On Thursday, MLS Commissioner Don Garber spoke about the eventual growth of MLS at Sacramento’s MLS Block Party. With the league slated to grow to 24 teams in the next two years and many more cities interested in hosting a franchise, Garber officially announced that the league will grow to 28 members. ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle had the lowdown on which cities could be considered, and it appears MLS Detroit is going to be a thing again this spring:
Garber mentioned Detroit, St. Louis, San Diego, San Antonio, and Austin as possible #MLS expansion markets in addition to Sacramento.
— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) April 14, 2016
As a proud Detroiter, the mentioning of my home city was most interesting to me. St. Louis has been talked about since the Rams left. San Antonio has a lot of momentum since the Spurs bought into the USL. San Diego has a large following for Mexico’s Club Tijuana. I’ll be honest and say that I have no idea where Austin is coming from. They have a lot of young people, but no real soccer culture that I am aware of. Detroit is the largest media market in the United States without a professional soccer team and has nothing more than clubs in the NPSL and USLPDL, both fourth-tier amateur development leagues.
I say nothing more, but Detroit City is one of the fastest growing soccer movements in the country. Their militant levels of support have allowed the club to organically grow from small outfit playing on a high school field to raising almost $750,000 from more than 520 supporters to renovate Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, Michigan that will greatly increase capacity over their former home. That stadium renovation is the club’s focus at the moment according to co-owner Alex Wright. While he and the rest of DCFC’s owners are keeping an eye on the development of professional soccer in the city, they are more excited about the work being done on Keyworth Stadium and for their upcoming international friendly with FC United of Manchester on May 28.
While they might not be the most deep-pocketed ownership group out there, MLS should keep DCFC’s owners in mind if they want to come to the city. They clearly know what it takes to develop a fanbase that can have real, sustained passion for a club. They have the hardcore fanbase that has brought in casuals at an alarming rate for a minor league team in a major league city. Their unique atmosphere would fit in with other clubs with passionate supporters groups like Portland and Orlando.
But, do Detroit City’s supporters want MLS? What about the casual fan? Many members of the Northern Guard, Detroit City’s largest and most vocal supporters group, have spoken out against MLS coming to town. Stances against single entity ownership, a general dislike for Don Garber, and being against publicly financed stadiums and exorbitant expansion fees mean they don’t want the league anywhere near their city. These are all just causes. I, myself, am against single entity, think Don Garber is a suit who speaks in corporate buzz words that only cater to investors instead of fans, and thing publicly financed stadiums are a sham. They, quite succinctly, described their position in a post to the group’s Facebook page.
While we here in NGS don’t hate pro soccer, we hate the pro soccer at any cost mentality that has been sweeping across the US, from Atlanta to Cincy to Minnesota to Sacramento.
The problem is, they may need to get over that stance if they want their club to survive.
With all the recent examples of minor league clubs dying when MLS and their money come talking, Detroit City cannot afford to sit out while other businessmen break in and create a new club specially for MLS. We have seen larger clubs die out when MLS has moved into their cities. In just the last year we have seen Arthur Blank from Atlanta United and kill off the Atlanta Silverbacks of the NASL. The San Antonio Scorpions were essentially bought out by the San Antonio Spurs with the aim of bringing MLS to town.
So, if MLS to Detroit becomes a real possibility, Detroit City FC should not be the next victim of the rich breaking into the top tier. Instead, they should keep the door open and listen to what the league has to offer so that one of Detroit’s many deep-pocketed entrepreneurs doesn’t swoop in and seduce MLS into tearing down everything the grassroots club has built up.
