Jump to content

Montreal MLS expansion bid is not entirely dead???


Luis_Rancagua

Recommended Posts

Luis,

Read this line again:

`A source confirmed to me Monday, that Montreal’s ownership group has not ruled out an eventual move to MLS, but that the requirements to submit an expansion bid to the league must be changed``

I.e. - If MLS drops the $40 million price tag we`d be interested. MLS isn`t going to drop the $40 million price tag. Not when it has five cities willing to pay it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

EXPANSION: Source Within Impact de Montreal Confirms Our Rumor Regarding Potential Expansion

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

This rumor being confirmed no doubt will be music to UM02's ears.

Extra special thanks to our friends at Major League Soccer Talk for this. We just received word from them that they have confirmation from someone within the Montreal organization that our rumor concerning a revitalized Montreal Impact MLS Expansion bid with a potential compromise over how the $40 Million USD will be paid, is in fact true.

Courtesy of Major League Soccer Talk:

A source confirmed to me Monday, that Montreal’s ownership group has

not ruled out an eventual move to MLS, but that the requirements to

submit an expansion bid to the league must be changed. The big question

will be this: after the Impact put on a show next week and draw the

type of crowd current MLS clubs can only dream about for a CONCACAF

match, will MLS and Montreal come to some agreement? Could this also

be the mysterious cause of the delay in revealing the expansion winner

for 2011?

What do you think? Would Montreal be a great addition to the league? Would the intensity of the Toronto FC vs Impact de Montreal Canadian Championship matches translate into league fixtures?

http://www.mls-rumors.net/2009/02/confirmed-source-within-impact-de.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 years from now what is going to matter?

That 40 million expansion fee or selling out games around the league?

Montreal has the potential to be a GIANT just like Toronto. You need to grow the league, Garber would be stupid to let Montreal slip away especially in a time when his league is slowly slipping yet again with golden Becks dissing the league, poor MLS performance in CONCACAF competitions and not selling out playoff games!

Columbus can't sell out a playoff game (20,000 seater) and Montreal is going to get 55,000 for a CONCACAF game. Its common sense.

Imagine if back when the NHL was starting Montreal didn't agree with an expansion fee and let them slip to a rival league... instead the NHL took on... St. Louis for example.

Because that is basically what is happening here.... the expansion fee back then might have been a sum a fraction of 1 million!! Now 20 years from now $40 million might look the same and everyone will look at this as "wow, that was unecessary"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Jeffery S.

Regarding this question, anyone know how the fee has to be paid? Is it all up front?

If so I would find that odd as normally you spread out your expenses over a few fiscal years so you can declare them in successive tax periods. Montreal negotiating on this sounds fine to me, though what would have been the ideal way to do things would be to agree with the other bids to get better conditions on franchise fee payment. Because properly speaking the value of MLS has probably dropped with the downturn, and the fee should be adjusted accordingly.

What happens, though, is that the bids are rivals and the MLS uses that rivalry to take away their capacity to negotiate colletively to get a lower fee and more favourable installments in a time of economic hardship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Be nice if you had an Edit / Modify feature on here...

Two things have devalued the franchise fee:

- Beckham leaving the league (inevitable)

- the economic downturn

Montreal withdrew their bid. Does that preclude them from reinstating it in time for March 15 deadline?

Haven't heard much about St. Louis situation either. Is Arthur Blank involved there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by spiral

Be nice if you had an Edit / Modify feature on here...

Two things have devalued the franchise fee:

- Beckham leaving the league (inevitable)

- the economic downturn

Montreal withdrew their bid. Does that preclude them from reinstating it in time for March 15 deadline?

Haven't heard much about St. Louis situation either. Is Arthur Blank involved there?

Arthur Bank is involved with the Atlanta bid, not St. Louis.

Cooper is the individual leading that ownership group. From what I can gather, he told Garber that he'd secure a deep-pocketed investor for the St. Louis bid, but he hasn't been successful yet and time's running out. Cooper doesn't have near big enough pockets and attracting an investor will be hard during this economic depression.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by spiral

Be nice if you had an Edit / Modify feature on here...

Two things have devalued the franchise fee:

- Beckham leaving the league (inevitable)

- the economic downturn

Montreal withdrew their bid. Does that preclude them from reinstating it in time for March 15 deadline?

Haven't heard much about St. Louis situation either. Is Arthur Blank involved there?

Montreal did not withdraw...they were eliminated from contention because they did not meet the criteria...paying the full 40 million.

Beckham's departure and the downturn will not change the expansion fee.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow...as much as Montreal absolutely deserves to be in MLS and would make it a better league, I can't honestly imagine Don Garber going back to Montreal, and grovelling to the Saputos for a re-application.

And if anyone thinks MLS will be "adjusting" their expansion fee...get serious. It ain't going to happen for Miami, or Montreal.

This whole process has turned into a bit of a farce.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So aside from Vancouver and Miami (who apparently are on the ropes right now...), who else have agreed to pay the $40 million and actually have the backing to do so? Obviously all the contenders who are still around have agreed that they'd pay the $40 mill, but who honestly in the running has the immediate ability to do so?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...