FRISCO, Texas -- The city of Toronto is a hair's breadth from being confirmed as Major League Soccer's 13th team, but none of the league's big-ticket items were finalized at Saturday's Board of Governors meeting.
Larry Tannenbaum, the chairman of the board of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the group set to put an expansion team in Toronto, was introduced to the board Saturday. While MLS Commissioner Don Garber said he can't yet announce a final agreement, he was very optimistic that the remaining details will be ironed out in short order.
"[The board] formally approved their application for expansion," Garber said. "There's still some things left that they need to do in Toronto on the stadium front before ... we can announce a deal.
"They're really an impressive group," he added. "... (They) are going to be terrific partners."
Garber and deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis also said that the league's domestic player rules will be different for the Toronto team. Canadian players will count as domestic, while all others, including U.S. citizens, will count as international players. Toronto will be allowed to have three additional senior internationals -- seven, as opposed to four -- as long as those additional three are from the United States. The Canadian team will also have five youth international spots, rather than three, in its inaugural season (just as Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake this year).
On another expansion note, Garber said the expansion fee for the league's 14th team will be $15 million until Dec. 31, 2005, at which point it will increase "significantly" to an as-yet undetermined amount.
The other major items Garber discussed during his MLS Cup luncheon Friday -- a salary budget exception for marquee players, incentives for teams that build youth academies, the new television deal that is on the horizon, and the fate of the San Jose Earthquakes and Kansas City Wizards -- were topics of much discussion at the board meeting, but no decisions were reached.
"It's just that ... change is difficult," Garber said, when asked what the sticking point was on the marquee player exception. "We've got to be sure that we make the right decision and tee it up in a way that's going to be very effective and still maintain our [single-entity] structure."
Lamar Hunt, the investor-operator of the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas, said the league should pace itself when it comes to increasing budgets.
"We need to be moderate in our approach," he said. "We need to grow our budgets out of success rather than projected success."
Speaking on the future of the Earthquakes and Wizards, both Garber and Hunt said that no drop-dead date has been set for when a decision must be made, but Garber emphasized that, taking into account the need to sell tickets for 2006, that a final decision must be made within the "next couple of weeks." Garber also reiterated that a new television deal, which would start in 2007, is in the offing, but more work still needs to be done before it can be announced.
Some matters the Board of Governors did finalize are the framework of the 2006 season -- a full slate of games will kick it off on April 1 and MLS Cup will be played on Sunday, Nov. 12 -- and the formation of a technical committee to examine the league's competition format. Gazidis said the committee will go beyond the reach of the board and include general managers and coaches. There might be some minor changes for 2006 as recommended by the technical committee, but Gazidis expects that more substantial alterations could come in 2007.
Also, the board approved major allocations for the four teams that missed the playoffs and gave the Wizards an additional allocation in the wake of Preki's retirement.
Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
Best XI: 
