Ben Schneider

1) Charlotte
2) Rochester (yeah, some Ithaca bias here)
3) Atlanta

Melissa Wiley

1) New York – They have a big enough market and instead of RedBull turning into the Real Madrid of MLS with all their superstars, they could spread the talent wealth. Plus, having a New York derby could make for some fine entertainment. Although, why we call this NY2 when NY1 is technically in NJ is beyond me…

2) South Florida – A great market and a major tourist spot, not to mention there are like 50 European footballers vacationing there at any given time. This proves it has the draw for players who want to try their hand (or foot) at MLS. Also, the fangirl in me likes the idea of lots of ballers in speedos. Weather is an issue especially during hurricane season. This is an away game a lot of people would travel to.

3) Charlotte/Atlanta – These two are basically a tie because I think there needs to be a team in that geographic region, Miami excluded because it’s “isolated.” DC is technically considered “The South” but it’s the southern most team which leaves 1500+ miles for a team. Atlanta’s market is huge, NC has more of a soccer culture.

Ted Meyer

1) Charlotte – I like the promise of this market. Great soccer support and not much competition from other team sports. With the success of the UNC and Duke soccer programs, and the growing Hispanic community, NC has big promise. Charlotte has all the makings of being a great small market team, much like Salt Lake is now. Also it helps plug up the huge hole left by the dissolving Florida teams in the South. It doesn’t completely take care of it of course, but it is a start.
2) Atlanta – Much like Charlotte, this allows MLS to help fill the void in the South. The biggest benefit of Atlanta, other than geography, is that it’s a massive market. The big problems are of course the varying competing teams, the Atlanta Braves and Falcons control most of the attention in the area. There would have to be a massive marketing move to get fans to watch an Atlanta MLS team. However, if a team is successful in growing there it could go a long way to making MLS a true national league in America.
3) New York – As much as I think that MLS needs to return to the South, the draw of a second New York team is significant. Their are two teams in Los Angeles and Garber clearly wants two in New York. Two successful New York teams would do wonders for the league. However, a lot has to happen to convince people to support a second New York team, when the current one receives minimal coverage. Maybe an a big New York rivalry could change that.

Tom Hayden
1) Charlotte – Ultimately, I think that between their pitch and the fact that it is such a great soccer community, they are the ultimate answer. Plus, it would give DC United a Southern rival to go along with the teams along the East Coast.
2) Rochester – Screw the fact they are a small market, they are passionate about soccer there, and even though their attendance has dipped a bit the past few years, an MLS infusion could be just what the doctor ordered.
3) San Antonio – I think San Antonio would be an awesome place for soccer. They have a huge Hispanic population, great attractions for road fans, and what seems like a fanbase hungry for a team.

Matt Conroy
Having read through the entire Team 20 series, I was most struck by the fact that there was not a single candidate that stood out as a can’t miss MLS market. Given the wave of expansion in recent years and the potential dilution of the the North American talent pool, I am beginning to wonder if expansion to 20 teams is even advisable at this stage. Of course there are a few cities – St. Louis and Minneapolis stand out in this regard – that were not covered but conceivably could support a team, under the right conditions. Taking all that into account, if I were forced to pick three cities I would choose the following:

1) New York – Plenty of natural rivalries, potential of Wilpon involvement, Cosmos return, commissioner would work like hell to make it succeed

2) Atlanta – Could be a magnet team for soccer fans across the Southeast

3) Charlotte – Huge participation in youth and college soccer in the Carolinas

Steve Stoehr

1) Atlanta – I feel that in order to be a truly national league, MLS needs a presence in the Southeast. Atlanta has a huge coalition of affluent businessmen and potential owners looking to bring a team to the city and the possibility of a massive multicultural fanbase. There’s been prior interest in the area as well, with Arthur Blank supposedly having expressed interest in bringing an MLS franchise to the ATL in the last few years. Furthermore, Atlanta has already constructed two soccer-specific stadiums (for the Silverbacks and the Beat) and until recently proved that they can run and support an active D2 team. Rebranding and using the Silverbacks as a flagship would probably be the best approach, and would possibly tap into the biggest TV market not currently in MLS.

2) Ottawa – I generally wouldn’t be all about putting yet ANOTHER team in America’s Hat, but I’ve been on the bandwagon of Ottawa or Hamilton for quite some time and Ottawa might be the best fit. Toronto proved to MLS that Canadians are starved for a sport to distract them when hockey isn’t in season, and their fanbases are fervent, colorful and a brilliant reflection on the league. Montreal will be joining MLS in 2012 and the Impact, currently a USSF D-2 team, have routinely had ticket sales higher than several MLS sides (read: Dallas). Other than the Senators, Ottawa doesn’t have any high-level professional sports teams and it represents a large untapped population that MLS really can’t afford to ignore.

