Main League Soccer commissioner Don Garber was in Toronto on Wednesday to meet up with Canadian business leaders. He also attended Toronto FC's game against the MontrAal Impact in the Amway Canadian Championship, Canada's exact carbon copy of the U.S. Open Cup. Garber talked with reporters at halftime of the overall game, and made some substantial statements. He said that the group may be prepared to make a statement soon about adding another team in the Brand New York market: Given MLS' challenges thus far to nail down that operation, there was quite a bit of speculation on Twitter that the make an effort to carry a second team to ny - specifically, to a plot of land near Citi Field and the USTA National Tennis Center in Queens - had failed. Was the dream dead? Could MLS now move ahead to other markets, such as Orlando? John Courtemanche, MLS' executive vice president of communications, quickly took to Twitter to try to clarify matters: That caused this exchange between me and Courtemanche: Courtemanche's comment seemed if you ask me like verification that Nyc was back in front. Therefore did this record out of Toronto: Notice how it does not say that there is not going to be a 2nd group in Nyc. It just says what the ownership class will not be. Well, things can be taken by me a little more. I've spoken with multiple sources and have been told that the owners of English Premier League giant Manchester City are now actually once again in the lead to grasp MLS' 20th franchise. You may remember that in December, Bloomberg reported that City's key owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was "close" to a cope with MLS. Which was up to we noticed, though. Quickly thereafter, Empire of Soccer claimed that MLS had filed a registration for the title "New York City FC." Given Manchester City's potential involvement - and undoubtedly the simple attraction of such a title - it made sense. From what I've seen, talks have continued to succeed. Given the sensitive and painful nature of the things - and that holds displaying, there's no offer in position however. But Garber's remarks Wednesday night appear to indicate that the situation has reached a stage that's advanced enough for the head of MLS to talk freely about any of it. Precisely once the team would begin playing in MLS isn't clear yet. Among other facets, the proposed stadium in Queens has not been approved yet. (Though there are renderings that you can view here.) This much is well known, though: Manchester City will soon be in Nyc at the conclusion of Might to play a friendly against other Premier League energy Chelsea at Yankee Stadium. There will be lots of ears perked up to see if a statement gets made at that time. And if it does, you can be certain that plenty of people will require notice. Not only will it finally get MLS a team inside New York's city limits, however the story would also come just months prior to the start of league's next round of negotiations for national television deals. It is a fair bet that the second group in Nyc would look rather attractive from a ratings perspective. It'll be intriguing to see where the story goes from here. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment