MLS Expansion: Which City Will Become The 24th Team In Major League Soccer? [POLL]

Three cities are in New York right today to make their pitches to become the next MLS expansion team. Representatives from Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Sacramento flew to the big apple on Thursday to make their bids at the MLS headquarters.

Currently, there are 18 teams in the MLS from cities across the country including Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. Next season, in 2015, the MLS will debut two new clubs, New York City FC and Orlando City. In addition to those teams, the MLS has already approved new clubs in Los Angeles and Atlanta in 2017. The 23^rd team is David Beckham’s expansion group in Miami that is still in the process of completing a deal that would allow Beckham and his investors to build a new stadium in downtown Miami.

MLS has repeatedly said that they would like to expand the league to 24 teams by 2020, and are currently taking bids for the 24^th spot. Sacramento believes they have the advantage over the other two cities because they have already had success in the city with their team, Sacramento Republic FC, which is part of the USL Pro circuit that contains the Los Angeles Galaxy’s developmental team, Galaxy II. Sacramento Republic FC won the USL Pro league this year and shattered local attendance records.

“As part of our presentation, we’ll highlight the progress we have made in terms of three core areas of strength: market, ownership group and clear path to a downtown facility,” said Mayor of Sacramento and former NBA star, Kevin Johnson. “Our group remains singularly focused in our efforts to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Sacramento.”

Minnesota has two potential groups behind a Minnesota expansion team including the owner of the Minnesota Vikings, who would like a team to play in their new domed stadium in Minneapolis with the Vikings, and the owners of the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Timberwolves who have joined together to present the idea of promoting current minor-league soccer team, Minnesota United FC, to the MLS. That group would have to build a new stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

The final bid comes from Las Vegas where the city believes they have the fan base to constantly sell out a 25,000 seat stadium for MLS games, but have gotten strong opposition from members of the city council on building a stadium in Las Vegas with public funding. The Las Vegas team is lead by Justin Findlay, a car dealer from Sin City.

All the presentations are occurring in New York this weekend; it’s likely that there will be a second round of pitches in front of the other MLS league owners on December 6^th at the site of the host city of the MLS Cup championship game (either Los Angeles or Seattle). The decision on which team will become the 24^th MLS team won’t be announced until next year, and more than likely they would not begin league play until 2018.

Tell us which city you would like to join the MLS in our poll below: