A fair number of locals were excited that a Major League Soccer team might be coming back to Miami, especially under the guidance of FC Barcelona, but here comes The New York Times soccer blog with their vicious theories and reporting to rain on our parade.
While they still say that the odds that one of MLS's two new planned franchises will end up in Miami are better than even, they have some bad news too.
For one, they say that Euro clubs are only interested in expanding in to the
American market to sell jerseys. Too bad the MLS has made it clear that
any Miami team cannot wear Barcelona's famed blue and red threads.
See, MLS will enter an exclusive deal with Adidas, while Barca's jerseys
are made exclusively by Nike. So they might not even be able to
sell them at games.
The other road bump is that Barcelona may want to use the team to
showcase younger talent at some of their training camps, and then sell their contracts to
other Euro clubs. MLS requires exclusive contracts.
So basically what The Times is getting at is that once FC
Barcelona realizes it might not be able to maximize fringe benefits
from a Miami team, they might drop their enthusiasm if MLS doesn't change those rules, lessening our
chances for a franchise.
--Kyle Munzenrieder
