Commissioner sets Toronto deadline
"We have been working with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and its president Richard Peddie ... talking about the opportunity for MLS to expand into Canada, specifically in Toronto," Garber said. "We are close to finalizing a deal for '07. We have given MLSE an exclusive window through the end of the month -- through Oct. 31 -- to negotiate a deal for an expansion team."
The league's plan is to add two new teams for the 2007 season, with the second proposed to be a U.S. city, though Garber declined to state which are frontrunners at this time. Several candidates to join Toronto as the second MLS expansion team in '07, assuming the deal is finalized, were mentioned during the call.
"We have a number of different cities that we are in conversations with at this point," Garber said. "All those cities are in the United States and they include Houston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Milwaukee and St. Louis. We've got a bunch of different markets that we're looking at for two additional teams. We'll finalize all of our plans for '07 expansion when we meet with our board of governors at the MLS Cup, which will take place at our new Pizza Hut Park."
MLSE is an experience ownership group accustomed to operating major professional sports teams that are based out of the United States. The company owns and operates the Toronto Maple Leafs (National Hockey League) and Toronto Raptors (National Basketball Association).
"We're very excited about our budding relationship with MLSE, particularly (chairman) Larry [Tanenbaum] and Richard and the staff that we have been meeting with," said Garber. "We think they are fantastic operators not just in hockey and in basketball, but we have spent a lot of time with them learning about the Canadian market, particularly as it relates to television, licensing, sponsorship and we're very impressed and believe that should they finalize a deal that they would add enormous expertise to our ownership group. We very much are looking forward to bringing that deal to fruition."
One of the key questions that has repeatedly come up about expansion into Canada is how it will affect the league's rules about domestic and international players. Garber said MLS has worked closely with the Canadian Soccer Association and U.S. Soccer to develop a situation whereby Canadian players with the Toronto team would be considered domestic players. Any players from other countries (including the U.S.) would fall under current MLS rules regarding international players, which allow four senior internationals and several youth internationals, thus opening the door for many Canadian players to ply their trade at the highest level.
"This is going to be a terrific Canadian-themed team where the ... vast majority of these players will be Canadian," said Garber. "There certainly are going to be fewer jobs with this team for American players than there would be if this team was in the United States and I think that just shows our committment to try to be the leader of this sport not just in the United States but in the region."
Several building sites for a new soccer-specific stadium in Toronto have been explored by MLSE, with Exposition Place leading the way. The new site would be close to downtown Toronto and easily accessible via several transportation routes.
"We think that the location of Exposition Place is the perfect location for an MLS stadium and one that will help revitalize the market and be good for the city," said Garber. "We also think that this facility would provide for an opportunity of a wide variety of other events, whether those events are high school or college soccer matches, rugby matches or even Canadian football matches. We think that this facility will be engaged for 40 or 50 dates a year."
Major League Soccer's major requirements for expansion include a dedicated ownership group, stadium plan and an expansion fee. Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake -- MLS expansion teams in 2005 -- reportedly paid $10 million for the right to join the league, and Garber said that the fee for a team in Toronto would be slightly more than that figure.
Oct. 31 has been set as a firm deadline to reach an agreement to expand to Toronto for 2007. Should that deadline not be met, Garber stated that the deal would be taken off the table. No formal announcements have been made about a timeline for the second proposed expansion team in 2007.
Jonathan Nierman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
