Number 20

It's official - Major League Soccer's 20th franchise will be New York City Football Club and will start play in 2015. The club will be a joint venture between Manchester City of the English Premier League and the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Here are some of my thoughts on the expansion:

• (In case you haven't figured it out by now, I really like using bullet points. It's a good way to mask my amateur writing skills...)
• New York was always going to get the next expansion franchise over Orlando City. In Don Garber's eyes New York City is the most important market MLS needs to win over for the sake of TV revenue and increased media exposure.
• Speaking of Orlando, don't you guys worry, Orlando City Soccer Club will surely be the next expansion franchise. There's already too much money invested in the club for it not to be and one of the league's next objectives will be to gain some exposure in the southeast.
• To me it looks like the New York Red Bulls are kinda screwed. NYCFC will be located in the middle of New York City, as opposed to New Jersey, which will be a significant advantage in drawing sizable crowds and generating support. Having a public transit system that can run straight to the stadium, or at least really close to it, is something that NYRB can't compete with. It currently takes around 40 minutes for someone to catch a train from New York City over to Red Bull arena. Also, NYCFC will be a bigger draw for top players around the world deciding to come to MLS. With the backing of Sheikh Mansour (Man City) and the Steinbrenners (Yankees), NYCFC will have an insane budget to use on designated players, facilities, and other aspects of running a top football club. NYRB already struggles with attendance as it is. I hope that the introduction of a second New York team will turn out to be healthy for the Energy Drinks, causing them to step up their game and draw in top players and put some more money into their efforts, but it doesn't look to good for them long term right now. Hopefully it won't get as bad as the dynamic between LA Galaxy and Chivas USA.

Photo credit: www.mcfc.co.uk

• Overall this is a great move by MLS. The league's biggest struggle in it's growth process has been it's inability to garner significant TV revenue. Placing this team in one of America's biggest TV markets is only beneficial for the league as a whole. MLS really, really needs to start getting some big TV deals in order to increase national exposure and compete with other professional sports leagues like the NFL and the NBA.
• There aren't many sports teams in the world that are hated more than the Yankees and Manchester City. I can only imagine what kind of hate NYCFC will generate. Yikes.
• #NYCFC is kind of a mouthful, especially on Twitter. I'm not a huge fan.
• I hope the club will be able to establish its own identity apart from Man City and the Yankees. I don't mind it having some players from Man City on loan or something like that but I'd hate to see it become a feeder club for them. It needs to become a destination club, not a feeder.
• It will be interesting to see what becomes of the New York Cosmos, which are going to begin playing in the NASL next year. Will they be able to compete with the two MLS teams in its own city? Will they ever be as big as NYCFC and NYRB? Only time will tell.
• Speaking of the Cosmos, I would like to end this post by presenting to you my find of the week. I came across this fantastic documentary the other day which chronicles the clubs rise and fall during its NASL days in the '70s and '80s. It's an hour and a half long but check it out if you ever have the time, it's extremely well done and gives a great look at the sport during its early days in America. One part I found particularly interesting was the shootouts they would have at the end of tie games in the NASL. Instead of a penalty kick shootout, the kick taker had 5 seconds to go one-on-one with the keeper from 35 yards out and score. I'd never heard of that before and I think it's a really cool idea. That part comes at around the 53:20 mark of the documentary. Below is a video of a full NASL shootout between the New York Cosmos and Washington Diplomats.