Don Garber held his state of the league address today and as always the topic of expansion came up. Some quotes:
“The issue remains the soccer stadium,” Garber said. “We do believe we have two or three sites that are viable, and we’re going to continue to work as hard as we can to move this [forward] as fast as we can.”
Does this mean that in the next few months we will be seeing a lot of news about a potential soccer stadium? There is no secret that this is the biggest hurdle for getting a team and Garber later stated he wanted ensure that whichever ownership group is selected, that the stadium plans are moving along for them.
Garber also stated that there are still many potential owners in and outside of New York for that 20th team. He does mention other cities but gave no indication that the focus has fallen from New York city. He also took the Wilpon family out of the equation.
Finally, Garber had a comment that was in favor of the new owners of the Cosmos.
"I, for one, believe that the Cosmos are a great brand, and we like the ownership group that's taken over," Garber also added "If they're able to satisfy all the things that we have as ownership requirements, then I think they could be good prospects. Right now it is very focused on a stadium and less focused on ownership."
Well, it was clear that Garber did not get on well with Paul Kemsley. One of the things the new Cosmos group will need to do is win over Garber and the 19 other league owners and this is a nice step towards that goal.
It also is a boost that Garber is more interested in the stadium than picking an owner, as it will give the new owners some time to right the ship and get things back to normal in Cosmos Country.
It also is a boost that Garber is more interested in the stadium than picking an owner, as it will give the new owners some time to right the ship and get things back to normal in Cosmos Country.
The fact that Don Garber likes this group has to be seen as a positive sign that the new owners do in fact have the best of intentions. We can not jump to conclusions on the new owners and hope that Garber's stamp of approval is a good sign that the new group will fix what has been broken.
No comments:
Post a Comment