Chicago

The league has been very interested in expanding to the Windy City for a while. As a major sports market, it makes perfect sense for the NASL to move there long term.

Even though Chicago already has a pro team in the Chicago Fire, they could still be successful in drawing fans to games and helping to expand the game of soccer in that area, especially as the Fire have yet to really take hold of the market.

Detroit

Similar to Chicago, Detroit is a major sports town and has a lot of room to grow when it comes to soccer. The current NPSL side Detroit City FC has been rumored to be looking to join USL or NASL, but according to Crain’s Detroit Business, there is still one more problem that the club and investors are facing: paying players is one thing that the club hasn’t done yet.

The club needs more investors ready to make the commitment to pay the expansion fee (between $1 million and $10 million) while still having enough money to pay the players. And then there’s that potential MLS bid that could kill their NASL/USL dreams…

Orange County and San Diego

With there already being an abundance of MLS teams in California, a NASL team should still be able to grow in San Diego, a city that just lost their NFL team and are in the running for a MLS team. If San Diego doesn’t get a MLS club, then I think that a NASL one could flourish.

The same goes for Orange County. Even though Los Angeles is getting it’s second MLS team at the start of the 2018, the market in southern California could likely handle a dozen teams. Even though I don’t think putting two teams just a few miles apart is a good idea, I can see what the league is doing in making a safer decision in these great market areas, while also seeing the potential for another team to grow. This one seems like a done deal.