MLS still considering Montreal expansion
League commissioner visits city, meets Impact owner, mayor
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 | 4:26 PM ET
By John F. Molinaro, CBC Sports
Montreal Impact players celebrate after beating the Vancouver Whitecaps' to win the USL First Division championship final in October. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)It would appear Major League Soccer is getting serious about expanding into Montreal.
MLS commissioner Don Garber was in Montreal on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of the league putting an expansion team in Canada's second-largest market.
Garber spoke with Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo Tuesday night and then the two met Wednesday morning with Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand and Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay.
"We continued our discussions with the Saputo family about a future MLS expansion team in Montreal and had very productive meetings with Minister Bachand about securing funding for the expansion of Saputo Stadium," Garber said in a release.
"We've stated many times that Montreal would be a great market for MLS and we look forward to continuing our discussions."
Saputo echoed Garber's sentiments, declaring, "The arrival of MLS in Montreal is only a question of time." The Impact owner said he hoped to have news about the possibility of landing an MLS franchise in the first quarter of 2010.
The second-division Impact currently play their home matches in Saputo Stadium, a 13,034-seat venue that opened in 2008. It's believed that the earliest Montreal would be welcomed into the league would be the 2012 MLS season.
News of Wednesday's meeting is the latest chapter in a soap opera that has been going on for some time.
Montreal was one of the front-runners to join MLS in 2011 as one of two expansion franchises, but the team pulled out when Saputo and former Canadiens owner George Gillett hesitated to pay the $40 million US expansion fee (which was later dropped to $35 million).
This past August, Garber said the Saputo family must secure public funding to expand the capacity of Saputo Stadium before Montreal is granted an MLS team.
"We're in discussions with Joey Saputo and his family, and the next step for us is to work with them on trying to get public support to expand and renovate that stadium," Garber explained at the time.
"Without that, we're not going to be able to go to Montreal."
The following month, the New York Times reported that David Beckham and his management team were in talks with Saputo to bring Montreal an MLS franchise.
Both the league and Saputo downplayed the report, but it appears as though the on again-off again relationship between MLS and the Montreal is on again.
The 2010 MLS season will feature the debut of the league's newest club, the Philadelphia Union. In 2011, the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps will enter MLS, bringing the total number of teams in the league to 18.
Vancouver will become the second Canadian franchise in MLS, joining Toronto FC, which entered the league in 2007.
