title: Alison Balsom

text: Balsom was the principal trumpet of the London Chamber Orchestra. Her main trumpet is a Bob Malone-converted Bach C trumpet. About her natural trumpet playing, Balsom said in 2014, "I have been playing since I was in the 3rd year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama – so since I was 21. I just fell in love with this instrument as soon as I started learning it, as it makes total sense of the whole Baroque era in terms of phrasing, colour and the difference in keys and certain notes of the scale, which you lose on a modern instrument such as the piccolo trumpet. I play various different makes but my favourite is by Egger of Switzerland."


title: Alison Balsom

text: She gave the world premiere of Qigang Chen's "Joie éternelle" for solo trumpet and orchestra at the 2014 BBC Proms, and Guy Barker's "Lanterne of Light" trumpet concerto at the 2015 BBC Proms. In addition to 14 years of solo appearances at the Proms, Balsom has also appeared at the iTunes Festival, Latitude Festival, Henley Festival, Un Violon Sur le Sable, France and Wege durch das Land, Germany.


title: Alison Balsom

text: In 2014 Balsom was chosen as one of 27 artists, including Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Florence Welch, and Sam Smith, to feature in one of BBC Music's first broadcasts, an extravagant cover of the 1966 Beach Boys classic, "God Only Knows". This track marked a first-time collaboration between the Warner, Sony and Universal Music labels.


title: Alison Balsom

text: In 2014, she returned to BBC Young Musician of the Year as a presenter of the category finals and semi-final of the competition alongside Miloš Karadaglić. In 2016 she co-presented BBC Young Musician with Clemency Burton-Hill.


title: Alison Balsom

text: Balsom succeeded Richard Rodney Bennett as President of Deal, Kent Festival in 2015. She was artistic director of the 2019 Cheltenham Music Festival, then stepped down in July 2019 to concentrate on performing and recording.


title: Alison Balsom

text: Balsom was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music.


title: Alison Balsom

text: She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Leicester (2015) and Anglia Ruskin University, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.


title: Alison Balsom

text: She has a son with the English conductor Edward Gardner. In 2017, she married film director Sir Sam Mendes. Their daughter was born later that year.


title: Alison Balsom

text: Trumpet: Schilke models E3L E-flat/D trumpet, E3L-4 E-flat trumpet, G1L G/F trumpet, P7-4 B-flat/A piccolo trumpet, S22CHD C trumpet; mouthpiece: Schilke 6A4a.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The Sikorsky H-34 "Choctaw" (company designation S-58) is an American piston-engined military helicopter originally designed by Sikorsky as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft for the United States Navy. It has seen extended use when adapted to turbine power by the British licensee as the Westland Wessex and Sikorsky as the later S-58T.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: H-34s served, mostly as medium transports, on every continent with the armed forces of 25 countries. It saw combat in Algeria, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and throughout Southeast Asia. Other uses included saving flood victims, recovering astronauts, fighting fires, and carrying presidents. It was the last piston-engined helicopter to be operated by the United States Marine Corps, having been replaced by turbine-powered types such as the UH-1 Huey and CH-46 Sea Knight. A total of 2,108 H-34s were manufactured between 1953 and 1970.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The Sikorsky S-58 was developed as a lengthened and more powerful version of the Sikorsky Model S-55, or UH-19 Chickasaw, with a similar nose, but with a tail-dragger rear fuselage and landing gear, rather than the high-tail, 4-post pattern. It retained the nose-mounted radial reciprocating engine with the drive shaft passing through the cockpit placed high above the cargo compartment.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The aircraft first flew on 8 March 1954. The first production aircraft was ready in September and entered in service for the United States Navy initially designated HSS-1 Seabat (in its anti-submarine configuration) and HUS-1 Seahorse (in its utility transport configuration) under the U.S. Navy designation system for U.S. Navy, United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Coast Guard (USCG) aircraft. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps, respectively, ordered it in 1955 and 1957. Under the United States Army's aircraft designation system, also used by the United States Air Force, the helicopter was designated H-34. The U.S. Army also applied the name Choctaw to the helicopter. In 1962, under the new unified DoD aircraft designation system, the Seabat was redesignated SH-34, the Seahorse as the UH-34, and the Choctaw as the CH-34.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: Roles included utility transport, anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, and VIP transport. In its standard configuration, transport versions could carry 12 to 16 troops, or eight stretcher cases if utilized in the MedEvac role, while VIP transports carried significantly fewer people in much greater comfort.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: A total of 135 H-34s were built in the US and assembled by Sud-Aviation in France, 166 were produced under licence in France by Sud-Aviation for the French Air Force, Navy and Army Aviation (ALAT).


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The CH-34 was also built and developed under license from 1958 in the United Kingdom by Westland Aircraft as the turboshaft engined Wessex which was used by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. The RN Wessex was fitted out with weapons and ASW equipment for use in an antisubmarine role. The RAF used the Wessex, with turboshaft engines, as an air/sea rescue helicopter and as troop transporter. Wessexes were also exported to other countries and produced for civilian use.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The helicopters used by the French Army Light Aviation (ALAT), including the Sikorsky H-34, aggregated over 190,000 flying hours in Algeria (over 87,000 for the H-21 alone) and helped to evacuate over 20,000 French combatants from the combat area, including nearly 2,200 at night. By the time the war in Algeria had ended, eight officers and 23 non-commissioned officers from ALAT had been killed.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The use of armed helicopters during the Algerian War, coupled with helicopter transports which can insert troops into enemy territory, gave birth to some of the tactics of airmobile warfare that continue today.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: French evaluations on the reported ground fire vulnerabilities of the CH-34 may have influenced the U.S. Army's decision to deploy the CH-21 Shawnee to Vietnam instead of the CH-34, pending the introduction into widespread service of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois. U.S. Army H-34s did not participate in Vietnam, and did not fly in the assault helicopter role, but a quantity were supplied to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF). These saw little use due to a lack of spare parts and maintenance.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: Its higher availability and reliability due to its simplicity compared to the newer helicopters led Marines to ask for it by name. The phrases "give me a HUS", "get me a HUS" and "cut me a HUS" entered the U.S. Marine Corps vernacular, being used even after the type was no longer in use to mean "help me out".


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: USMC H-34s were also among the first helicopter gunships trialled in theatre, being fitted with the Temporary Kit-1 (TK-1), comprising two M60C machine guns and two 19-shot 2.75 inch rocket pods. The operations were met with mixed enthusiasm, and the armed H-34s, known as "Stingers" were quickly phased out. The TK-1 kit would form the basis of the TK-2 kit used on the UH-1E helicopters of the USMC.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: An H-34 was featured in the famous early-Vietnam War Time-Life photo essay "One Ride With Yankee Papa 13", photographer Larry Burrows, which depicted stages of a disastrous combat mission in which several crew were wounded or killed.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The H-34 remained in service with United States Army and Marine Corps aviation units into the late 1960s; at this time it was also standard equipment in Marine Corps Reserve, Army Reserve and Army National Guard aviation units, eventually being replaced by the UH-1 Iroquois utility helicopter. Sikorsky terminated all production activities in 1968, a total of 1,821 having been built. All H-34 helicopters were retired from service in the U.S. military by the early 1970s; the type having the distinction of being the last piston-engined helicopter to be operated by the Marine Corps. On 3 September 1973, the last flight of a USMC UH-34 occurred as Bureau Number 147191 which had been formally assigned to Headquarters Squadron, FMF Pacific was flown from Quantico, Virginia to MCAS New River to be placed on static display.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: France purchased an initial batch of 134 Choctaws; these were shipped in kit-form from the United States and locally assembled by Sud-Aviation. Later, a further 166 were domestically manufactured by Sud-Aviation; these were operated by the French Army Light Aviation (Army), French Naval Aviation (Navy) and Air force.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The Wessex was used as an anti-submarine and utility helicopter with the Royal Navy and as a transport and search and rescue helicopter with the Royal Air Force. British Wessex saw action in several conflicts: Falklands, Oman, Borneo, Aden, etc.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: Israeli S-58s flew numerous combat missions after the end of the Six-Day War; these missions were mainly against Palestinians infiltrating Israel or against their bases in Jordan. On 21 March 1968, various S-58s participated in the Battle of Karameh, bringing Israeli troops in and out of the theatre as well as evacuating the wounded. This was the last operation of the S-58 as it was retired shortly later, having been replaced by the newer Bell 205 and Aérospatiale Super Frelon.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: The H-34's lift capacity was just sufficient to lift a Mercury space capsule. In 1961, the hatch of Mercury-Redstone 4 was prematurely detached and the capsule was filled with seawater. The extra weight was too much for the H-34 and the capsule, "Liberty Bell 7", was emergency released and sank in deep water, remaining on the ocean floor until 1999.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: Sikorsky set up a production line in 1970 to remanufacture existing S-58 aircraft into the S-58T configuration, replacing the R-1820 engine with a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6T-3 Twin-Pac turboshafts; Sikorsky obtained a Federal Aviation Administration type certificate for the conversion in April 1971. The conversion enhanced safety, allowing the aircraft to continue flight after an engine failure, and greatly improved its hot and high performance; whereas the R-1820 could only provide full power up to an altitude of , the paired PT-6s provide full power up to , and an S-58T can fly at maximum gross weight up to . The type certificate for the S-58T was sold to California Helicopter International in 1981.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, S-58T helicopters were operated by New York Helicopters in scheduled passenger airline service between JFK International Airport and East 34th Street Heliport, New York.


