Sports

Update: As Nashville Gets Soccer Team, Detroit's Chance Dims

December 20, 2017, 8:25 AM

Oh well -- a hopeful city still can turn its eyes to the next Major League Soccer expansion in 2022.

"It looks like Detroit's bid for its own Major League Soccer team might be a miss," Metro Times editor Lee DeVito concludes now that Nashville is picked as one of two 2020 expansion cities.

Sacramento is expected to be a shoo-in for the other franchise due to the fact that it has already started construction of a soccer stadium. . . .

The league has said it would prefer expansion cities to have soccer-specific stadiums.

Detroit's plan is to share Ford Field as a two-team arena.

Original article, Monday afternoon:

Good news for Nashville from Major League Soccer means Detroit has just one shot at adding a fifth professional team in 2020.

"Nashville wins. And Nashville is cooler today than it was yesterday," the daily paper there says at the top of its newsbreak Tuesday morning. The Tennessean adds:

Major League Soccer is expected to announce its plan to grant Nashville an expansion franchise on Wednesday. . . .

MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam are among those slated to attend what the league called a "special announcement" at the Country Music Hall of Fame at 4 p.m. Wednesday. John Ingram, lead investor of Nashville's expansion group, will also be present.

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If Detroit is the second choice, the team would play at Ford Field. (Illustration by Rossetti)

A second expansion team will go to Cincinnati, Sacramento or Detroit. Boosters in each presumably already know the choice.

Earlier article, Dec. 6:

Dan Gilbert and Tom Gores, both owners of NBA teams, this afternoon make their pitch in New York to bring Major League Soccer to Detroit.

They and other local boosters, including Mayor Mike Duggan, are speaking to the league commissioner and expansion committee. Detroit is among four sites being considered for two new teams -- a list narrowed from 12 cities.

The other finalists are Nashville, Cincinnati and Sacramento. The selections come this month.

The team would have to pay a $150 million fee to join the league in 2020.

Gores and Gilbert originally proposed a soccer stadium at the site of the unfinished Wayne County Jail, but now want to use Ford Field.


Read more:  The Tennessean


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