Could NE Ohio get an MLS team?

[ZachTheZip]

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id...cation-possible

I remember there was talk a few years ago of an MLS expansion team being located somewhere between Akron and Cleveland. But this is different. This would be an established MLS team.

There are some areas of the country where the love of Soccer is growing much faster than others. The Pacific Northwest is the biggest, but I think that region is reaching its saturation point. Thanks, in no small part, to Caleb Porter and the Zips our area is another place that supports Soccer more than the average American city. And we're so starved for a winner, and so enamored with the "building process" that I can see a relocated MLS team capturing the attention of the Cleveland media where other cities might just ignore it.

[yazan07]

MLS is looking to hit 20 teams and will probably wait a few years before expanding beyond that. Don Garber really wants another team in NY as the 20th team (specifically the NY Cosmos). Other cities that are bigger than Akron and ahead of us in line for an MLS team are Detroit, St. Louis, Miami or Orlando, anywhere in the south east United States, probably somewhere else in the south west United States. Akron is too close to Columbus for them to do this and the Crew can hardly draw a big crowd. DC United isn't relocating to Akron or Cleveland. If anything they are going to Baltimore. That franchise has too much history and too large of a fan base to completely abandon it for somewhere in Northeast Ohio. Also, for the Garber to be convinced that we are deserving of an expansion side, we would have to prove that we have the fan base to support it. Those other cities that are fighting to get an MLS team have the supporter groups from their NASL or USL or whatever division they're in begging to bring an MLS team to their city and are getting turned down because the 10,000 fans they bring out to their games isn't enough. What do we have to show? We break 5,000 at a college game on a good night, and it has to be because the team is playing well. We started a PDL team in Akron this year, that is our closest thing to a pro team and what did we draw? A couple hundred each game? Our only argument is that our fans show up when the team is really good and having a really strong base of fair weather fans isn't going to convince the commissioner to start an MLS team in Akron.

[Spin]

MLS is looking to hit 20 teams and will probably wait a few years before expanding beyond that. Don Garber really wants another team in NY as the 20th team (specifically the NY Cosmos). Other cities that are bigger than Akron and ahead of us in line for an MLS team are Detroit, St. Louis, Miami or Orlando, anywhere in the south east United States, probably somewhere else in the south west United States. Akron is too close to Columbus for them to do this and the Crew can hardly draw a big crowd. DC United isn't relocating to Akron or Cleveland. If anything they are going to Baltimore. That franchise has too much history and too large of a fan base to completely abandon it for somewhere in Northeast Ohio. Also, for the Garber to be convinced that we are deserving of an expansion side, we would have to prove that we have the fan base to support it. Those other cities that are fighting to get an MLS team have the supporter groups from their NASL or USL or whatever division they're in begging to bring an MLS team to their city and are getting turned down because the 10,000 fans they bring out to their games isn't enough. What do we have to show? We break 5,000 at a college game on a good night, and it has to be because the team is playing well. We started a PDL team in Akron this year, that is our closest thing to a pro team and what did we draw? A couple hundred each game? Our only argument is that our fans show up when the team is really good and having a really strong base of fair weather fans isn't going to convince the commissioner to start an MLS team in Akron.

We had the only profitable indoor soccer team, and sold out the 18,000 seat Coliseum for two different franchises. We're third in attendance in NCAA soccer. Broke records for attendance in AA baseball, and outdrew all but four AAA teams. In Cleveland the Caps and the City Stars broke attendance records.

The only reason we shouldn't have a team is the local economic conditions.