title: Sikorsky H-34

text: In the early 1970s, Orlando Helicopter Airways developed a novel civil conversion of the S-55/H-19, the "Heli-Camper", a campervan-like conversion—featuring a built-in mini-kitchen and sleeping accommodations for four. Later in that decade, Orlando developed a larger version based on the S-58, and participated in a joint effort with popular American recreational vehicle (RV) manufacturer Winnebago Industries to market both aircraft as the Winnebago Heli-Home. The S-58 version featured a larger kitchenette, sleeping accommodations for six, a minibar, and an entertainment system; optional floats were offered for amphibious operations. The aircraft were featured in several American popular magazines and reportedly drew large crowds at RV shows and dealerships, but their high purchase price together with rising 1970s fuel prices resulted in very limited sales; production is not well documented, but is estimated at only six or seven of the S-55 and S-58 versions combined.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak (; 10 August 1937 – 19 February 2000) was a Soviet and Russian politician, a co-author of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the first democratically elected mayor of Saint Petersburg, and a mentor and teacher of future presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: Anatoly Sobchak was born in Chita, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, on 10 August 1937. His father, Aleksander Antonovich, was a railroad engineer of Polish and Czech origin, and his mother, Nadezhda Andreyevna Litvinova, was an accountant of Russian and Ukrainian origin. Anatoly was one of four brothers. In 1939, the family moved to Uzbekistan, where Anatoly lived until 1953 before entering Stavropol Law College. In 1954, he transferred to Leningrad State University. In 1958, he married Nonna Gandzyuk, a student of Hertzen Teacher's College. They had a daughter called Maria Sobchak, born in 1965, who is currently a St Petersburg lawyer while her son Gleb Sobchak, born in 1983, graduated from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: After graduating from Leningrad State University, he worked for three years as a lawyer in Stavropol, then returned to Leningrad State University for graduate studies (1962–1965). After obtaining his Ph.D., he taught law at the Leningrad Police School and the Leningrad Institute for Cellulose and Paper Industries' Technology (1965–1973), and between 1973 and 1990 he taught at Leningrad State University. In 1980, he married Lyudmila Narusova, at that time a history student at the Leningrad Academy of Soviet Culture and later a prominent MP. They had a daughter, Ksenia Sobchak.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: After obtaining his D.Sc. in 1982, he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Common Law in Socialist Economics. He was very popular among law students, especially for his mildly anti-government comments. During his work at Leningrad State University, he established close relations with its then administrator of international affairs, Vladimir Putin, which he maintained for the rest of his life.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: In 1989, after election laws changed during Perestroika, he was elected as an independent candidate to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union. He was one of only a few deputies who had a legal background, so he contributed enormously to most of the laws created from 1989 to 1991. He became one of the founders and a co-chairman of the Inter-Regional Deputies Group along with Andrei Sakharov and Boris Yeltsin. He also was a chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the Investigation of the events of 9 April 1989 in Tbilisi. The Commission condemned the military, which was blamed for many deaths when dispersing demonstrators. The Commission's report made it more difficult to use military force against civil demonstrations in the Soviet Union and Russia.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: He was a member of the President's Consultative Council during Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure and contributed to legislation that originated from the presidential administration.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: After the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, Sobchak was not a member of the central Parliament but was a member of Yeltsin's Presidential Council and the chairman of the Constitutional Assembly that prepared the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993. The constitution is often informally called "Sobchak's constitution", although its real authors have been somewhat less known.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: In April 1990, Sobchak was elected a deputy of the Leningrad City Council, and in May he became the chairman of the Council. From the beginning, his leadership was marked by a strongly authoritarian bent. The Council decided to change the structure of the city governance so as to have a Mayor elected by direct elections. The first of such elections in June 1991 were combined with the referendum on the city name. Sobchak won the elections, and the city voted to return to its historical name of Saint Petersburg. The name change was established in one of the last sessions of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union, held on 12 September 1991. The change needed an amendment of the Constitution of the Soviet Union and its passage required much effort by Sobchak.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: During his tenure, a Kissinger-Sobchak commission was formed in order to attract western investment into St. Petersburg. According to Putin who had met with Kissinger a couple of times, when Kissinger stated that the Soviet Union had pulled out of Eastern Europe too quickly under Gorbachev and that Kissinger was being blamed but Kissinger had thought it was impossible, Putin had agreed with Kissinger because so many problems would have been avoided if the pullout had not been so hasty.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: Sobchak was Mayor of Saint Petersburg from 1991 to 1996. During his tenure, the city became a place of glamorous cultural and sporting events. Most of the everyday control of the city structure was handled by two Mayor's deputies – Vladimir Yakovlev and Vladimir Putin; critics alleged deterioration of city infrastructure, growing corruption, and crime during this time.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: In the 1996 mayoral election, Sobchak was opposed by his former first deputy Vladimir Yakovlev and lost by a margin of 1.2%. The major pitch of Yakovlev's campaign was that Sobchak's patronage of the arts (with city money) and involvement in federal politics prevented him from solving the real problems of the city.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: After falling out with Sobchak, Yury Shutov wrote the book "Heart of a Dog" () as a criticism of Sobchak in 1991.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: In 1997, a criminal investigation started against Sobchak. He was accused of irregularities in the privatization of his own apartment, his elder daughter's apartment, and his wife's art studio. By the standards of the 1990s in Russia, the allegations were relatively minor (although the alleged losses for city finances were still in the tens of thousands of dollars). Thus, Sobchak's supporters saw the criminal proceedings as a political repression. According to Ksenia Sobchak, this campaign was started in 1995 from Moscow to prevent her father from running in future presidential elections.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: On 7 November 1997, Sobchak flew to Paris on a private plane without passport processing on the Russian side. The formal reason for his departure was medical treatment in a Paris hospital for his heart condition, but Sobchak never checked in at the hospital. Between 1997 and 1999, he lived the typical life of a political émigré in Paris.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: In June 1999, his friend Vladimir Putin became much stronger politically (in a few weeks he became the Prime Minister of Russia), and he was able to make the prosecutors drop the charges against Sobchak. On 12 June 1999, Sobchak returned to Russia. After his return, Sobchak became a very active supporter of Putin in his quest for the Russian presidency.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: On 17 February 2000, Putin met with Sobchak and urged him to travel to Kaliningrad to support his election campaign. Sobchak traveled there, accompanied by two assistants who also served as his bodyguards. On 20 February 2000, Sobchak died suddenly in the town of Svetlogorsk of the Kaliningrad Oblast. The initial suspected cause of death was a heart attack, but the findings of two medical experts were contradictory. A criminal investigation of Sobchak's death as a possible "premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances" was opened only on 6 May 2000, more than two months later. After three months, the investigation was closed without a finding. The Democratic Union party led by Valeria Novodvorskaya made an official statement that not only Sobchak, but also two of his aides had heart attacks simultaneously, which indicated poisoning. Two other men were present with Sobchak during his death, but their names were not publicly disclosed.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: According to an independent investigation by Arkady Vaksberg, both bodyguards of Sobchak were treated for symptoms of poisoning after Sobchak's death, indicating a probable contract killing by poisoning. Sobchak's widow Lyudmila had her own autopsy done on her husband's body, but never made the results public; she told the BBC that she keeps the findings in a secure location outside Russia.


title: Anatoly Sobchak

text: He was interred in Nikolskoe Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, near the grave of Galina Starovoitova.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: Fear of the Dark is the ninth studio album released by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Released on 11 May 1992, it was their third studio release to top the UK albums chart, and the last to feature Bruce Dickinson as the group's lead vocalist until his return in 1999.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: It was also the first album to be produced by bassist and band founder Steve Harris, and the last album to feature the work of producer Martin Birch, who retired after its release.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: After recording its predecessor (1990's "No Prayer for the Dying") in a barn on Steve Harris' property with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, leading to negative results, for this album Harris had the building converted into a proper studio (christened "Barnyard"). Bruce Dickinson describes the results as "a slight improvement because Martin [Birch] came in and supervised the sound. But there were big limitations on that studio – simply because of its physical size, things like that. [It] actually ended up not too bad, but, you know, a little bit under par."


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: At 57 minutes and 58 seconds in length, "Fear of the Dark" was Iron Maiden's first double studio LP, as well as the longest album from Dickinson's first tenure in the band.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: The album's musical style showed some experimentation with "Be Quick or Be Dead", a fast tempo song in a heavier thrash style released as the album's first single, and "Wasting Love", the group's first power ballad, which dates back to Dickinson's first solo album, "Tattooed Millionaire". Both songs were Dickinson/Gers collaborations, which contrasted with Harris' "Afraid to Shoot Strangers", a political song from the point of view of a soldier in the Gulf War, Dickinson would often introduce the song as an anti-war narrative. "Fear is the Key" is about the fear in sexual relationships resulting from AIDS. The song was written around the time when the band learned about the death of Queen singer Freddie Mercury. Dickinson affirmed: "There's a line in 'Fear Is the Key' that goes: "nobody cares 'til somebody famous dies". And that's quite sadly true. [...] As long as the virus was confined to homosexuals or drug-addicts, nobody gave a shit. It's only when celebrities started to die that the masses began to feel concerned". "Weekend Warrior" is about football hooliganism.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: Only two of the album's songs, the title track and "Afraid to Shoot Strangers", would survive on tours following 1993. "Fear of the Dark" has been on the set list of every subsequent tour except 2005, in which the band only played songs from their first 4 albums. ”Fear of the Dark” and “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” were the only songs played on the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour and the Maiden England World Tour which were not from the 1980s. "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" became a frequent addition on setlists during Blaze Bayley's tenure with Iron Maiden, following which it returned in 2012.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: Guitarist Gordon Giltrap released an album of the same title in 1978. Nicko McBrain was earlier a member of Giltrap's band and played on his 1973 album Giltrap. The Gordon Giltrap logo also uses a font resembling Iron Maiden's logo.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: According to the band's biographer, Mick Wall, the "Fear of the Dark" album cover depicts their mascot, Eddie, "as some sort of Nosferatu tree figure leering at the moon". It was the group's first not to be designed by artist Derek Riggs, whose contributions were rejected in favour of Melvyn Grant's. According to Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, the band began accepting contributions from other artists as "We wanted to upgrade Eddie for the 90s. We wanted to take him from the sort of comic-book horror creature and turn him into something a bit more straightforward so that he became even more threatening." Following "Fear of the Dark", Grant has produced several more covers for Iron Maiden, making him the band's second most-frequent artist after Riggs.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: Reviews for the album were mixed, with AllMusic commenting that, while "easily an improvement over 1990's lackluster "No Prayer for the Dying" (both musically and sonically)", the release "still wasn't quite on par with their exceptional work from the '80s". Sputnikmusic were more positive about the release, stating that "though many of the songs are still sub-par by their standards ... the band returns to the lofty heights that they enjoyed for the entirety of the 80's". "Billboard" gave it a positive review on release, saying Dickinson's voice "shows no sign of wear and tear" and the guitar work "sounds fresh and crisp".


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: In October 2011, "Fear of the Dark" was ranked No. 8 on "Guitar World" magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1992.


title: Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)

text: "Fear of the Dark" became the third Iron Maiden album to top the UK Albums Chart. It is the band's most successful record in North America after the inception of Nielsen SoundScan in 1991, with 438,000 copies sold as of 2008.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Major League Soccer has expanded several times since the league began play in 1996. Major League Soccer was established as the top level of professional soccer in the United States in 1993 with 10 teams and began play in 1996. It has expanded several times since 1998 into new markets across the United States and, since 2006, Canada.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: St. Louis City SC is the 29th MLS team and the most recent expansion team, having joined the league for the 2023 season. The league plans to expand to 30 teams and may expand to 32 teams at a later date. Expanding and establishing a larger national reach is seen as essential to securing television rights fees needed to reach MLS's initially stated goal of becoming one of the top leagues in the world by 2022.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In 2013, New York City FC agreed to pay a record $100 million expansion fee for the right to join MLS in 2015. This record was surpassed by the ownership groups of FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC, which each paid $150 million to join MLS (FC Cincinnati in 2019 and Nashville in 2020). The same amount was paid as an effective entrance fee by a group that bought Columbus Crew SC in 2018, which led to that team's previous operator receiving a new team in Austin, Texas, that joined MLS in April 2021. Before Sacramento's group withdrew its franchise acquisition, MLS also announced that the ownership groups of the 28th and 29th teams would each pay a $200 million entrance fee and that of the 30th had to pay $325 million.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS expansion got off to a mixed start in its initial years. MLS began playing with 10 teams in 1996, grew to 12 teams in 1998, but put expansion plans on hold and then eliminated two teams following the 2001 season to return to 10 teams.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Major League Soccer was established in 1993, as part of an agreement with FIFA that the United States set up a professional first division to gain the right to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. No successful professional outdoor soccer league existed since the North American Soccer League folded in 1985. Due to rapid over-expansion and poor franchise placement, the NASL collapse led future MLS leaders to be extremely cautious of establishing new franchises.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Initially 12 teams were to be placed in carefully selected cities where a strong soccer market was thought to exist, which was scaled back to 10 after potential backers could not be found. Eventually 22 communities submitted formal bids to host an inaugural MLS franchise.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The initial 10 teams were the Columbus Crew, D.C. United, New England Revolution, New York/New Jersey MetroStars (now New York Red Bulls), Tampa Bay Mutiny, Colorado Rapids, Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas), Kansas City Wiz (eventually Wizards; now Sporting Kansas City), Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Clash (now San Jose Earthquakes). Although New York City and Los Angeles were awarded franchises, the next four largest American cities – Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Detroit – were without a team. Using American football stadiums, the new league kicked off in April 1996.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In 1998, the league expanded for the first time, rising from 10 teams to 12. The new teams were the Chicago Fire SC (now Chicago Fire FC) and Miami Fusion. Miami owner Ken Horowitz paid a $20 million expansion fee to join MLS, while the expansion fee for the Chicago team was $5 million.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Major League Soccer reportedly lost an estimated $250 million during its first five years. During the winter break between the 2000 and 2001 seasons, reports began circulating that MLS was considering trimming the league from 12 teams back to 10 teams.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS announced in January 2002 that it had decided to contract the two Florida franchises, the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion. Both teams folded. The league chose to fold Miami, in part because their ownership reportedly lacked financial resources, had been trying to run the Fusion on a bare-minimum budget, and had asked the league to pay some of the club's expenses. Miami ownership had reportedly experienced $15 million in operating losses since Miami joined the league. The league folded the Tampa Bay Mutiny in part because the team was operated by the League instead of by an individual owner, meaning that the League had to absorb 100% of the team's operating losses.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In 2005, MLS began a significant expansion phase, nearly doubling in size from 10 teams in 2004 to 19 teams in 2014.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The performance of the US national team at the 2002 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final, sparked a recovery in the league's fortunes, and attendances once again began to rise. MLS began looking to expand once more with a number of cities interested in hosting new teams. The demand for an expansion team grew.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS awarded a second franchise to the Los Angeles area, Chivas USA, in 2004 and began play in 2005. The expansion fee was $7.5 million. The team was owned partly by C.D. Guadalajara owner Jorge Vergara, and took the name and colors from the Mexican club with the aim of appealing to the Hispanic community in Southern California. Chivas and the Los Angeles Galaxy shared The Home Depot Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park) and played in the league's first local derby game.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The league also announced Real Salt Lake in 2004 and began play in 2005. The expansion fee was $7.5 million for the team in Utah. The franchise received permission to use the "Real" name from Real Madrid as part of a business agreement between the Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts and the Spanish club. Real Salt Lake initially played its home games at Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus before moving to Rio Tinto Stadium in the suburb of Sandy in October 2008.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In 2005, the San Jose Earthquakes were put on hiatus because of a failure to secure a soccer-specific stadium. The players and the coach were moved to an expansion team in Houston, Texas, where they became the Houston Dynamo playing out of Robertson Stadium. The number of teams in the league did not change.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In November 2005, Major League Soccer announced that it had approved an expansion franchise in Toronto to be owned and operated by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors. The expansion fee was $10 million for the Toronto team. The Toronto City Council had previously approved $9.8 million in funding for a $62.8-million stadium, with the rest of the money coming from MLSE, the federal government, and the provincial government. The team name Toronto FC and logo were announced in May 2006. The club played their first season in MLS in 2007, finishing at the bottom of the table. The introduction of MLS into Canada took MLS into a separate country for the first time.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: After a two-year hiatus, the San Jose Earthquakes were reactivated in 2007 and resumed play in MLS in 2008 under new ownership. The expansion fee was $20 million for the reinstated San Jose/Bay Area team.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Seattle was awarded a franchise in 2009 for a reported expansion fee of $30 million. Following a write-in vote by supporters, the team chose the name Seattle Sounders FC, after the Seattle Sounders that played in the North American Soccer League in the 1970s and '80s. The city did not have a soccer-specific stadium or any plans to construct one, and instead, it shared Qwest Field (now known as Lumen Field) with the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League who, like the Sounders, were owned in part by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The stadium was built as a combined football/soccer stadium with an MLS team in mind, including soccer-specific features.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On February 28, 2008, MLS announced that the sixteenth franchise would be awarded to Philadelphia. Philadelphia was appealing to MLS because Philadelphia was the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. without an MLS franchise, and it had a strong ownership group. There had been a strong campaign to bring a team to the city, with intense lobbying by supporters groups such as the Sons of Ben.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Philadelphia won the bid over a competing bid from St. Louis that was led by St. Louis investor Jeff Cooper. St. Louis had a stadium deal in Collinsville, Illinois, but lacked sufficient financing. The expansion fee was $30 million for the Philadelphia team.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On May 11, 2009, it was announced that the team name would be Philadelphia Union. The new team announced their intention to construct an 18,500-seat stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania, which opened as PPL Park and is now known as Subaru Park.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: One of three Canadian cities in the running for 2011 MLS expansion, Vancouver's bid was led by local businessman Greg Kerfoot, at that time owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in USSF D2 Pro. NBA star Steve Nash was also involved as a minority stakeholder. The city's bid was boosted by the proposed construction of the Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium, with an initial capacity of 20,000 and the potential for further expansion. Don Garber called the bid presentation by Vancouver "one of the best I've ever seen."


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On March 18, 2009, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that Vancouver had been awarded one of the two 2011 expansion spots for a reported $35 million expansion fee. Vancouver continued to field the second-tier Whitecaps until the MLS team made its debut in 2011. The MLS Whitecaps began the 2011 season at Empire Field, sharing it with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, before both teams moved into the renovated BC Place in October 2011.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On July 31, 2008, Merritt Paulson announced that he would apply for an MLS franchise for Portland as an MLS continuation of the Portland Timbers. Paulson further outlined his plan by launching a website. The MLS Timbers would play in a renovated PGE Park, which was renamed to Jeld-Wen Field by the time the team made its MLS debut in 2011 and is now known as Providence Park, sharing with the Portland State University football team.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On March 20, 2009, commissioner Don Garber confirmed in a news conference that Portland would receive the 18th franchise. Portland's expansion fee was $35 million.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The city of Montreal had been in consideration by Major League Soccer for a club since the league's founding and planning stages in 1993. In the fall of 2008, the Joey Saputo group was on a short list for the next round of expansion. On May 7, 2010, Commissioner Don Garber announced that Saputo and the Impact group (now CF Montréal) would join the league as its 19th club for the 2012 MLS season for an expansion fee of $40 million, with Stade Saputo being renovated to increase the seating capacity to around 20,000.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Bookending the first growth phase of MLS was the dissolution of Chivas USA at the end of the 2014 regular season; this phase had begun with the addition of Chivas USA (along with Real Salt Lake) in 2005, and ended with Chivas USA's dissolution in 2014. The league bought the franchise and took over the operations from Jorge Vergara and Angélica Fuentes in February that year, leaving the league with 20 teams for the 2015 season. The club had suffered poor performance on the field, low attendance and a series of discrimination lawsuits against the ownership. Commissioner Garber cited the "brand that was targeted specifically to the Hispanic market" and the belief that "the club could coexist with the Galaxy and share the StubHub Center" as mistakes.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS began its current growth phase in 2015. With the 2014 contraction of the league behind them and not having added any teams since 2012, the league set off on expanding from an 18-team league in 2014, to a 29-team league in 2023. This phase is also marked by the significant increase in expansion fees. While previous five expansion teams, Montreal (2012), Portland (2011), Vancouver (2011), Philadelphia (2010) and Seattle (2009) each paid expansion fees of $30–40 million, when the second growth phase began, Orlando (2015), Atlanta (2016), Minnesota (2016) and NYC (2015) paid fees of $70–100 million, marking a stark contrast to the previous phase. The latest expansion team to begin play in the league, Charlotte FC, reported paid $325 million.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The 2015 MLS season marked the return of MLS to the state of Florida and the addition of a second team in the New York metro area. On June 27, 2012, MLS announced plans to build a new soccer-specific stadium in Queens, New York, with a seating capacity of 25,000 and located near the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On May 21, 2013, MLS announced New York City FC and the location in NYC as the next expansion team. The team's rights were purchased by the English Premier League club Manchester City and the New York Yankees baseball team for the expansion fee of $100 million, and the team began play in 2015.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On October 25, 2010, Phil Rawlins and his investor group of Orlando City SC, announced their intentions of joining Major League Soccer within the next three to five years.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In March 2012, Garber met with Orlando city and county officials, and said, "It's not a matter of if, but when", when addressing Orlando's chances of joining MLS.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In April 2013, the City of Orlando purchased downtown land to be used towards the construction of a $110 million MLS soccer stadium. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer reached an agreement on a deal to provide financial support for a variety of Orlando projects including the new MLS soccer stadium on August 8, 2013. The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 5–2 on October 22, 2013, to approve the use of $20 million in tourist development tax funds to build an $84 million multi-purpose soccer stadium in downtown Orlando.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On November 19, 2013, Orlando was officially announced as the league's newest team, and began play in MLS in 2015. The expansion fee was $70 million for the Orlando team.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The league announced it was awarding an expansion franchise in Atlanta to Atlanta Falcons owner and Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank on April 16, 2014, with plans to begin play in 2017. The expansion fee was $70 million for the Atlanta team.</ref> The team shares the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which was completed in 2017, with the Falcons. Discussions between Blank and MLS had "accelerated" following approval of the stadium plans in late 2013.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Atlanta became the third city in the southeastern United States in five months to announce an expansion team, following Orlando City in late 2013 and Miami, whose tentative approval was announced earlier in 2014. The Atlanta metropolitan area was at the time the largest media market without an MLS franchise. Previously, in October 2008, Arthur Blank's AMB Group had submitted a bid for an expansion franchise, but withdrew its bid in early 2009 due to its inability to have a stadium built.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On March 25, 2015, the league announced that it had awarded the 23rd MLS team to an investor group in Minneapolis–Saint Paul led by Bill McGuire, owner of the NASL team Minnesota United FC. Club president Nick Rodgers said he expected much of the team, including the name, logo, coach and some players, to remain intact. In addition to the Minnesota United bid, a group led by the Wilf family, owners of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, had also been vying for a franchise, to play at the Vikings' new U.S. Bank Stadium, but were unsuccessful. The Wilfs would later become investors in Nashville's successful MLS bid.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The team had been expected to begin play in MLS in 2018, though the timing of their start date was described as "fluid." The ownership group did not meet its July 1, 2015, deadline to present stadium plans to MLS after the Minnesota state legislature failed to take up the club's proposal by the end of its session in May 2015. In October 2015, the team announced it had selected a stadium site in St. Paul. The expansion fee was $100 million for the team in Minnesota The league later announced that Minnesota United would join MLS in 2017, and would play in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota's football home of TCF Bank Stadium until its new stadium was ready.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On October 30, 2014, MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced that a new team was awarded to Los Angeles and it's ownership group led by Henry Nguyen for the expansion fee of $110 million. Other notable members of the ownership group included Peter Guber, Magic Johnson, Mia and Nomar Garciaparra, Tom Penn, among others. The new team was announced with the working name, "Los Angeles Football Club", which later became its official name in September 2015. Originally set to begin play in 2017, the team did not begin until 2018 when construction of their new soccer-specific stadium, Banc of California Stadium was completed.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On November 29, 2016, Don Garber visited with Cincinnati's mayor John Cranley, officials from FC Cincinnati of the USL, and civic and business leaders of the city to talk about a possible expansion. FC Cincinnati, in its first season in the USL in 2016, broke the USL's single-season attendance record, averaging 17,296 fans per game at Nippert Stadium. They also set the league's single-game playoff record for attendance with 30,187 spectators on October 2. On the heels of those attendance numbers, Cincinnati entered the expansion conversation. On June 12, 2017, FC Cincinnati revealed designs for a soccer-specific stadium to be built in conjunction with an MLS bid. FC Cincinnati was awarded an expansion on May 29, 2018, to start play in MLS in 2019 for the expansion fee of $150 million.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Garber confirmed in a July 5, 2013, interview that Miami, Atlanta, Orlando, and San Antonio were all candidates for MLS expansion.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On February 5, 2014, the league announced that it would award a franchise in Miami to an investment group led by former player David Beckham, his business partner Simon Fuller, and Miami-based businessman Marcelo Claure for the expansion fee of $25 million. However, the ownership group's two stadium sites were rejected by city and county governments by July 2014.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In an August 2014 Q&A session, deputy commissioner Mark Abbott said Miami would be the 23rd team as long as a downtown stadium deal could be reached.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Commissioner Garber said he hoped to see Miami join the league with Atlanta in 2017, but repeated that the team would not play without political support for a downtown stadium.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The next development in the Beckham plan came on July 17, 2015, when Miami mayor Tomás Regalado announced a tentative deal with the ownership group, now known as Beckham United, for a new privately financed stadium in Little Havana next to Marlins Park, at the former site of the Orange Bowl. However, the plans for the Orange Bowl site fell through later that year after Beckham United was unable to secure deals with private owners of adjacent land.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In December of that year, Beckham United announced that a new stadium site, mostly private land but also containing a tract owned by Miami-Dade County, had been selected in Miami's Overtown neighborhood. The MLS governing board soon approved the location, and the Beckham group completed the purchase of the privately owned tracts in March 2016. Negotiations with county officials to assemble the final section of the stadium site are ongoing.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Beckham had received an option to buy an expansion franchise for $25 million as part of the contract he signed with the league when he joined the Los Angeles Galaxy.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In August 2016, a group of Nashville business leaders from several of the city's largest corporations formed the Nashville MLS Organizing Committee and began efforts to secure funding for an MLS stadium. The group, led by Bill Hagerty, pursued an MLS team immediately rather than work up the soccer pyramid. The group fully supports the recently awarded USL expansion team, Nashville SC, which began play in 2018. Both groups support each other in their common vision to grow the sport in Tennessee. In October 2017, the group unveiled their plans for $275 million stadium and redevelopment project, which was approved by the city in November. Nashville was granted a team for the expansion fee of $150 million on December 20, 2017, with the team was expected begin to play in 2020 season.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On January 29, 2018, MLS officially approved Beckham's expansion team in Miami with play expected to start in 2020.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On December 7, 2018, Garber announced in his annual State of the League news conference that "within the next few years MLS will become the first major sports league to have a team in the culturally dynamic city of Austin". On January 15, 2019, MLS officially announced that Austin had been granted a franchise for the expansion fee of $150 million and would begin play in 2021.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In 2017, Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith led an effort for MLS expansion to Charlotte that initially included a 20,000 to 30,000-seat stadium. In October 2017, however, the Charlotte city council confirmed that they would be unable to come up with the financing needed for the MLS deadline for expansion proposals, at which point the bid was effectively dead.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In March 2019, Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper and officials began discussions with MLS to start another bid for a Charlotte-based MLS team. After MLS announced that they would be expanding to 30 teams, the Panthers officially reactivated the bid.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS officially announced, on December 17, 2019, that Charlotte would be awarded with an MLS franchise and would begin play in the 2021 season. The expansion fee was reported to be $325M. The team plays in the Bank of America Stadium located in downtown Charlotte, Tepper and the ownership group announced under the team name, logo, and kits on July 22, 2020.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On July 17, 2020, MLS announced that the Charlotte expansion team's debut would be delayed by a year to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Jeff Cooper attempted in 2008 and 2009 to bring an MLS expansion team to St. Louis, only to have both bids turned down in favor of other cities; MLS was not impressed with the bid's financial backing and suggested Cooper expand his group of investors.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: St. Louis announced in late 2014 that it was planning a new stadium to host both soccer and American football for the NFL's St. Louis Rams.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In May 2015, Garber visited St. Louis to talk about a possible new stadium that could hold soccer games.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On January 12, 2016, The NFL's Rams relocated to Los Angeles from St. Louis and the Rams relocation initially accelerated the talks of an MLS expansion team.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On January 27, 2016, St. Louis lawmaker, Keith English proposed a bill that would put a tax of not more than one-tenth of one percent on the ballot in St. Louis and St. Louis County, it also calls for the RSA to oversee the soccer stadium. The proposed tax would only go into effect if MLS awards a team to St. Louis by December 20, 2020. On February 17, 2016, the MLS2STL group was formed to bring an MLS team to the St. Louis area.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In early 2017, a funding plan for a soccer-specific stadium adjacent to Union Station in downtown St. Louis was approved by the city's Board of Aldermen, before it was brought to a public vote on April 4, 2017, but the public vote failed.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On September 27, 2018, the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" reported that there is a group trying to bring a team to St. Louis. On October 9, 2018, the bid was effectively re-launched, with Carolyn Kindle Betz and other members of the Taylor family, principal owners of the Enterprise Holdings car rental company, as primary investors in the proposal. The stadium location remains the same as in the original 2016 location near Union Station. On November 30, 2018, the board of aldermen passed by 26 out of the 28.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On August 20, 2019, Garber announced at a press conference in St. Louis that the city had been granted a franchise to begin play in 2022 for the expansion fee of $200 million. The St. Louis expansion team's debut, originally scheduled for 2022, was later pushed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Commissioner Don Garber stated in May 2018 that "Detroit, Sacramento, San Diego are still in active discussions with us."


