Allan Oulate shares a brief presentation exploring the 4 cities that will be involved in the MLS Expansion.

1. 4 Potential Cities involved in the MLS
Expansion Puzzle

2. With the hype for Soccer growing year
after year in the United States, Major
League Soccer is moving towards a 28
team league by 2020.

3. The original goal of 24 teams by 2020
looks to already be achieved with the
additions of New York City and
Orlando this past year, and two more
additions coming this next year.

4. However, the easy part is make the
decision to expand, the hard part is
selecting where to do it. Here are 4 of
the front runners for the newest MLS
franchise sites.

5. Indianapolis

6. Indy Eleven, a member of the North
American Soccer League has made
significant progress towards
establishing themselves in the soccer
world.

7. Last year the club lead the league in
attendance with more than 9,000 fans
per game and that number is growing.

8. Currently there is not an MLB team to
compete with in the summer making
them a prime choice for expansion.
The only area of concern seems to lie
within the renovation plans for
IUPUI’s Carroll Stadium.

9. If Indy Eleven can verify renovation
plans they could be set up for success.

10. Austin

11. Currently Austin is the largest city in
the United States without a major
professional sports team.

12. Many studies have been conducted
that show that Austin can support an
MLS team from a financial aspect, only
adding to the list of reasons as to why
the MLS should go there.

13. However, the major soccer team in
Austin, the Aztex are more focused on
their current ventures and have made
little progress in expansion talks with
the MLS.

14. St. Louis

15. St. Louis has been a frontrunner for an
MLS team for quite sometime, however
in the past year or so the MLS has
taken been left out of mind as sports
executives in the city are doing
everything they can to assure that the
St. Louis Rams do not move to Los
Angeles.

16. But, recent evidence, mainly a stadium
plan debacle, shows that they are not
winning that battle. On a non-
professional level, St. Louis has become
one of the nation’s hotbeds as more
teams seem to be popping up in various
leagues.

17. So, in the event that the Rams settle
into a stable location be sure to look for
St. Louis in MLS news.

18. Sacramento

19. The Sacramento Republic has made
the case for an MLS team fairly easy for
the city in operational terms. The team
averages more than 10,000 fans a
game and has investors ready to pull
the trigger for the expansion fees.

20. At this point in the game, Sacramento
is simply waiting for the okay to go
ahead and begin the expansion
process.

21. The main obstacle to overcome is the
building of a new stadium and that
process is already in development
making Sacramento as ready as ever to
become the next MLS franchise.