3) San Antonio – A few months ago, I read about the Crocketeers and their efforts to bring MLS to San Antonio and their passionate support won me over. San Antonio was nearly considered a prime location once before – bad politics screwed them in the end, but by all accounts the current mayor is a soccer fan (or at least recognizes the potential of an MLS team), meaning that there’s no time like the present to get things moving. Beyond that, it’s also pragmatic due to the lack of sports competition. Much like Ottawa, San Antonio features only one other major sports team (the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA) and represents a big untapped media market opposite basketball season. At first glance, San Antonio might seem like a strange choice but it makes a lot more sense once you examine the possibilities.

Kevin McCauley

1) New York – This one is not a pick of personal preference, but of what I think MLS will do. Simply put, Don Garber has his heart set on a team in the city proper. While the Wilpons’ money has dried up a bit as a result of the Bernie Madoff scandal, The Don will find another way to get them involved in a team to get a SSS built on the land they own in Queens. This is happening. There’s no use fighting it.

2) Charlotte – The lack of competition from a baseball team in the summer, the growing population, the availability of land in good locations, and the great freeways and public transportation system make Charlotte a great candidate for a team. Add to that a population that is diverse and affluent, plus high levels of youth participation, and you have a virtual no-brainer. If MLS is expanding to 24 or even 22 teams, Charlotte should be one of them.

3) San Antonio – My knowledge of the area is minimal, but the pitch that was submitted to us along with the fantastic support of the Crocketeers have sold me. No disrespect to the Borough Boys, Miami Ultras, or any of the other supporters groups trying to bring MLS to their locale, but these guys seem to be absolutely unparalleled. Add to their support the fact that there is virtually no competition for peoples’ dollars and attention, and you have a recipe for success.

It’s very interesting that while the staff’s opinions on what pitches were best was fairly consistent, the staff’s positions on where MLS should go next are considerably more varied. While three of the staffers have NYC as #1, a couple others are very much opposed to the idea. While we certainly have no influence over the thoughts of The Don, we hope that over the course of this series we’ve been able to open your eyes to what the expansion possibilities are for MLS. Ultimately, ATF is slightly more of a normative blog than a positive blog. MSM does a good enough job of reporting the news. The positive, or what is. We’re more about the normative, or what should be, and we hope that we’ve either changed your mind or further educated you about what should be when it comes to the expansion of MLS.

Reprinted with permission. http://www.atfooty.com/2010/08/09/major-league-soccers-20th-team-final-conclusions/

An overflow Trinity University stadium watches the Haitian National team

SAPS’s Managing Partners, Dr. Edward Sakiewicz (a/k/a Dr. Soccer) and Chris Campasano, will be traveling to Port-au-Prince, Haiti on a mission trip with Dr Fred Sorrells, and the International Institute of Sport on August 12th to help organize and select the first-ever Haitian National Amputee Football Team. The team will be assembled in Haiti in preparation for their participation in the Amputee Football World Cup being held in Crespo, Argentina, from October 16th-27th, 2007.

Once the selection process is completed and the team is formed, Sakiewicz and Campasano will be working to bring the team to the US and the San Antonio area in mid-September for their pre-tournament training before the World Cup begins. They will provide the players, who have been affected by the severe earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation on January 12th, 2010 and killed an estimated 230,000 people, an opportunity to prepare in the right fashion for their upcoming competition. Work with Wounded Warriors will also be integrated with this effort.

They are looking for donations and assistance to provide not only the needed equipment, supplies and necessities for their trip, but also to help fund the Haitian Amputee Football Team’s travels to the US. If you are able to help monetarily, please click here http://sakiewiczsoccercharity.chipin.com/haiti-amputee-soccer-mission-trip to make your donation.

If you know corporate sponsors willing to help, or can donate needed soccer equipment or even travel miles to their efforts, please e-mail Dr. Sakiewicz to let him know how you can help. Ed and Chris will continue to update The Crocketteers on all developments during their trip to Haiti and once the Haitian Team’s schedule to travel to San Antonio is solidified. Lets show these courageous athletes all the support we can.

We want to first congratulate you on the job you have done thus far in creating a truly wonderful league. As supporters of the MLS, we see improvement in the quality of play, fan experience, and overall value. 

We the members of the Crocketteers, San Antonio’s Premier Soccer Supporters, are writing you this letter to state our intentions to support MLS in San Antonio.

We state our commitment to continued growth.