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On April 18, 2019, the league announced it would expand to 30 teams. Ownership groups from Sacramento and St. Louis were given exclusive rights to negotiate for spots 28 and 29 at an expansion fee of $200 million each, while the league's Board of Governors deferred a decision on a fee and timetable for the 30th team. St. Louis was announced as an expansion team in August 2019. Sacramento was announced as an team on October 21, 2019, but the owner later abandoned the bid. Charlotte was announced as an expansion team on December 17.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In February 2020, Garber stated there are more cities aiming to join the league and at some point they were to expand further. According to him, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, San Diego, Detroit and Phoenix still had interest in joining the league, and Garber kept the discussions going.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The "Las Vegas Sun" reported on May 13, 2014, that a potential ownership group held talks about an expansion team in Las Vegas. The investor group, consisting of Findlay Sports and Entertainment and real estate developers, Cordish Company, acquired a site at Symphony Park in Downtown Las Vegas and planned to build a stadium there. Las Vegas Mayor, Carolyn Goodman, and the Findlay group expressed preference for a downtown stadium. League deputy commissioner Mark Abbott met with Mayor Goodman and toured the downtown area in July 2014.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On December 17, 2014, the Las Vegas City Council approved public funding of $56.5 million for the proposed soccer stadium in Symphony Park, contingent on MLS granting an expansion franchise to Las Vegas. Garber notified Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman on February 12, 2015, that MLS no longer considered Las Vegas as an expansion market until after 2018. The potential for a Las Vegas team was revived in January 2017 by the city council approaching a sports investment bank but an official bid was not reported by MLS.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In December 2021, Garber confirmed "Vegas is the frontrunner" and the 30th team was to be officially announced in the first quarter of 2022. Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, who co-own English football club Aston Villa had been in exclusive negotiations as prospective owners. By June 2022, those negotiations were ongoing.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In 2017, Phoenix entered the race for an expansion team. The bid for expansion is led by the ownership group of Phoenix Rising FC of the United Soccer League including former Chelsea and Phoenix Rising FC player Didier Drogba. That year, Phoenix Rising signed an agreement with Goldman Sachs to help the funding of a new 20,000 person stadium on land purchased from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community if selected. After Bally Sports Arizona agreed to air most Rising matches in March 2022, Phoenix was reported to have been drawn closer to becoming an MLS franchise.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Commissioner Garber mentioned San Diego as an expansion candidate in February 2014, and again in April 2016. The ownership group includes MLB San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler. An MLS team in San Diego would be located close to two MLS teams in Los Angeles, as well as the Liga MX side Xolos of Tijuana.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The NFL's Chargers 2017 relocation to Los Angeles has accelerated the chances for an MLS expansion team in San Diego.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On February 20, 2017, a new plan for the Mission Valley site of the facility then known as Qualcomm Stadium was unveiled by a La Jolla investment group that was trying to lure a Major League Soccer team to San Diego.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The former LA Galaxy striker Landon Donovan joined the San Diego ownership group on March 3, 2017. Donovan's group missed its attempt to bring an MLS team after losing the ballot measure to San Diego State University's new football stadium project in November 2018. By May 2022, MLS was interested in San Diego again as other groups began to pursue the city's franchise.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: This section includes cities with bids that have either failed or stalled, or are otherwise not explicitly included in MLS's expansion roadmap, the latest of which was announced in December 2013.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS announced in 2004 that Cleveland would be getting an expansion franchise for the 2005 season, as area businessman Bert Wolstein had signed a letter of intent to launch an MLS club. However, Wolstein ran into delays in trying to obtain public financing for a stadium, and died in 2004.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In 2006 the Wolstein Sports and Entertainment Group proposed the construction of a soccer-specific stadium for an MLS club in the Cleveland suburb of Macedonia. However, Summit County voters rejected a tax to raise $104 million of the $165 million needed, environmental groups raised concerns about area wetlands, and the area was hit by the Great Recession of 2008.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In March 2014, Commissioner Garber said there had not been any developments regarding MLS expansion in Cleveland since talks were held "many years ago."


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: A Miami expansion team led by Barcelona and Marcelo Claure, a Bolivian businessman based in the city, announced an expansion bid in October 2008, with plans to begin play in 2011. But in March 2009, the league and Barcelona announced that Miami was no longer a candidate due to local market conditions. Additionally, MLS expressed concerns about Miami's lack of fan interest in an MLS franchise, the fact that USL team Miami FC was not doing well, and the plan to use FIU Stadium relegating the team to a secondary tenant in a college football stadium with an artificial surface. However, Garber said that Miami would be an expansion target in the future. Claure later joined David Beckham's group of investors for the Miami expansion bid that was accepted by the league in 2014.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: A previous San Antonio expansion bid ended in 2005, when negotiations between the league and then-mayor Ed Garza ended. Incoming mayor Phil Hardberger criticized the proposed deal, while Garber claimed that the criticisms were politically motivated and hurt efforts to sell season tickets and recruit local investors.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In late 2011, San Antonio announced its bid to be MLS's 20th team. The city's North American Soccer League franchise, the San Antonio Scorpions, launched in 2012 and led the league in attendance in 2012 and 2013 seasons.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In Commissioner Garber's December 2013 State of the League address, San Antonio was one of five cities listed on a presentation map of potential expansion locations.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In March 2014, Garber said that expansion in the immediate future was "premature" for both San Antonio and Texas, though it was "something that is likely to happen".


