Just prior to the league’s All-Star Game in Austin, MLS commissioner Don Garber was asked whether the league might expand beyond 30 teams. His measured response of “I don’t know the answer to that…we’ll have to see” raises a key question. Has MLS reached the limits of expansion?
Expansion in MLS faces a clear challenge: most major markets already have a professional team.
The average metropolitan population of existing MLS cities hovers at 4.3 million, with the smallest market coming in near 1.2 million. To go a step further, the USL’s increased presence has seemingly left MLS with no other choice but to continually flirt with and pull teams from that organization.
However, instead of focusing on the same cities that are regularly in the expansion rumblings, like Indianapolis or Phoenix, I decided to search for cities that neither league is involved with at the professional level. To do so, I came up with a simple process. The cities I looked at needed to have a metropolitan population of at least 1.2 million and be more than 25 miles from a current USL Championship or MLS team. The latter criteria ruled out two markets – San Francisco (due to the city’s proximity to the USL’s Oakland Roots) and Brooklyn (New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls) – and the former left me with just four cities.
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With those parameters in mind, here are the best uncontested markets that MLS should (if it isn’t already) have squarely on its radar, along with a deeper look at the soccer culture and potential in each.
Joseph Lowery
