Doug McIntyre’s weekly MLS column, 24 Thoughts, parses through the latest insights and inside info from around American soccer.

The idea for this week’s column was to focus on two MLS originals – the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas – that have started the 2019 campaign well despite changing coaches during the offseason. Two bombshells that dropped Wednesday night altered those plans.

Following the MLS Board of Governors meeting in Los Angeles, the league formally announced that it will expand to 30 teams. The news came with little warning, but the substance of it was not a major surprise. During his annual State of the League address in December, commissioner Don Garber said he had “no doubt” that MLS would grow beyond the previous stated threshold of 28 clubs. It wouldn’t be a surprise if MLS got to 32 within the next decade. The NFL is already there. The NHL will add a 32nd team in 2021.

MLS has already committed to Austin, Miami and Nashville, bringing the total to 27 in the coming years. Wednesday’s news release stated that the circuit’s 28th and 29th sides will be revealed by August’s All-Star game in Orlando, and that the expansion fee for those entries will be a cool $200 million per.

At this point, it would be shocking if Sacramento and St. Louis don’t lock up those two slots. “Both [the] Sacramento and St. Louis groups will be asked to make formal presentations to the MLS expansion committee to address each bid’s final stadium plan, corporate commitments, the composition of the respective ownership groups, detailed economics on funding, strategic plans for fan development, commitments on player development and details on community programs,” Wednesday’s statement read.

24 Thoughts

1. Assuming Sacramento and St. Louis get in, where does the league go for No. 30? Detroit and San Diego have been in the mix in the past and, with strong potential ownership groups in both cities, could be again. Of those two, Detroit has a significant edge. Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores teamed with his NBA rival Dan Gilbert (Cleveland Cavaliers) on Detroit’s previous bid, which fell apart after plans to build a soccer specific stadium were abandoned. But with Atlanta and Seattle thriving in massive NFL venues, and the Chicago Fire apparently headed back to Soldier Field, playing in one isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. “They have come together to retrofit Ford Field, which could make it very MLS-ready,” Garber said last year of the Gores-Gilbert bid.

2. One spot I wouldn’t rule out for the 30th team is North Carolina. It’s always been a hotbed for the sport at youth level, and just last month the owner of second-tier North Carolina FC, Steve Malik, proposed a $150 million stadium project to lure an MLS team to Raleigh. Malik’s North Carolina Courage is also one of the better-supported clubs in the NWSL.

3. Down in Charlotte, the Carolina Panthers’ new owner has expressed his desire to bring an MLS team to the state’s largest city. “We’re well aware of David Tepper’s interest,” Garber said at last year’s All-Star game in Atlanta. “We’re intrigued by Charlotte.”

View photos MLS teams will now seek training compensation when prospects like Weston McKennie, who left FC Dallas's academy to sign with German club Schalke in 2016, bypass the domestic league and turn pro overseas. (Getty) More

4. Here’s the other big news: For the first time in the league’s 24-year history, MLS clubs will seek training compensation and solidarity payments from foreign clubs that sign players developed in MLS academies. In other words, the days of a team like FCD developing a player like current U.S. men’s national team standout Weston McKennie only to lose him to German Bundesliga mainstay Schalke for nothing three years ago – won’t happen in the future.

5. “It’s our view that long term, the success of our league is to a large extent going to be a function of the quality of the domestic player pool,” league EVP of competition Todd Durbin told Yahoo Sports. “We realized that we’re not going to be able to keep increasing investment in development if those players are going to leave to pursue their careers overseas. This is going to help support those efforts.”

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