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In December 2014, Garber stated that the league was continuing to evaluate and receive updates on developments in San Antonio. Potential developments include the emergence of an outside investment group and the expansion plan of the current North American Soccer League stadium. In early December 2014, Garber revealed that San Antonio was "not as far along" as the three other cities under consideration at the time. But the league continues to monitor progress and efforts toward expansion in San Antonio.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On November 4, 2015, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County announced plans to purchase Toyota Field for $18 million with the intentions of acquiring an MLS franchise. Additionally, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, owners of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, would hold a 20-year lease to operate the stadium; if SS&E fails to secure an MLS franchise for the stadium within 10 years, the group would owe the city and county a $5 million penalty. On December 22, 2015, the USL announced that Spurs Sports & Entertainment would operate the league's 31st team, San Antonio FC. The establishment of the club, along with the concurrent purchase of Toyota Field by the city of San Antonio and Bexar County, is part of a plan by local officials to obtain an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer. As a result, the Scorpions franchise was shut down.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On October 16, 2017, Columbus Crew owner Anthony Precourt announced his intentions of moving his club to Austin in 2019 if a new stadium in downtown Columbus is not built. As downtown Austin is approximately north of downtown San Antonio, the proposed relocation would be in direct conflict with expansion efforts in San Antonio. However, Jimmy Haslam, owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns, and Pete Edwards, Jr. acquired the Crew in order to keep the club in Columbus and Precourt was granted rights to an expansion franchise in Austin.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Triple Sports & Entertainment, a firm owned by Andreas Apostolopoulos, planned to convert the Pontiac Silverdome into a soccer-specific stadium, and applied to MLS for an expansion franchise in June 2011, but without success. The company later submitted plans in July 2013 for the site that is being considered for the current Detroit expansion proposal, but was again unsuccessful.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: NBA owners Dan Gilbert and Tom Gores unveiled in April 2016 a $1 billion plan to bring an MLS expansion team to Detroit. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has said that Detroit is on the list of cities that could get an expansion team in 2020, and has stated that MLS' interest in Detroit hinges on the fate of the 15-acre site of the stalled Wayne County jail development, which can connect the Greektown Entertainment District, Eastern Market and the three other sports facilities – Comerica Park, Ford Field, and Little Caesars Arena. Their plan received a boost at the end of July when Wayne County Executive Warren Evans announced that he had instructed his team to work towards a final deal on moving the jail and allowing Gilbert and Gores to build the stadium.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Detroit was considered by MLS to be one of the frontrunners for a 2020 bid, but MLS soured on Detroit when the ownership group decided not to build a soccer-specific stadium and to use Ford Field instead.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On December 6, 2016, Carolina Railhawks (later rebranded as North Carolina FC) owner Steve Malik announced a push for Raleigh's minor league team to become an MLS team, and build a privately funded $150 million, 22,000-seat stadium in Wake County.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On June 18, 2019, the team unveiled plans for a 20,000-seat stadium as part of a $1.9 billion mixed use development in downtown Raleigh, intended to boost their MLS bid.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In December 2016, MLS confirmed that Tampa / St. Petersburg was one of its ten potential expansion cities. Bill Edwards, the majority owner of the Tampa Bay Rowdies started a campaign to join the league. On May 2, 2017, a special election referendum was held in St. Petersburg to vote on the city negotiating a 25-year land lease for the Tampa Bay Rowdies current waterfront Al Lang Stadium and increasing capacity to 18,000 pending MLS expansion acceptance. The vote was 87% in favor of Al Lang Stadium redesign/expansion, and 13% against.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In December 2011, a group led by former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez began exploring the possibility of landing an MLS franchise for the Sacramento area, with the suburb of Elk Grove as a possible stadium site. On March 13, 2013, the Elk Grove city council voted unanimously to study potential sites for a soccer-specific stadium in the city that could host either an MLS or NASL team.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Sacramento was granted a USL Pro team that began play in the 2014 season. A group of investors, led by local business leader Warren Smith, expressed their hope to eventually convert this franchise to an MLS team. In November 2013, Smith restated his goal of having the team, christened Sacramento Republic FC, ascend to MLS in 2016.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In August 2014, owners of the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team led by businessman Vivek Ranadivé expressed an interest in buying Republic FC with the ultimate goal of elevating the team to MLS. They met with league officials during the week of the 2014 MLS All-Star Game, and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott said league executives would visit the city and tour possible stadium locations. Kings owner Ranadive announced in January 2015 that he had joined the Republic ownership group, in a move seen as bolstering the city's chances of landing an MLS berth. Also in January 2015, the York family, owners of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, agreed to invest in the Republic.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Sacramento's bid is also strengthened by its fan support. Upon their debut in 2014, the Republic set a USL single-game attendance record by selling out their first-ever home game at 20,000-seat Hughes Stadium; since moving to the smaller, soccer-specific stadium now known as Papa Murphy's Park midway through 2014, the team has continued to play in front of capacity crowds. As of January 2015, the club had nearly 10,000 ticket deposits as part of its "Built for MLS" campaign.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In March 2015, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson announced a joint initiative of the city and the club dubbed "Operation Turnkey", which would have stadium construction ready to begin should one of the other expansion candidates without a firm stadium plan fail to come up with one or the league decided to expand beyond 24 teams. In April 2016, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that the league would expand to 28 teams and said "I hope, and fully expect, Sacramento to be one (of the 28)".


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On February 4, 2017, after the official bid package was submitted without the Republic name or brand, Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg announced an agreement in principle for the Republic to be acquired by Sac Soccer & Entertainment Holdings, the company behind the submitted bid. Should the city's bid for an MLS expansion team succeed, it will indeed enter the league as Sacramento Republic FC. In July 2017, the group began preparations for building a 19,621-seat stadium in downtown Sacramento for the bid. By October, the group had 10,000 commitments for season tickets for the proposed MLS team.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On January 22, 2019, billionaire Ron Burkle was announced as the Republic's new lead investor to satisfy MLS requirements. Burkle has held a controlling stake in the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins since 1999, and previously made an attempt to buy the Sacramento Kings. Burkle also purchased the Republic's proposed stadium site at the Sacramento Railyards, along with an additional 14 acres to be developed into an entertainment district. On October 21, 2019, the Republic was officially announced as the 29th team in Major League Soccer, scheduled to join the league in 2022.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: On July 17, 2020, Sacramento Republic and MLS announced that the team would instead begin play in 2023, due to delays from the COVID-19 pandemic in California. However, on February 26, 2021, MLS announced that Burkle "had decided not to acquire an expansion team in Sacramento," and that the league would continue to work with Sacramento authorities on the future of the expansion plan. As a result, the bid was considered to be on indefinite hiatus, and on March 1 the Republic's logo was removed from the banner at the top of MLSSoccer.com. One year later, the Republic's Cinderella run to the 2022 U.S. Open Cup Final drew national attention, and inspired hopes of reviving the MLS expansion bid through a new investor group.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: No current plans are in place for Louisville, Kentucky to bid for a franchise in the league. Louisville City FC plays in the USL and was in the top 4 for league attendance in the 2019 season. The team has constructed a stadium in downtown Louisville. MLS has had discussions with the ownership of the team in the past, although the team president has no plans to place a bid at this time.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: In June 2020, the Mayor of Louisville's office confirmed that the city has been in contact with the Major League Soccer, in coordination with Louisville City FC, for a possible expansion in the future.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Rochester, New York, had been mentioned as an expansion candidate due to the success of the Rochester Rhinos. The Rhinos won the US Open Cup in 1999 – the only non-MLS team to win the Cup since MLS began play three years earlier – and the Rhinos averaged over 10,000 fans from 1999 to 2005. In 2006, Don Garber stated: "At some point we want to find a way we can have an MLS team in Rochester." However, the Rhinos saw a downturn in attendance and finances, and the city is no longer under consideration by MLS.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Ottawa was a longshot candidate throughout late 2008 and early 2009 for one of two slots for MLS expansion, but the push ended in March 2009 when MLS selected Vancouver and Portland instead. On June 20, 2011, Ottawa was awarded a NASL expansion franchise which began play as Ottawa Fury FC at TD Place Stadium in 2014; Fury FC moved to USL after the 2016 season.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS announced in May 2010 its desire for a second franchise in New York. The New York Cosmos expressed interest in an MLS expansion franchise, but negotiations between MLS and the Cosmos broke down, and the new Cosmos began playing in the North American Soccer League in 2013.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: The league also met with other prospective ownership groups for a New York expansion team. For example, MLS held talks with New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: MLS awarded the second New York franchise to New York City FC in May 2013. Garber confirmed in April 2014 that there would not be a third New York team after the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC.


title: Expansion of Major League Soccer

text: Indianapolis launched an official bid In January 2017 to upgrade their NASL franchise, the Indy Eleven, to an MLS expansion member, but their bid was not chosen.


title: 9 Songs

text: 9 Songs is a 2004 British art romantic drama film written and directed by Michael Winterbottom. The film stars Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley. The title refers to the nine songs played by eight different rock bands that complement the story of the film.


title: 9 Songs

text: The film was controversial upon original release due to its sexual content, which included unsimulated footage of the two leads, Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley, having sexual intercourse and performing oral sex as well as a scene of ejaculation. The film was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival.


