The city may get a shot at an MLS team.
Major League Soccer’s website is missing a logo. That of the Sacramento expansion franchise that was supposed to start play in 2023. Very quietly it appears the league has realized there is no white knight ready to rescue the franchise after Ron Burkle, the major financial backer of the business, pulled his money and support from the franchise. Officially the bid is not dead but vultures are flying around and one of them is ready to step in to fill that void somewhere else. That somewhere else could be Las Vegas which is a very small market with limited financial wherewithal. But Las Vegas is going after Major League Baseball with the pursuit of the Oakland Athletics franchise. Major League Soccer may also be on that list. The National Basketball Association’s Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wes Edens and the National Hockey League’s Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley are separately pursuing an expansion franchise. Additionally, there is a third group wanting a team.
In 2017, MLS owners decided to add four teams to its group. The expansion process has been slow and hit some obstacles with the Sacramento group being the latest problem. The MLS hatched a plan to find four ownership groups that could own MLS expansion teams around the United States. The league received interest from 12 cities presumably with owners who could foot the bill for a team. The hope was to award two expansion franchises by the end of 2017 and two more in 2018. The expansion process did not go as planned and just three cities Austin, Cincinnati and Nashville had the right stuff to get teams #25, #26 and #27. St. Louis and Sacramento got franchises #28 and #29. Charlotte was given slot #30. Major League Soccer wants 30 teams, finding #30 is a problem.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
