    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

    - Miami doesn’t have an SSS. No plan to build one, either.

    - Portland is playing in a baseball park. Renovations are planned, but the ball team is still in the picture.

    - St. Louis has a suburban stadium plan – if such a facility can be built in this economy – but MLS doesn’t like their lack of a big-name go-to money man.

    Against that backdrop, Vancouver looks good – especially since they seem ready and willing to actually spend $40-million (U.S.) to land a franchise.

    As for an actually expansion announcement … who knows? Apparently, commissioner Don Garber has hinted he wants to have it nailed down before the new season kicks off in March. But then again … who knows?

    We’re left with a ongoing pattern where Garber rolls from town to aspiring town, heaping out compliments wherever a local press corps corners him, and then darkly hints that pretty much every city in the line has problems. Except Miami. I don’t think he’s yet dissed Miami, where Spanish giants Barcelona are murmured to have already picked out a coaching staff.

    So … if the Vancouver Sun is right, and the Whitecaps benefit because Ottawa didn’t get over the bar, then neither did Miami, who appear to be the favourites. Nor did the reborn Seattle Sounders, set to kickoff their inaugural MLS campaign sharing fake grass and gargantuan grandstands with the NFL Seahawks. 2010 debutantes Philadelphia are meeting Garber’s guidelines, but 14 short months from kickoff it’s still not 100 per-cent sure their new park in Chester will ever actually be completed.

    Does that mean Portland and St. Louis get into MLS by default, with a ball park and some pretty blueprints, respectively? Of course not. Miami.

    If I’m MLS, taking a gamble on Vancouver is looking really good right now. The worst that happens is the team ends up in a renovated B.C. Place stadium for a while. Not great, but a $40-million cheque that actually clears Kerfoot’s bank has to be worth something, right?

    It is no longer logically possible that any one standard – soccer park, name money man – will decide this race on its own. If you toss Ottawa and let in Miami, aren’t you telling Ottawa’s Eugene Melnyk you’d rather share old stadiums than new ones?

    And since the stadium requirement can’t really be made to fit with any certainty, does that mean no-one actually has the money, and the league is scrambling to make the best two deals it can, and is prepared to wait indefinitely to get the bids up?

    A huge amount of guessing, I concede. But that’s obviously what the league wants.

    If everyone’s guessing – up to and including the actual bidders – the league can pull whatever stunt it thinks will bring home an $80-million windfall in a time of great financial turmoil.

    And whatever Garber says about the need for soccer-specific stadiums, it’s pretty clear now that soccer is not driving this bus. And that is not good news for Vancouver.

    Onward!



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