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From Ben Rycroft at Its Called Football (click here for the audio and all the details), Montreal will officially be coming to MLS in 2012. Plus, some an interview with Preki and details of his contract, which may have doubled his salary.
What do you think? Excited to see another top USL team officially enter the league? What will be the “impact” of the Impact on MLS? Will we see any effect of a French-speaking region on MLS? What do they need to do to replicate the successes of Seattle and Toronto?
-Patrick Beatty
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I would have prefered 2011 but hey, fricking cool anyway!!
Let’s just hope that the “official” is really official
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Montreal don’t have to do much to replicate TFC or Seattle. They already were averaging 11,000 per game at close to MLS prices in USL. They were able to get 55,000 to a CCL quarterfinal game. Their stadium can easily be expanded and the plans are to go to 18,500 for MLS. This is pretty much a slam dunk.
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MlS CUP ANNOUNCMENT??
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Nothing is official until it is announced by Joey and Don, even then nothing will be official until the first kick.
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aw man…..its nice montreal is getting a club but they should have put a second team in NYC or have one down south. u know penetrate a new market. 2 berths left, whos it going to go to?
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The penetration of other markets should be done via rolocation. I see the league taking 2 extremes. There are a handful of teams selling out, and being profitable and the rest continuing to lose money. I would review the losers and see what can be done to turn them around. If the market truly is not there, then maybe it’s time to relocate.
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Personally, I think that expectations for attendance need to be lowered. I think every team with the capacity, should be expected to average at least 15,000. Dallas, New England, maybe it is time for a change. I would like to see Coca Cola Championship type numbers for this league. We have our Newcastle in Seattle, we just need to see improvement from the bottom up.
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A good move definitely, but some Americans just don’t realise the mistakes of ‘relocating’ a team. This isn’t the NHL/NFL, this is ’soccer’, a game which in its 160 year history (from ‘Sheffield rules’ in 1850) has seen one professional team relocate. (MK Dons in 2002, from Wimbledon) which resulted in complete chaos.
Thespecial1 – Moving FC Dallas? You’ve gotta be joking, seriously. Pre 2009, the club was getting 15k per game and was generating a profit. The club has its own SSS (Specific Soccer Stadium) and the city of Dallas is on the grow. Why take away a team with a metropolitan population of 6.3 million? Even in Frisco, the population is rapidly growing. Know a little something about marketing? One big problem with the MLS is its history – it has been in existance for less than 15 years. And unlike in Europe, the beautiful game hasn’t exactly been embedded into the American culture, so it has to market to raise awareness of the game and bring the crowds in.
Unfortunately Americans also have the tendancy to ‘be the best’, and in this case the EPL has dibs on being the best league in the world. (FAO Eurosnobs – please don’t even attempt to compare the EPL to Spain, Italy, Germany etc; each league may have a couple of top clubs, but lacks consistency in the middle-flight of such leagues). But don’t get me wrong, the MLS has gone through leaps and boundaries to get where it is today – with continuous development of the game at a grassroots and professional level, the league will only get bigger.
As for attendance figures, the MLS doesn’t do bad in comparison with the CCC. 8 teams are below this 15k ‘freshold’ that you speak of – again, it’s all about marketing.
Regards
TomSWFC (A big USL/MLS fan ‘across the pond’)
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Yeah, New England simply needs a stadium, and Dallas and Columbus need marketing muscle.
I also agree that attendence should be expected to be 15 thousand across the board.
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it is about time….a great city in a great country will be a great rivalry with tfc…..
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Wonder if Unionist Canada- Quebecois politics will cross into sport like Barca-Madrid, but obviously on a much much much smaller scale.
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“Wonder if Unionist Canada- Quebecois politics will cross into sport like Barca-Madrid, but obviously on a much much much smaller scale.”
it already as. It’s always been.
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tomswfc Says:
Posted on November 20, 2009 at 8:09 pm
“A good move definitely, but some Americans just don’t realise the mistakes of ‘relocating’ a team. This isn’t the NHL/NFL, this is ’soccer’, a game which in its 160 year history (from ‘Sheffield rules’ in 1850) has seen one professional team relocate. (MK Dons in 2002, from Wimbledon) which resulted in complete chaos.”
Ummm. Okay. But this is America. Moving a team does not result in complete chaos. Sticking in a poor market just to stick in a poor market is moronic.
“Thespecial1 – Moving FC Dallas? You’ve gotta be joking, seriously. Pre 2009, the club was getting 15k per game”
No they weren’t.
“and was generating a profit. The club has its own SSS (Specific Soccer Stadium) and the city of Dallas is on the grow. Why take away a team with a metropolitan population of 6.3 million?”
That’s great, but THEY DON’T PLAY IN DALLAS!!!! They play in a suburb an hour away in the middle of NOWHERE!
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Montreal will be announced at MLS first kick 2010(Philadelphia Union at Seattle Sounders FC) not MLS Cup 2009. I’d like to thank the fans for your support. We’re excited about the possiblities for both Montreal in MLS and the growth of soccer in Canada.
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@ C.
the main thing is that FC Dallas is one of the few teams that ACTUALLY POSTS A PROFIT. Last time i checked, its pretty easy to maintain a business that makes money
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NOw if they can get a real logo instead of that cartoon looking crap
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“NOw if they can get a real logo instead of that cartoon looking crap”
Seriously, what is an Impact?
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C – didn’t you listen to what I said? I mentioned that the club was in Frisco. And due to the sheer vastness of large cities, not all stadiums are going to be based within the city itself – land prices, availability of land and henceforth. Still, that shouldn’t be a reason why FC Dallas isn’t attracting fans; Frisco’s population in booming at the moment, due in course with a 100k plus populaton. CCC clubs
Getting 15k per game? In 2007 they were – 15,145.
And football is a European game; ‘franchises’ aren’t successful in the eyes of the British. (In a sporting domain of course)
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*CCC clubs exist with populations below 100k and that attract 15k per game – If the method of ‘marketing’ was so successful, then it should be working superb.
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Will it become Olympique of Montreal, or will it stay will the Impact of montreal. I say change…….. what do you say MLS fans. Should the league now consider changing name too, since the NASL is coming back. What sounds better NASL or MLS, or a mix of the two, or a new nice real soccer league name.
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Impact will likely not change…15 years of positive history…3 League Title…5 Commissioner’s Cups…7 Voyageur Cups!
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it has to change, well not bad but yes. The name is cheesy, olympique or something else. Well is it going to be impact de montreal fc or montreal impact fc.
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Right now, the real name is Impact de Montreal FC.
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Wish they’d change it to Olympique, but they won’t because of name’s bad vibes and the Impact brand’s positive reputation…it’ll stay just like it is, IDMFC.
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“Wonder if Unionist Canada- Quebecois politics will cross into sport like Barca-Madrid, but obviously on a much much much smaller scale.”
Not it wont.
Look at the playoffs, the idiot Ultras who are mainly anglophone Guidos from St Leonard were sporting a big banner En Anglais seulement.
Had this been hockey, there would have been a riot in the media (the hockey team captain spent a decade in Montreal and couldnt be bothered to learn to say Hello in french which even ‘ugly americans’ always did) but in soccer it wasnt even noticed.
Of course, these same poseurs Ultras also sport white flags (because its one of the teams colours) which leads to european friends always wondering why the people in Montreal are giving up.
So no ‘the Ultras’ wont make any trouble in Toronto and who cares what les anglais say in the rest of canada.
This country is like a married couple which has stopped talking a long time ago and are just too lazy to divorce except they never had anything in common.
Its not hate as much as it is indifference to each other.
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