At Tuesday’s USA-Ecuador game, MLS Commissioner Don Garber hosted three prospective investors for a New York team in his suite at Red Bull Arena. The Commissioner also indicatedthat the New York Cosmos are not at the forefront of the discussions.
“I don’t know that they’re [Cosmos] involved,” Garber said. “They’ve got somethings that they’re trying to work out within their ownership group. But as I‘ve said many times, I applaud what they’ve been doing. They’re doing a great job building theirbrand and when we’re ready to get that team launched and they want to be a part of it, we’ll be happy to talk to them.”
As far as the prospects of a second MLS team inthe New York area, Garber said, “if we can build a stadium, we’re going to have a 20th team in New York City. … At the end of the day, we’ve got to get a stadium built and Ibelieve we’ll be able to get that done. I feel better about it now than I have at any other point. … If we get a stadium built, we’ll have no problem getting an ownership group for thatteam. I think it will ultimately come to fruition. The question for me is, How long is it going to take? How much patience do we have? How many meetings and press conference have we had about astadium for the MetroStars and now the Red Bulls?
“It takes a long time. But we’ll get it done the way we got [Red Bull Arena] done.”