Expansion of Major League Soccer

Initially 12 teams were to be placed in carefully selected cities where a strong soccer market was thought to exist, which was scaled back to 10 after potential backers could not be found.

[17] The initial 10 teams were the Columbus Crew, D.C. United, New England Revolution, New York/New Jersey MetroStars (now New York Red Bulls), Tampa Bay Mutiny, Colorado Rapids, Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas), Kansas City Wiz (eventually Wizards; now Sporting Kansas City), Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Clash (now San Jose Earthquakes).

[26] Chivas and the Los Angeles Galaxy shared The Home Depot Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park) and played in the league's first local derby game.

[52] Commissioner Garber cited the "brand that was targeted specifically to the Hispanic market" and the belief that "the club could coexist with the Galaxy and share the StubHub Center" as mistakes.

On June 27, 2012, MLS announced plans to build a new soccer-specific stadium in Queens, New York, with a seating capacity of 25,000 and located near the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

"[74] The ownership group did not meet its July 1, 2015, deadline to present stadium plans to MLS after the Minnesota state legislature failed to take up the club's proposal by the end of its session in May 2015.

On October 30, 2014, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that a new team was awarded to Los Angeles and its ownership group led by Henry Nguyen for an expansion fee of $110 million.

[86] On February 5, 2014, the league announced that it would award a franchise in Miami to an investment group led by former player David Beckham, his business partner Simon Fuller, and Miami-based businessman Marcelo Claure for the expansion fee of $25 million.

[92] In December of that year, Beckham United announced that a new stadium site, mostly private land but also containing a tract owned by Miami-Dade County, had been selected in Miami's Overtown neighborhood.

[96] Beckham had received an option to buy an expansion franchise for $25 million as part of the contract he signed with the league when he joined the Los Angeles Galaxy.

[108] In October 2017, however, the Charlotte city council confirmed that they would be unable to come up with the financing needed for the MLS deadline for expansion proposals, at which point the bid was effectively dead.

[120] On October 9, 2018, the bid was effectively relaunched, with Carolyn Kindle Betz and other members of the Taylor family, principal owners of the Enterprise Holdings car rental company, as primary investors in the proposal.

[113] In 1996, then-MLS commissioner Doug Logan called San Diego, California, a "prime candidate" for potential expansion for the newly established league.

[129][130][131] On February 20, 2017, a new plan for the Mission Valley site of the facility then known as Qualcomm Stadium was unveiled by a La Jolla investment group that was trying to lure a Major League Soccer team to San Diego.

[133] Donovan's group missed its attempt to bring an MLS team after losing the ballot measure to San Diego State University's new football stadium project in November 2018.

[1][136] The San Diego FC ownership group includes Mohamed Mansour and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, which paid an expansion fee of $500 million.

[140] The investor group, consisting of Findlay Sports and Entertainment and real estate developers, Cordish Company, acquired a site at Symphony Park in Downtown Las Vegas and planned to build a stadium there.

[146] The potential for a Las Vegas team was revived in January 2017 by the city council approaching a sports investment bank but an official bid was not reported by MLS.

Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, who co-own English football club Aston Villa had been in exclusive negotiations as prospective owners under their V Sports holding company, with the name Las Vegas Villains trademarked.

[147] That year, Phoenix Rising signed an agreement with Goldman Sachs to help the funding of a new 20,000 person stadium on land purchased from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community if selected.

[154] In December 2024, Mesa mayor John Giles stated to local media that he had met with MLS officials and developers to build a stadium for a future team.

[174] On November 4, 2015, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County announced plans to purchase Toyota Field for $18 million with the intentions of acquiring an MLS franchise.

The establishment of the club, along with the concurrent purchase of Toyota Field by the city of San Antonio and Bexar County, is part of a plan by local officials to obtain an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer.

[176] However, Jimmy Haslam, owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns, and Pete Edwards Jr. acquired the Crew in order to keep the club in Columbus and Precourt was granted rights to an expansion franchise in Austin.

[177] Triple Sports & Entertainment, a firm owned by Andreas Apostolopoulos, planned to convert the Pontiac Silverdome into a soccer-specific stadium,[178] and applied to MLS for an expansion franchise in June 2011, but without success.

[183] Their plan received a boost at the end of July when Wayne County Executive Warren Evans announced that he had instructed his team to work towards a final deal on moving the jail and allowing Gilbert and Gores to build the stadium.

[189] On May 2, 2017, a special election referendum was held in St. Petersburg to vote on the city negotiating a 25-year land lease for the Tampa Bay Rowdies current waterfront Al Lang Stadium and increasing capacity to 18,000 pending MLS expansion acceptance.

[195] Kings owner Ranadive announced in January 2015 that he had joined the Republic ownership group, in a move seen as bolstering the city's chances of landing an MLS berth.

[7][206] Burkle similarly rejected a Sacramento expansion team in the National Women's Soccer League in conjunction with the Republic bid, and on June 8, 2021, instead announced his investment in San Diego Wave FC to begin play in the 2022 NWSL season.

[207] One year later, the Republic's Cinderella run to the 2022 U.S. Open Cup Final drew national attention, and inspired hopes of reviving the MLS expansion bid through a new investor group.