MLS expansion is continuing, with San Diego FC set to become the league’s 30th member club in 2025 and several other potential expansion candidates should MLS grow again in the future. Here’s our guide to how a ten-team league expanded to three times that size in barely two decades. What does the future hold for MLS?
WHERE ARE WE IN THE EXPANSION PROCESS?
Early on, the original ten teams were outposts as MLS eventually filled in their map. With Tampa Bay the only Southeast representative and no teams in major cities like Chicago, the expansion picture was obvious. Fill in the gaps in that map, create national demand for the product, and work to increase the league’s television footprint. Over time, more teams mean a better league. At least that’s the theory. At this advanced point in the process, MLS has the luxury of valuing quality over quantity. Are there outstanding metropolitan areas that must be targeted, or can the league field proposals from various investor groups?
The Chicago Fire and Miami Fusion
The first expansion created two different stories. The Chicago Fire remains one of the league’s great expansion success stories. They drew big crowds at Soldier Field, won the MLS and US Open Cups, and stopped the DC United dynasty. Miami FC, the other member of the ’98 expansion class, struggled to establish a base playing north of Miami in Fort Lauderdale. In the NASL era, those were separate markets and MLS learned the hard way that the NASL got that right.
On a conference call in December of 2001, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that Tampa Bay and Miami were no longer in the league. That cut off Florida as well as the rest of the Southeast. It took more than a decade to address that gap.
Expansion in 2004
Real Salt Lake found an audience in a city that only has one other top-level major league team. Chivas USA ran into issues that would eventually lead to their exit in 2014. The league relocated San Jose to Houston in 2006. Moving a championship-caliber team into a new market isn’t expansion, even if the new Earthquakes returned to the Bay Area in 2008.
WHAT ABOUT CANADA?
That starts in 2007 when Toronto joined. There’s no question Toronto has the fans, but they ended up in the same category as the early years in Salt Lake. A new city has a team, but making that team competitive is a different scenario. It took three seasons for RSL to get to the postseason and they were champions the following year.
Despite an excellent supporter culture, it took Toronto eight years to reach their first postseason, the longest drought in league history. They would eventually become a powerhouse, with an unprecedented treble win in 2017 and two other MLS Cup final trips in 2016 and 2019.
With FIFA approval for MLS to act as Canada’s first division, expansion targeted Canada as well as the USA. Vancouver followed in 2011 and Montreal joined in 2012.
MLS expansion continues
Seattle reset the standard for average MLS attendance and overall relevance starting in 2009. Atlanta arrived in 2017 and what’s more, they did so in the heart of the Southeast. Atlanta shifted the paradigm with Charlotte FC also proving the strong audience for MLS in the region.
That trio, and the Canadian example of Vancouver, also showed that teams joining the league didn’t necessarily need to have a soccer-specific stadium. It wasn’t the norm, though. Philadelphia in 2010 and Portland in 2011 are soccer-specific, just like RSL, LAFC, Toronto, Montreal, and most of those which came after.
NYCFC shares a Major League Baseball stadium with the Yankees, and occasionally the Mets as well. There are now concrete steps towards a permanent soccer stadium in Queens in 2023. NYCFC’s solid attendance numbers and 2021 MLS Cup title already shows how well MLS works in the five boroughs.
Beyond the soccer fervor of the Cascadian region, the Seattle-Portland-Vancouver trio revealed how much potential MLS could get from lower-division leagues. Thus began a trend of de facto economic promotion, with Montreal, Orlando, Minnesota, and Cincinnati proving themselves in USL or NASL before earning the MLS nod with proportionate scaling up to the topflight.
LAFC joined in 2018 with plenty of celebrity backing. Inter Miami did as well with the name recognition of David Beckham in 2020. Austin was an expansion team under an existing MLS investor-operator in 2021. Waiting was the name of the game for St Louis, one of the longstanding homes of the sport that sat quietly on Major League Soccer’s radar for many years while persistently missing out on the stadium and investor pieces. Those finally fell into place for the “cradle of American soccer” in time for a 2023 debut that showcased the city’s deep passion for soccer.
WHEN DOES EXPANSION END?
MLS doesn’t face the same pressure to keep a league at or below 20 teams as other parts of the world. Part of that is the size of the United States, the examples of the other North American major leagues, and the addition of Canada, reinterpreting FIFA’s preference for smaller domestic leagues.
Even the Premier League reduced itself from 22 to 20 clubs to satisfy regulations, though they refused to drop down to 18. If the target is the other North American leagues, all of them have at least 30 teams, with the NFL and NHL now on 32 teams. Constantly rising expansion fees also play a part in keeping MLS growing.
MLS commissioner Don Garber has repeatedly spoken of a “pause” in expansion once the 30-team milestone was reached. During his 2023 State of the League address he went one step further and suggested that this won’t be revisited until after the 2026 World Cup. That didn’t stop him from making clear that other cities will remain in the league’s considerations in the meantime.
High on that list are Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Sacramento, who had a spot in 2019 before changing economics led to the league reconsidering. Detroit, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, meanwhile, are the last remaining major metropolitan areas without MLS teams.
MLS Expansion By Year
| Year | Team |
| 1998 | Chicago Fire Miami Fusion |
| 2005 | Real Salt Lake Chivas USA |
| 2007 | Toronto FC |
| 2008 | San Jose Earthquakes |
| 2009 | Seattle Sounders |
| 2010 | Philadelphia Union |
| 2011 | Portland Timbers Vancouver Whitecaps |
| 2012 | Montreal Impact |
| 2015 | NYCFC Orlando City |
| 2017 | Atlanta United Minnesota United |
| 2018 | LAFC |
| 2019 | FC Cincinnati |
| 2020 | Inter Miami Nashville SC |
| 2021 | Austin FC |
| 2022 | Charlotte FC |
| 2023 | St Louis City |
