Montreal Impact Calls Major Press Conference For Friday
The Montreal Impact have issued a press advisory for Friday morning at 10 a.m. The advisory states that the Impact press conference will included “a major announcement concerning the future of professional soccer in Montreal.”
While no one reporting in the media is still absolutely certain, most reporters with connections to the team are saying that the Montreal Impact will be announced as the 19th Major League Soccer team and most likely would join the league in 2012.
Joey Saputo, co-owner, founder and chairman of the Impact, has long made his intentions of MLS known even though he once claimed he rejected the league and their high franchise fees. But recently Commissioner Garber said the league was making good progress in their negotiations with the Impact. Saputo has been much more positive and quiet during the negotiations.
The Seattle Sounders were the first Division-2 team to jump leagues in 2009 and have quickly become one of the most successful MLS franchises. If the Impact leave in 2012 and with the Timbers and Whitecaps gone next year, 2nd Division soccer in North America looks very different without 4 of the 5 biggest teams. Rochester would have to be included as a long-standing team that over the years has drawn decent attendance figures.
This leaves me with more questions than answers. Here are a few that have been running through my mind and must certainly be considered by the folks at USSF as they start thinking about who will get sanctioning of the league in 2011:
What might a new D-2 look like and who might the new major players be in the league?
Do we now set a new standard in what a major player is? Attendance numbers?
Any new cities that should be added?
How many teams should the league have?
Should there be more teams but conferences grouped into geographical locations to save travel expenses?
What sort of attendance numbers would be realistic in D2?
How do these teams become sustainable in a tough economy and high travel costs?
Comments are closed.
If this announcement is what we all expect it to be then a early congrats to all the Montreal footie fanaticos. Especially the Ultras and the long time fans who stuck with the club even during the down years.
I can’t wait to see an Adam Braz meltdown on ESPN2!
This should leave quite an Impact on the city of Montreal.
& cue Who’s “Won’t get fooled Again”
D2 is not in good shape. I think the best thing we can hope for is a closer relationship with MLS, where MLS fields reserve teams in the D2 league. I’ll bet the seattle sounders reserves would draw better than the remaining D2 clubs after Vancouver, Portland, and Montreal depart.
Awesome! I really hope they keep the flying soccer ball in the logo. Better yet, I hope it’s on fire! ; )
BQ
The questions raised here are no different now than in the past. An even bigger question is how will NASL itself survive if it continues follow a big player budget model with existing teams that, and I repeat myself, have less than 3,000 fans in the seats on average?
Traffic, the Brazilian media giant, and the owner of Miami FC, is a major investor in NASL. Can they now truly bring a television package to the NASL teams where ancillary revenue makes any sense?
MLS has successfully poached the best of the USL Division II teams over the years, leaving Division II to a point where it truly is a secondary market player. That is fine, if the financial model is adjusted, but even then, you need fans. MSL would quickly point out that it only poached those teams that had close to 10,000 fans on average.
One thing is for sure, MLS will NOT be coming to Minnesota, Miami or Baltimore in the very near future.
Bart, while I agree MN is not first and foremost on the mind of MLS, I also know you don’t live here and can’t understand some of the things that have happened in this area. We have an over saturation of pro sports here plus a division I program of sports which is not completely usual for a city of this size. So that is certainly a negative. But we certainly have the population to support an MLS team but of course you are concerned with numbers from the past.
What you don’t your have your finger on is that we have never had a team here, playing in the middle of our metro area with a decent marketing program and well funded to have support a competitive team. Its just never happened. So in my eyes, its really never been given a fair shake. When the Thunder of the late 90′s were doing well they were drawing far better and that was with the drive north to Blaine. So I’m going to disagree with your constant negativity about pro soccer in Minnesota.
Thats the short answer and all I have time for this morning. Maybe others Minnesotan’s who have been around the pro soccer scene here for a while can give you a better answer than I can. Smatthew? Anyone?