Now, most of my readers might know that I am a fan of the Montreal Impact joining MLS, if not, you are now. The third Canadian club just makes sense. Montreal is a large market, with a built in fanbase and it creates two more drivable derbies.
Garber even seems to indicate that they are as close a lock as they have been, but news from the Galaxy-Barcelona build-up might make things even clearer as to the League's future.
That kind of statement may be why Duane was getting such indications earlier this week.
Also in the above video it would seem that Garber wants to stop/pause at 20 for a significant time. Everyone seems to what city might be #20.
Could it be Barca Miami?
Laporta became familiar with MLS and its subsidiary, Soccer United Marketing (SUM), through negotiations to bring an expansion team to Miami.
Though negotiations failed, "the project is open,'' Laporta said.
"I had a lot of conversations with MLS,'' Laporta said. "In these meetings, I learned a lot of things, especially in marketing. SUM is working very well in this direction.''
The outgoing president, whose term expires next year, also said that he finds the development of American football impressive.
"We are really surprised at the progress of football in the States,'' Laporta said.
Is that the magic 20? Barca still seems to want in, so maybe it was the Brazilian telecom dollars that are gone, but the Catalan club still desires into MLS. Certainly there are a ton of questions as to how it would work, but with news that St Louis is basically done, I reluctantly say that for #20 Miami seems strongest.
"We're trying to get a franchise in MLS and to develop our image with campaigns in merchandising and marketing.''
There are two easy ways to keep matches in the low 30s (rather than single table, which is still a nightmare)
Two Conferences with Home/Away within Conference and half home/half away against the other (this would mean that the Wild Cards must be half of the playoff slots and that playoffs remain valid). There could remain two or four "rivalry" matches.
Four Divisions of Five with 2 home/2 away within the Group (16) + home/away against another Group (10) and each of the other groups either get home or away for 36 matches. This would increase the regionalism cutting travel costs, increase rivalries and TV (Sat night could have two TV matches) and again maintains a playoff system. To see this visually, click here.
It is notable that 9 of the 20 would have mild enough winters to play on March 1 without an orange ball.