The competition

But frontrunners don’t always stay that way. Just a few years ago, a group of National Football League owners repeatedly praised the St. Louis effort to build a new football stadium and keep Stan Kroenke’s Rams in the city. The NFL’s expansion committee even recommended the team stay put. Then owners, swayed by the allure of Kroenke’s money and the grandeur of his vision, voted to send the Rams to Los Angeles.

The current list of MLS expansion proposals is not fixed. League officials mention some on one day, and others on another. Garber has stopped naming them altogether, so as to avoid the complaints when he forgets one.

But some of the eight cities have clearly moved down the list, if only temporarily.

Garber, for instance, has publicly suggested that Charlotte and Raleigh aren’t in the running for this round of expansion. In September, he spoke to reporters about the success of clubs in Atlanta and Orlando, Fla., and franchises to come in Miami and Nashville. “I think we’re probably done expanding in the southeast for a little while,” he said.