We state our commitment to creating a festive atmosphere that both the City of San Antonio and Major League Soccer can be proud of.

Today, we have over 350 members including over 180 paid members.  We wear our scarves with pride and we exist to see the establishment and subsequent support of professional soccer in San Antonio.  We have sold out our initial order of 200 scarves and will have 200 more on the way in the coming weeks.

Our growth has been tremendous over the last year and half of our establishment. In fact on this very day, 50+ members of the Crocketteers will be in Houston to cheer on the MLS All Stars and to proudly wear our supporter colors.

As you may or may not know, San Antonio’s new mayor, Julian Castro seems to be very open to the idea of professional soccer in San Antonio based on limited public comments he has made. We would like to believe that he is not unlike previous mayor Ed Garza in his willingness to see the MLS in San Antonio. And we are hopeful that this change might put the unfortunate events of 2005 behind us and that this change might also be an opportunity to reopen the dialogue between MLS and San Antonio.

In addition, the parent company of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) has recently indicated that they are interested in getting into the professional soccer business (perhaps MLS).  And while SS&E is interested in the prospects of our very own Soccer-Specific-Stadium, many of us believe that the Alamo Stadium with its storied history is certainly viable at this point in time. The success of the Sounders in Qwest Field and the prospects of seeing the Vancouver franchise in BC Place drive this point home nicely. 

We were very pleased to learn that Major League Soccer has continued interest in the San Antonio market. Your statements the past few days mentioning San Antonio as an expanision market for MLS reaffirms our establishment. We feel we are the largest supporters group without a team. We hope that is not always the case as we look forward to the day we see our team finally take the pitch.

Commissioner, the Crocketteers humbly ask you to strongly consider San Antonio once again. Perhaps you and your league are already in talks with Mayor Castro and a potential ownership group.  We hope all sides realize the tremendous potential of the MLS/San Antonio partnership.

If there indeed exists advanced discussions with your league and our city, I can assure you that the Crocketteers will support it’s future hometown team and all that MLS brings to our great city.

Lastly, I invite you to share in our vision for what could be the day MLS finally calls San Antonio home. We can make this happen!

Thank you again for all that you have done for the beautiful game in America and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours Sincerely,

The Crocketteers

This interview is the second time in a matter of days he has mentioned San Antonio. Speaking to the British newspaper the Telegraph Garber talks about the massive demand in cities like Atlanta, Detroit, San Antonio, and San Diego.

Is this just talk Garber is placing out to get a feel for what cities are prospective expansion cities or is it in response to the rapid growth of the Crocketteers and our grassroots effort to bring a franchise to San Antonio?

As the largest soccer supporters group in the country without a team were are sure Garber and MLS have been keeping tabs on the growth of our group but having a large supporters group is only one piece of the puzzle.

A franchise needs a solid investment group and a plan for a soccer specific stadium. All three of these components are necessary for a successful franchise. San Antonio has shown that a fanbase is here.

The successful Texas Pro Soccer festival in 2008 drew over 10,000 fans for its three exhibition matches. The Crocketteers had sell out crowds for the US World Cup games at the Alamo Drafthouse and nearly 900 soccer fans showed up with the Crocketteers for the World Cup final down at the AT&T Center.

So the final two pieces of the puzzle must be brought together to make a successful pitch to MLS for a expansion franchise. Is there an investment group speaking with MLS? Are their plans for a MLS stadium to be built or is their plans to refurbish an existing Stadium?

We as the Crocketteers will continue to do our part in growing the fanbase here in San Antonio. Now are their some investors out there willing to step onto the pitch to bring us a pro soccer franchise? The fans are waiting.

Links:http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/mls/2010-07-24-commissioner-don-garber-chat_N.htm San Antonio mentioned at the 11:26 minute.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/7908343/Thierry-Henry-just-the-latest-step-on-MLS-chief-Don-Garbers-path-to-world-domination.html

If you would like to contribute something to the tailgating i.e more BEER, a special dish, soda, chips, dips, etc. the thought would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. The more food and drink the merrier.

Wear your Crocketteers shirt if you have one. If not we will have few for sale for $10 in sizes L, XL and 2XL.

See everyone in Houston on Wednesday.
Still need tickets? Here is a link to ticketmaster.  Tickets as low as $35 bucks when you buy 4.  http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C004493A55E67C6?artistid=875665&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=11

Winners:

Spain

It’s impossible to not put the World Cup winners in a list of winners of the tournament. Spain were the favorites to start the tournament & went on to win the whole thing. Most impressive is the fact that they bounced back well from a poor start against the Swiss and were able to play an attractive style of football throughout.

