Yet the timeframe espoused by Garber has come and gone, and now the push to bring a team to Vegas appears stuck. The exclusive negotiation agreement has since expired, although the source familiar with the league’s thinking said there continue to be “friendly discussions” with Edens and Sawiris.
There’s no mistaking that the startup costs to put a team in Vegas would be immense. MLS is still insisting that while playing at Allegiant Stadium is possible, it’s strong preference is for venue with a retractable roof to be built, the better to cope with the intense heat of the Las Vegas summer. When combined with building a training facility and the expansion fee — which Garber is on record as saying would be well north of the $325m that Charlotte paid — the initial investment would be more than $1b.
That doesn’t mean all is lost in terms of putting a team in Vegas. At an event with AP Sports editors, Garber said, “We’re still focused on Las Vegas.” And San Diego is living proof that MLS expansion dreams can go dormant only to come back to life. A local referendum to build a soccer-specific stadium that was dubbed “Soccer City” failed in 2018, with the competing project put forward by San Diego State winning out. Now the city’s expansion bid is on the upswing again. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman remains hopeful, tweeting earlier this week that in the wake of the A’s news, “we just need @NBA & @MLS for a full house.”
There also appears to still be some room left in MLS’s game of expansion musical chairs. The league has always been measured in terms of how many teams it would ultimately have, but 32 seems to be the sweet spot in terms of geographical and numerical balance. So even if San Diego completes its deal first, there’s still room and time for Vegas to get a deal done.
“I try to remind everybody that the U.S. and Canada is larger than Europe,” Garber said in the meeting with the AP. “We’re playing across multiple time zones and extended geography with multiple weather changes. So, I believe we could support more than 30 teams. There is no plan today to go to 32. It’s not as if we have earmarked cities, but the other (U.S.-based) leagues are this size or close to the size.”
Other cities could enter the fray as well. That explains why earlier this year Garber name-dropped Detroit, Phoenix, Sacramento and Tampa. Yet one source said there are no serious discussions between MLS and any of those cities other than just occasionally checking in. In a statement to ESPN, USL Championship side Sacramento Republic told ESPN, “Our club and city continue to prove why Sacramento is such a great sports market and soccer town. As we continue to plan for what’s next, we’re keeping all our options open as we prepare to take our club to the next level.”
The path to the expansion finish line is clear for San Diego, at least for the moment. The coming months will see if the city can cross it first.
Additional reporting by Cesar Hernandez.
