MLS expansion, immediate and long term, taking shape

MLS's plans to slot in the launch dates of its next four expansion teams are beginning to take shape.

MLS commissioner Don Garber said at an event to promote the Sacramento expansion bid on Thursday that the goal -- a word he emphasized several times -- is to launch Atlanta United and Minnesota in 2017 and Los Angeles FC andDavid Beckham's Miami team in 2018. For the first time, Garber said MLS will definitely expand to 28 teams, but the earliest a city like Sacramento would likely enter is 2020.

Of the four teams already committed, Atlanta United is the only team confirmed and with a stadium in the works -- Mercedes-Benz Stadium, slated to open next year.

Garber said a decision on Minnesota will be "made very shortly." "If Minneapolis is coming in 2017," he added, "we have to have an announcement pretty soon."

The Minnesota group has made progress on a stadium site in St. Paul, winning concessions for tax breaks from state lawmakers who were in the past reluctant to make commitments, but would have to find a temporary home for at least 2017. (The two sites most often mentioned: University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium and the Minnesota Twins’ Target Field.)

Miami's search for a stadium venue has dominated the headlines, but just as important is finalizing the ownership group. Beckham has the right to a buy an expansion team for the bargain price of $25 million but is not expected to fund the entire project (club and stadium) himself.

"I'm tired on my own of saying how we're making progress, but we are," Garber said of Miami. "They've purchased the land, but we've got work that needs to happen to ensure that they have the right ownership structure so that they'll be successful. And we have the ability to require that. They need to have an ownership that we are able to improve that will ensure their long-term success. They are making progress, but they're not there yet."

Sacramento heads the next wave of expansion candidates.

"We believe and hope and expect that Sacramento will part of that next round of expansion," Garber said at a noontime event that attracted 1,000 fans in downtown Sacramento and followed a tour of a proposed stadium site and meetings with civic and business leaders.

In addition to Sacramento, Garber listed five other expansion candidates: Detroit, St. Louis, San Diego, San Antonio and Austin.

“Many of [the conversations] are advanced," he said. "Detroit, [a] major market that has a downtown stadium project. St. Louis, an important strategic market again for us in the Midwest that has a real opportunity today with the Rams leaving town. Those are two very important markets that we’re talking to along with Sacramento.

“San Diego is another market that has a lot of things that are going on as it relates to their professional sports team and teams. There’s activity, a lot of public activity going on in San Antonio and Austin, so you can start seeing there are more markets than there are available slots and we’re very focused on stopping at 28 until we’ve kind of taken a big step back and think about how we manage expansion for the next 10-20 years after that.”