ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber is speaking again and he's giving more hope to St. Louis' shot at landing an MLS expansion team.
Garber talked with ESPN soccer analyst and St. Louis native Taylor Twellman. The commissioner says "St. Louis and Sacramento are bidding hard for that remaining spot, the 28th spot." He says both cities have great ownership groups and great stadiums plans, and he says a decision will come this year.
"We want to cover more of our country, we want to have more geographic regions that can be connected so that you can have rivalries between potentially a St. Louis and a Kansas City or a Los Angeles and San Jose," Garber says.
He was asked if both cities could get a team at the same time, and he said that's unlikely. Garber also didn't give much of a deadline when the decision on the 28th team will be, but says it will come sometime this year.
Here's some of transcript from ESPN.com of Garber talking about current MLS expansion plans:
Twellman: On the docket right now you have Nashville, Miami, Austin, and yet there's that fourth expansion team. Where are we in that process?
Garber: You know we've got to make a decision sometime soon. There's no specific timetable, but we need to have that 28th team selected. St. Louis and Sacramento were bidding hard for that remaining spot, the 28th spot. Both have great new ownership groups, both have great stadium plans. We'll get our expansion committee together, get our ownership together and we'll try and make a decision sometime this year.
Twellman: Is there any way you could see a situation where you see both Sacramento and St. Louis come in immediately?
Garber: I don't see that happening, but we've broken the mould so many different times and different ways with expansion. But we do think we need to select that 28th team and then figure what, if any, plans we have to go beyond that.
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