Uruguay

Nobody really expected anything much from Uruguay before this tournament, but they came in confident and with a team that could certainly do the job here and they did it very well, going all the way to the Semi-Finals and while they’ll be disappointed they weren’t able to go on and make the final, they gained a lot of respect.

New Zealand

OK, so this may sound bizarre, nobody expected anything of New Zealand, most people picked them to come 32nd or 31st, yet they did well, and while some people may still think they didn’t do anything, they were moments away from qualifying for the second round, and were it not for a penalty they could well have been in there. New Zealand make the list for being the only team to finish the whole tournament undefeated, everybody apart from New Zealand lost at least one game, impressive for a team that was expected to fail spectacularly & in a group containing the defending world champions.

Sepp Blatter

I know we all hate him. I know Sepp Blatter comes up with 100 ideas a day and 101 of them are bad. I agree, he’s awful. However he comes out of the World Cup as a winner for sticking by South Africa, when everyone else was looking to try and steal the World Cup away from South Africa, Blatter stuck by them and insisted they were the only option.

Losers

France

The most embarrassing team in the tournament, but not many of us were surprised. They got into the tournament under dubious circumstances and left most of us wishing that the Irish had qualified as they bored us with their incompetence and went out of the tournament backwards, losing a lot of credibility in the process. At least the off field drama was exciting to watch.

Italy

Definitely not as high profile as the French failure, but perhaps more intriguing, where it was obvious why the French failed, it seems less obvious why the Italians fails, add to that the fact that they qualified fairly comfortably and it’s intriguing. It seems to me the reason for Italy’s failure was that they used pretty much the same 23, they weren’t so much experienced as they were really really old. A sad end to the international careers of a number of great players.

Nike

While Nike may end up a financial winner from their brilliant ambush marketing they definitely come out as losers from a football perspective. While we all loved their ad, all the players in it failed significantly, one player didn’t even make the plane to South Africa, two didn’t make it to the second round and those that did failed. Nike re-shot the ad, using Robinho, from Brazil. Surprisingly, the only impressive Nike team (apart from NZ), the Dutch were only featured in the ad as losing to the team they knocked out, Brazil. Football players are a superstitious bunch, and with many people saying the Nike Ad was cursed, I don’t think we’ll see many players lining up to be in the ad next year. Nike’s poor tournament was confirmed when Adidas (Spain) beat them in the final, in fact of the four semi-finalists Adidas beat Nike 2-1.

Shakira

Why Shakira? If you have no idea why, that’s why she belongs on this list. Q: What was the official World Cup Song?

If you answered Wave Your Flag you’d be wrong, that was used by many companies in their world cup advertising (Coke & EA Sports) and it became much more popular than the actual World Cup Song, Waca Waca, by…. You guessed it, Shakira. So Shakira ends up as a loser at this World Cup

Sepp Blatter

Yep, he’s in here twice. While his commitment to South Africa should be applauded his continued aversion to technology has been starkly criticized in this World Cup given the number of high profile refereeing mistake. Besides, how can I have a losers list without Sepp Blatter.

Red Bull Battle Del Toro is a spirited, fiercely competitive homage to the Battle of the Alamo – soccer style. Throughout this three-day tournament, four U16 teams from Texas featuring some of the state’s biggest phenoms will clash cleats with four U16 teams from Mexico boasting some of the country’s top emerging stars.

What’s on the line? Tournament bragging rights. Personal triumph. National pride. Plus a trip to New York to face off against The U16 Academy Team of the NY Red Bulls in the new state-of-the-art Red Bull Arena.

All matches will be played at the STAR Soccer Complex, the premier soccer facility in South Texas.
SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY MEXICAN FOOTBALL LEGEND JORGE CAMPOS

One of the most notable Mexican footballers, goalkeeper Jorge Campos, will make an exclusive one-day-only appearance at the STAR Soccer Complex Saturday, July 17.
Teams Competing

Mexico

* Club America – Mexico City
* Tigres UANL – Monterrey
* Atlas – Guadalajara
* Chivas de Guadalajara – Guadalajara

Texas

* Classics Elite – San Antonio
* Dallas Texans – Dallas
* FC Dallas – Dallas
* Albion Hurricanes – Houston

TICKETS

This is a three-day event, with qualifying games at 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. Thursday and Friday and final round games at 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. Admission each day is only $5.

Advance, pre-sale tickets can be purchased at STAR Monday-Wednesday 9:00-11:30 a.m. and 1-4 p.m.

Walk up, event-day tickets can be purchased starting at 4:00 p.m.

For more infomation, contact STAR at 210-495-8686