Gian-Luca Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/09/seattle-to-mls-.html What they will need by 2010 of course is a nice "regional" rival to the north. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis_Rancagua Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 This is totally contrary to the latest reports on the St-Louis bid. In fact, this falls as a serious black eye on St-Louis. I doubt that the league will refuse Philly. They need that huge TV market, and it is for this reason that MLS has been trying to retain the Philly market for the last 5 years. On another note, I'm extremely happy that the owners for the new Seattle MLS club are planning to retain the name Sounders. ---------------------------- Seattle to MLS in 2009 September 27, 2007 Major League Soccer's 15th team will be its first in the Pacific Northwest. SBI has learned that MLS has chosen Seattle as the home for the next MLS expansion team. Sources with knowledge of the deal have confirmed that Seattle will join MLS for the 2009 season, a year after San Jose is set to join MLS as its 14th team. An official announcement will be made in two weeks. No word yet on what the franchise fee is for the deal but it is believed to be worth approximately $30 million. According to sources from the Pacific Northwest, owners of the USL Seattle Sounders will be involved with the ownership group and the new MLS team will be called the Sounders. I'm still looking for more confirmation on this aspect of the story. One source is telling me the Seattle Sounders will stop playing after this season in order to give the market a season to build up momentum for the new MLS franchise. I'm not sure what that will mean for the current Sounders roster. I don't really understand such a move since it would make much more sense to keep the current Seattle squad going for a year and building the MLS team from that roster before the 2009 season. The Sounders are set to play host to the USL final on Saturday against Puerto Rico. What's my take? It is a solid decision by the league because there are few, if any other, markets where a built-in fanbase exists like the Seattle Sounders fanbase. I would still like to see Philadelphia get a team but Seattle is a deserving market. What I am really interested to know is whether the Portland market will embrace a Seattle MLS franchise. Having an MLS team just three hours away sounds like it would make Portland a potential home for new Sounders fans but Portland Timbers fans consider the Seattle Sounders their arch-rival so I'm not sure if the new MLS team could count on drawing fans from Portland. What do you think of this news? Share your thoughts below. http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/09/seattle-to-mls-.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 When you cut and paste an article, for veracity please include a link to the original source, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto7 Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 There has been a great deal of talk on USLDiscussions.com about the Sounders not playing next year and building for the MLS launch in 2009. The GM said a couple of years ago that he didn't want to have the same team just move up one division as the public really wouldn't connect that this is a different team in a much better league. It is too bad we will lose the Sounders for next year(they are one of the only teams to consistently give the Impact a run for their money), but it makes perfect sense to build for MLS. Think about what Toronto FC did by talking about the return of Top league soccer to Toronto while totally ignoring the Lynx. It worked . People never confused the two as they realized it was a new </u> better team in a higher calibre league. In any case just how many current Sounders players are good enough to play in MLS. Probably no more than 3 or 4. They will have to do like every expansion team and start pretty much from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesW Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Richard When you cut and paste an article, for veracity please include a link to the original source, thanks. Well he just cut and pasted the article that Gian-Luca linked to. I don't see why we need more then one link to the same article! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertuzzi44 Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 So does this help or hurt Vancouvers' chances in the future? (Assuming WWS gets built) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis_Rancagua Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Actually, what I'm hoping is the revival of the old NASL Northern Pacific rivalry between Vancouver-Seattle-Portland. Would MLS ever allow Portland to join the league on account of its close proximity (distance wise that is) of which it shares with Vancouver and Seattle??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis_Rancagua Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Actually, what I'm hoping is the revival of the old NASL Northern Pacific rivalry between Vancouver-Seattle-Portland. Would MLS ever allow Portland to join the league on account of its close proximity (distance wise that is) of which it shares with Vancouver and Seattle??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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