title: 9 Songs

text: The film tells the modern love story set over a period of 12 months in London, England, of a young couple: Matt, a British climatologist, and Lisa, an American exchange student. The story is framed in a personal review from Matt's perspective when he is working in Antarctica. Their main common interest is a passion for live music and they frequently attend rock concerts together. The film depicts the couple, or Matt alone, watching the nine songs at Brixton Academy and other concert venues. It also shows their weekend getaway into the countryside, and their travels around London. Lisa brings their short and intense relationship to an end at Christmas time when she returns to the United States. After each concert a highly explicit sex scene is shown.


title: 9 Songs

text: On the first day of filming in the fall of 2003, Margo Stilley and Kieran O'Brien shot a scene where they are just kissing and taking their clothes off. "It wasn't until after lunch that we had sex," O'Brien recalls. As would happen throughout the shoot, Winterbottom left little to chance. "He really mapped out everything," O'Brien says. "The order he wanted me to take off my clothes, her clothes, whether my socks stayed on or not. He had specific ideas of how he wanted our bodies to move. Sometimes, he would start us and then stop and say, 'Let's try this from a slightly different angle,' and then take 15 minutes to reset the shot. I wondered if he remembered the delicate machinery of the male sex organ."


title: 9 Songs

text: Derek Malcolm of "The Guardian" praised the film: ""Nine Songs" looks like a porn movie, but it feels like a love story. The sex is used as a metaphor for the rest of the couple's relationship. And it is shot with Winterbottom's customary sensitivity."


title: 9 Songs

text: "Radio Times" gave a lackluster review, awarding it two stars out of five and claiming: "From the hot, blurry chaos of the gigs to the sparsely furnished flat where the couple unite, this is very much an exercise in style over content. As such, some will find it a rewarding art house experiment with much to recommend it, others watching simply for the explicit and unsimulated lovemaking may well find it boring and pretentious."


title: 9 Songs

text: Writing for "East Bay Express", Luke Y. Thompson claimed: "Michael Winterbottom delivers the sex, and not much else." He continued: "Though there isn't much narrative in effect, Winterbottom does quite literally build to a climax...O'Brien is well endowed, while Stilley is all natural...If the movie were any longer, the onscreen events might become a lot more tedious, but there are just enough different things each time to avoid dull repetition. You may have seen a handjob onscreen, for instance, but have you ever seen a foot job? It's interesting, to say the least."


title: 9 Songs

text: "9 Songs" holds a positive score of 24% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 97 reviews with an average rating of 4.38/10. The site's consensus states: "The unerotic sex scenes quickly become tedious to watch, and the lovers lack the personality necessary to make viewers care about them."


title: 9 Songs

text: According to "The Guardian", "9 Songs" is the most sexually explicit mainstream film to date, largely because it includes several scenes of real sex between the two lead actors. The film is unusual in that it features its lead actors, Margo Stilley and Kieran O'Brien, having unsimulated and very graphic sex, including genital fondling, masturbation with and without a vibrator (including a footjob in a bathtub scene), penetrative vaginal sex, cunnilingus and fellatio. During a scene in which Stilley gives O'Brien a handjob after performing fellatio on him, O'Brien became the only actor who has been shown ejaculating in a mainstream, UK-produced feature. To avoid a possible pregnancy, O'Brien wore a condom on his erect penis during the vaginal sex but not while receiving oral sex. Margo Stilley asked Winterbottom to refer to her simply by her character's name in interviews about the film.


title: 9 Songs

text: The release sparked a debate over whether the scenes of unsimulated sex artistically contributed to the film's meaning or crossed the border into pornography. In the United Kingdom, the film received an 18 certificate from the British Board of Film Classification and became the most explicit mainstream film to be so rated in the country.


title: 9 Songs

text: In Australia, the Office of Film and Literature Classification gave the film an X rating, which would have prevented the film from being shown theatrically and restricted sale of the film to the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. The OFLC Review Board later passed the film with an R rating, although the South Australian Classification Council raised the rating back to X in South Australia.


title: 9 Songs

text: In New Zealand, while the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards lobbied for the film to be kept out of cinemas, it was passed uncut at R18 by the Office of Film and Literature Classification. The film was broadcast on New Zealand pay TV Rialto Channel in July 2007.


title: 9 Songs

text: In June 2008, the film was broadcast on Dutch national television by the public broadcasting station VPRO.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: The Fat Leonard scandal is an ongoing investigation and prosecution of corruption within the United States Navy during the 2000s and 2010s. It has involved ship support contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), a Thai subsidiary of the Glenn Marine Group. "The Washington Post" called the scandal "perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War." The company's chief executive, president, and chairman, Malaysian national Leonard Glenn Francis ("Fat Leonard") bribed a large number of uniformed officers of the United States Seventh Fleet with at least a half million dollars in cash, plus travel expenses, luxury items, carousals and prostitutes, in return for classified material about the movements of U.S. ships and submarines, confidential contracting information, and information about active law enforcement investigations into Glenn Defense Marine Asia. Francis then "exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers, ships and subs to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal." The Navy, through GDMA, even employed divers to search harbors for explosives. He also directed them to author "Bravo Zulu" memos, which is an informal term for a letter of commendation from the Navy given to civilians who have performed outstanding services for the Navy, in order to bolster GDMA's credibility for jobs "well done".


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: The first activities of the conspiracy were confirmed to have existed in 2006 when Francis recruited numerous Navy personnel to engage in corruption, including directing contracts toward his firm, disfavoring competitors, and inhibiting legitimate fiscal and operational oversight. The initial co-conspirators labeled themselves "the cool kids" and "the wolf pack."


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: U.S. federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against 33 individuals in connection with the Fat Leonard scandal. Of those, 22 pleaded guilty: Francis himself, four of his top aides, and 17 Navy officials (specifically, at least ten commissioned officers, two petty officers, one former NCIS special agent, and two civilian Navy contracting officials). Nine others are awaiting trial in U.S. district court in San Diego. Separately, five Navy officers were charged with crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and were subject to court-martial proceedings. An additional civilian pleaded guilty to a scandal-related crime in a Singapore court.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Suffering health problems, Francis was hospitalized and released in March 2018. Rather than returning to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, he was granted a medical furlough and at first allowed to stay in San Diego at a private residence owned by one of his physicians, under 24-hour surveillance for which his family paid. At a deposition taken in 2018 in the David A. Morales case, Francis said he was being treated for kidney cancer.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: On September 4, 2022, Francis escaped home confinement by cutting off his ankle monitor and disappeared. He was apprehended in Venezuela seventeen days later, preparing to board a flight to Russia.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: In 2006, Dave Schaus, a Naval officer, became suspicious of GDMA contracts, but Francis was alerted by an informant, Paul Simpkins, to the scrutiny. Simpkins, a decorated veteran of the U.S. Air Force employed as a civilian contracting officer by the Navy in Singapore, managed to quash any inquiry and had Schaus' position eliminated. "What else could I have done to expose this racket?," Schaus asked. Exposed as a whistleblower, he said officers, "made my life hell" after discovering he had attempted to initiate an investigation of GDMA.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: In 2007, the Navy's Inspector General forwarded a document claiming GDMA was grossly overcharging the Navy for providing port security but the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) may have failed to follow up on the warning. According to a senior Navy officer, "Everybody knew that [Glenn Defense] had been under investigation." "Everybody also knew that nothing ever happened with those investigations." After that, the Manila NCIS office got an anonymous letter and documents, alleging GDMA had overcharged for fees, armed guards and other services during a Subic Bay, Philippines port visit by the Fred Stockham container support ship. "I hope you share the same concern when reading these documents and take swift action to stamp out this fraud, waste and abuse," the letter said.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Manila's NCIS agents forwarded the paperwork to the Navy's Singapore contracting office, but it had been infiltrated by GDMA's moles, and they claimed the allegations were false, closing the case. Mike Lang, a contracting officer who worked there from 2006 to 2008, said, "They'd always side with Glenn Defense and paint us as troublemakers. They'd say, 'Why are you harassing our contractors? You're making my job hard'."


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Two officials from that office, Simpkins and his subordinate, Sharon Gursharan Kaur who was also a civilian Navy contracting officer, as well as a former GDMA employee, were sentenced to six years and 33 months, respectively, with Kaur doing her time in Singapore. NCIS reportedly opened and closed as many as 27 investigations without taking action against GDMA. NCIS failed to provide an explanation for its lack of action in a significant fraud investigation.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Documents obtained by "The Washington Post" via Freedom of Information Act Requests (FOIAs) revealed that after al-Qaeda committed the October 2000 suicide attack on the USS "Cole" and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Navy's Economic Crimes unit was reduced from a staff of 140 to only nine persons, most having been reassigned to focus on terrorism. At least 27 separate investigations had been opened, but later closed without action, thanks to the intervention of senior Navy personnel who were in league with Francis.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: The lack of enthusiasm for oversight might have been motivated in part by GDMA's demonstrable ability to deliver the sometimes complex level of services the Navy sought. In 2016, Commander Mike Misiewicz, an officer who was later convicted, told Defense News, "He was a crook, but he was our crook." John Hogan, the NCIS executive assistant director for criminal operations, admitted, "In hindsight, maybe we could have dug a little deeper than we did."


