Hey! Major League Soccer kicks off tonight, opening with the newest team in the league, the Seattle Sounders vs. the New York Red Bulls. You can catch it at 8:00 CT on ESPN2.

Qwest Field is a great venue for the beautiful game. I watched the US play Venezuela there way, way back in March of 2003. I also had an opportunity to play on the field when I lived in Seattle and worked for the state youth soccer association. There are times I miss living out there, and I’d have to say the opening game for an MLS team would definitely be one of those times.

In other news I’m sure you didn’t hear, MLS announced that the Vancouver Whitecaps will be the 17th team added to the league and will debut in 2011. There will be one more added from a short list of Ottawa, Portland, St. Louis, and Miami, but the smart money is on Portland as it would give the MLS a nice Pacific Northwest rivalry between the three newest teams. The announcement will likely come tomorrow.

Using Google Maps and some Photoshoppery I whipped up a map showing the locations of MLS franchises and NFL franchises. Red indicated Major League Soccer only, blue indicates National Football League only, and yellow represents a city that has both:

It’s worth remembering that the NFL has 32 teams compared to 18 (projected) in MLS, and it’s hard to visualize the league growing beyond 20 teams, though I suppose it could. I guess what I find interesting here is the NFL has a presence in the southeast whereas MLS has more teams west of the Rockies. Granted, the two failed MLS franchises were in Tampa Bay and Miami, so it’s not like MLS hasn’t tried, but I’d also like to see more of a Midwestern presence to the league. I’d love to see more interest in St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis.

That’s probably just a pipe dream unless Anheuser-Busch decides to step up, and I’ve have to think with the number of Hispanics in southern Florida you could make franchises work down there—the front offices for Tampa Bay and Miami didn’t have stellar reputations from their first go-round. Still, I wouldn’t want to see Miami be the only team in Florida since there’s a lot of worth in regional rivalries. That’s one of the problems with Chicago—the closest rivalry is Columbus, over six hours away, although I guess Minneapolis wouldn’t be that much better…

Anyway, I hope the league can sustain this much expansion and still field a quality product. I actually think there are enough quality players in the country, but I also think MLS hasn’t done a very good job of finding them. The scouting programs are still too dependent on the development programs that overwhelming funnel white suburban kids into the system. You gotta get grassroots, but of course that takes a lot of time and money and trained scouts. Easier said than done. Still, I see this period of change as a good thing and I’m looking forward to the season.

Current Mood: Still Good |