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Garber gives a boost for MLS club in Philadelphia
USA - 02 May, 2007
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Don Garber, Major League Soccer (MLS) commissioner gave a boost to the campaign to bring back an MLS club to Philadelphia.
"We're bullish about Philly. Right now it's just a matter of closing the deal," said Garber, while speaking to the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York.
Garber also said that the league might look elsewhere if a deal cannot be reached soon.
"We should know in the next 4 to 5 months or we will have to reconfigure and start from scratch," he said. MLS has 13 clubs, the latest addition being Toronto, and hopes to expand to 16 by 2010.
"If we don't get to 16 until 2011 because we think it's better to have a team kick off in a new stadium rather than starting in a temporary facility, then we can wait," he said.
Among the criteria a city needs to meet is a USD 30 million franchise fee, a market that can support the franchise, a new football-specific stadium or the plan for one in place, and an investment group that meets the standards of the other owners.
MLS has gone on the record saying it feels that this region's fan base is large enough to back a club. Two stadia in the city, Franklin Field and Lincoln Financial Field, could accommodate a club temporarily.
The MLS season begins in April with seven of the league's clubs playing in football-specific stadiums that range in capacity from 18,000 to 27,000.
Last spring, MLS agreed to work with Rowan University, in Glassboro, New Jersey, on plans to build a football-specific stadium that would house a club by 2009, but those plans were dashed because of a funding shortfall.
"We're bullish about Philly. Right now it's just a matter of closing the deal," said Garber, while speaking to the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York.
Garber also said that the league might look elsewhere if a deal cannot be reached soon.
"We should know in the next 4 to 5 months or we will have to reconfigure and start from scratch," he said. MLS has 13 clubs, the latest addition being Toronto, and hopes to expand to 16 by 2010.
"If we don't get to 16 until 2011 because we think it's better to have a team kick off in a new stadium rather than starting in a temporary facility, then we can wait," he said.
Among the criteria a city needs to meet is a USD 30 million franchise fee, a market that can support the franchise, a new football-specific stadium or the plan for one in place, and an investment group that meets the standards of the other owners.
MLS has gone on the record saying it feels that this region's fan base is large enough to back a club. Two stadia in the city, Franklin Field and Lincoln Financial Field, could accommodate a club temporarily.
The MLS season begins in April with seven of the league's clubs playing in football-specific stadiums that range in capacity from 18,000 to 27,000.
Last spring, MLS agreed to work with Rowan University, in Glassboro, New Jersey, on plans to build a football-specific stadium that would house a club by 2009, but those plans were dashed because of a funding shortfall.
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