Detroit’s bid for a Major League Soccer team continues to have signs that, despite all of the positive press Team Gilbert/Gores want to foist on the local media around this, it is not going anywhere.

The latest is in a report by Grant Wahl in Sports Illustrated that cites industry insiders that Cincinnati, Nashville, Sacramento and a fourth entrant, Miami, with another bid being put together by star David Beckham that’s a separate item.

I’m being told the two expansion teams will likely come from a group of three cities that includes Sacramento, Nashville and Cincinnati. Keep in mind, David Beckham’s Miami expansion team is viewed separately by the league, and while the due diligence by new Miami investor Todd Boehly is taking longer than expected, I’m told that a formal announcement is set to happen in the coming months.

Wahl is knowledgable as a senior writer at SI and host of the Planet Futbol podcast.

MLS owners are set to pick the next 2 expansion teams.@GrantWahl tells us which cities are the favorites. https://t.co/ghpFL1RJeu — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 13, 2017

MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL: In context, this makes the “move” of the MLS bid to Ford Field make a lot more sense. If Gilbert and Gores already know they’re not getting it, then you can’t very well tell Wayne County officials you’re putting a Major League Soccer stadium on the spot of the former jail, right? If that’s the case, you say your bid has “changed” to include Ford Field and try again next time.

AND THEN: That land that was going to hold a soccer stadium is now part of possible land swap to do residential and commercial development at I-375 and Gratiot with the jail possibly moving to Warren and I-75.

Local opposition has been quickly mounting in the Cultural Center part of Midtown to the jail plan (roughly from I-94 to I-75 to Warren to Woodward).

Under the plan, the new Wayne County jail would be moved from the downtown to right across the freeway from one of Detroit’s most successful neighborhoods on the site of a current bus maintenance center and built by Gilbert’s folks.

The vote on the land swap has been delayed by Detroit City Council citing a lack of community engagement.