In a statement released on Monday, MLS Commissioner Don Garber confirmed the league was in talks to bring an expansion team to Minnesota. But for the first time, Garber also statedthat the league will in 2015 “evaluate potential expansion beyond 24 clubs.”

If as expected, MLS awards an expansion team to a group headed by Minnesota United FC owner BillMcGuire, that would leave Sacramento Republic FC and David Beckham‘s Miami group fighting it out for the 24th team. In 2013, Garber said MLS planned to expand to 24 teams by2020.

Garber’s statement:

“Expansion continues to be a priority for Major League Soccer.  We have all witnessed the resoundingsuccess that Orlando City SC and New York City FC have experienced as their expansion clubs debuted to record crowds at the start of the 2015 season.
 
“During the past several months, we have conducted expansion meetings withrepresentatives from Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Sacramento and visited all three markets. We have also met with representatives from San Antonio and St. Louis. We recently announced that Las Vegas isno longer being considered for this round of expansion.”
 
“We are in advanced discussions with Bill McGuire and his partners in Minnesota to bring a Major League Soccer expansion club to the Twin Cities and are particularlyexcited about their plans for a new soccer-specific stadium that will serve as the club’s home. We remain on track to announce the next MLS expansion market in the next 30-45 days, though nospecific date for an announcement has been set.

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3 Comments

  1. I would expect MLS to still go on the 24 teams by 2020 timeline and then 30 teams by 2030. These would be the frontrunners imo for teams 25-29 (assuming Miami still comes in)1.Sacramento Republic2.Indy Eleven3.St Louis4.Carolina Railhawks5.San Antonio Scorpions.

  2. Cap it at 24, with all following teams forming a lower division with Pro-Rel. Right? Do we actually have enough top-tier referees to do more matches? Is there a plan for that as well? It’s easy to find more rich guys to create new teams; it’s much harder to create the structure to have 12 world-class referees and 24 world-class ARs.

  3. As long as we have Garber in a positive frame of mind, by all means let’s encourage the adoption of the European system of promotion-relegation, which is the only logical one. The play-off system is beyond stupid, in which a team can win on points in league play only to lose the play-offs to a 6th-place team/

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