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Ray Mabus, who was appointed Navy Secretary by President Barack Obama in 2009, admitted his branch was vulnerable to contracting fraud and should have performed better oversight: "I'm not going to defend at all opening and closing 27 cases. Something should have raised a red flag along there somewhere...There were people inside the Navy who were trying to shut this down, who were coming up with reasons not to pursue it." In 2010, a civilian Navy attorney drafted restrictive ethics guidelines for the 7th Fleet. Two admirals friendly to Francis were said to be responsible for seeing that they were delayed and diluted over the next years, before being implemented.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: In 2010, Navy officials became suspicious that some of the bills submitted by GDMA from Thailand were padded. The escalating costs prompted the Navy to build a logistics team to keep contracts somewhat in check, but it was frustrated because Francis had a spy, Jose Luis Sanchez, feeding the team's information back to Francis. Sanchez later pleaded guilty to conspiracy and in 2022, awaits sentencing. Despite the increasing awareness that the Navy was being subjected to massive fraud, GDMA was able to contract to deliver $200 million in services in 2011 alone.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: After a three-year investigation and having planted false information that their inquiries had been closed, putting Francis off his guard, federal agents lured him to the United States. In September 2013, he was arrested at a San Diego hotel in a sting operation. He pleaded guilty in January 2015 and was awaiting sentencing. Due to medical problems, had been allowed to live under home detention beginning at least 2018 in San Diego. Due to be sentenced on September 22, 2022, he became a fugitive on September 5, after cutting off his ankle monitor.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Francis had admitted to using his U.S. Navy contacts, including ship captains, to obtain classified information and to defraud the Navy of tens of millions of dollars by having ships directed to specific ports which he serviced in the Pacific and falsifying service charges. In his plea, Francis identified seven Navy officials who accepted bribes. He faced a maximum prison sentence of 25 years and agreed to forfeit $35 million in personal assets, an amount he admitted to overcharging the Navy.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Since 2013, 31 people have been criminally charged in connection with the Fat Leonard bribery and corruption scandal. According to investigators, by November 2017, more than 440 people — including 60 admirals — have come under scrutiny under the inquiry. The Navy held a military trial for a still-serving commander, David A. Morales, the first not left to civilian prosecution. He was charged with bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, false official statements, failure to obey lawful orders, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was acquitted of the first three charges in a bench trial, only found guilty of failure to obey lawful orders and conduct unbecoming. As of September 2018, 30 people had pleaded guilty; 12 others had been charged (including eight Navy officers who were indicted in March 2017); four admirals were disciplined by the military; two others, four-star admiral Robert Willard and three-star Joe Donnelly, were known to be under investigation; and more than 150 other unidentified people have been scrutinized.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: A March 2017 indictment made reference to "AG", a former officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), who had been employed for several years as a liaison officer aboard . On May 3, 2018, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation identified "AG" as Lieutenant Commander Alex Gillett, reporting that he had resigned from the Navy after being questioned by the Australian Federal Police. A second unidentified Australian of similar rank was also reported to be under investigation. A memo of understanding between the U.S. Navy and the RAN allows for the possible extradition of Australian personnel to the United States for the purposes of prosecution.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Among the nineteen people who have pleaded guilty to federal crimes, one was Francis himself, two others were his top deputies; and sixteen others were Navy personnel. The highest-ranking was Rear Admiral Robert Gilbeau, who was convicted in June 2016 after pleading guilty to making false statements to investigators about his contacts with Francis, becoming the first Navy admiral in modern American history to be convicted of a felony while on active duty. On May 17, 2017, U.S. District Judge Janis Lynn Sammartino sentenced Gilbeau to 18 months in prison, although he was allowed to continue collecting his nearly $10,000 monthly pension.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: He was being held in FCI Englewood, a low security federal prison in Littleton, Colorado, and was released on November 1, 2018.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Corporate governance expert Mak Yuen Teen of the National University of Singapore noted that procurement in the defense industry is particularly vulnerable to bribery and corruption. "It is usually not that transparent," with infrequent bidding for large contracts. Blowing the whistle on superior officers might also be discouraged, he indicated. "Those at the top probably thought they could get away with it as their underlings were unlikely to squeal on them."


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: According to its spokesman Captain Amy Derrick, the U.S. Navy canceled all contracts with GDMA as the result of a 2013 audit.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: In the case of former Naval Intelligence chief, Vice Admiral Ted N. Branch, both the Navy and the Department of Justice declined to prosecute after a three-year investigation.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: On June 29, 2022, after a 16-week trial, a jury found former Captains David Newland, James Dolan and David Lausman and former Commander Mario Herrera guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery, accepting bribes, and wire fraud in connection with their acceptance of bribes from Francis' company in exchange for information regarding the Navy's Seventh Fleet. Lausman was further convicted of obstruction of justice involving the destruction of a computer's hard drive containing materials from his time as commanding officer of the USS "George Washington", an aircraft carrier. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on charges against former Rear Admiral Bruce Loveless, and charges against him were dropped in September 2022. On July 13, 2022, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino ruled that the lead federal prosecutor in the bribery and fraud trial of the five ex-Navy officers committed "flagrant misconduct" by withholding certain potentially exculpatory materials from defense lawyers (specifically, a statement by a prostitute involved with ). The judge concluded that prosecutors had violated the "Brady" rule rule, but not to the degree that caused her to dismiss the prosecution's case.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: On September 4, 2022, Francis removed his ankle bracelet and fled his rented San Diego home. Francis had been living in the home with his mother and three children. Judge Sammartino had ordered 24-hour surveillance at Francis' expense but had expressed concerns in the past when a security guard had been absent from their post for hours. After he fled, his guards said they had been confined while on duty to a garage at his home.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: In a closed-door hearing in 2018, the judge expressed concern that if Francis were to escape and ended up "back in Malaysia for whatever reason," it would be asked, "who let somebody do this without any security?" Neighbors reported that cars displaying out-of-state licenses were parked outside the home four days before the escape, and a U-Haul truck was there two days before Francis disappeared. It was believed he cut off his ankle monitor between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. on September 4, and notice was only taken when a call was received by the San Diego police at 2:00 p.m. that day. When federal agents arrived, no security personnel were found to be present. Francis had been due in federal court on September 22, 2022, for sentencing. In November 2020, a bariatric surgeon who had been treating Francis for obesity wrote an unsolicited letter to the judge to inform her that the improvement in his condition gave him a clean bill of health. Francis had been scheduled to testify in the upcoming trials of five Naval officers and four others were scheduled to be sentenced in October 2022.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Francis was recaptured on September 22, 2022, seventeen days after his escape. He was arrested at Simón Bolívar International Airport outside Caracas, Venezuela, pursuant to an Interpol "red notice" as he was about to board a plane to Russia. He had flown from Mexico to Cuba, then on to Caracas. His children were not with him. The director-general of Interpol Venezuela disclosed the arrest, and said that Francis was handed to Venezuelan authorities for possible extradition proceedings. Although the U.S. and Venezuela have a limited extradition treaty, tense U.S.-Venezuelan relations may complicate extradition.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: In mid-October 2022, Venezuela's highest court set a two-month deadline for the U.S. to file an extradition request to retrieve Francis.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: Per Department of Justice policy, it refuses to comment on extradition requests until persons sought have returned to the U.S.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: The scope of the GDMA investigation inadvertently hindered the Navy's ability to fill senior leadership roles, unintentionally delayed hundreds of officers’ careers and depleted the Navy's admiralty. Hundreds of those who had not been compromised needed investigation and clearance. That stalled promotions for years according to Ray Mabus, the then-Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). "If Leonard Francis mentioned somebody's name, or it seemed to us that if somebody had served in a senior position in the Pacific during this time, which covered a lot of folks, they were caught up in this until their name could be pulled out." "It took in a huge percentage of flag officers, and it really hamstrung the Navy in terms of promotions, in terms of positions," with his opinion widely shared. The Department of Justice, however, had forwarded to the USN almost 450 names that they declined to prosecute. The Navy elected to take only a handful to courts-martial, issuing at least twelve letters of censure from Mabus and his successor, Richard V. Spencer, with some forty other administrative actions. In early 2018, there were roughly 170 names still pending before the Consolidated Disposition Authority (CDA). "It's really been pretty devastating to the upper ranks of the Navy," said Mabus. "There were bad people here. You gotta catch them. You got to make sure they're punished. But there were a lot of people that didn't do anything that got caught up in this."


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: A retired Admiral said. "At least with Tailhook, people knew that if they went to Tailhook they were being looked at. Right now, as far as anyone knows, if you ever went west of Hawaii, you're being looked at." Another senior U.S. Pacific Command staffer informed a room of Australians, regarding the ongoing case, "China could never have dreamt up a way to do this much damage to the U.S. Navy's Pacific leadership."


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: GDMA's influence paralleled the Pacific Fleet's intentions to locate vessels into ports unfamiliar with its standards for services, that had been complicated by the al Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors. GDMA was able to provide services to meet more difficult standards than competitors could, 7th Fleet officers claimed. Francis had made himself indispensable.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: In February 2018, Admiral Bill Moran, the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, announced the implementation of increased oversight and other measures and policies to deter a repeat of the widespread corruption in the "Fat Leonard" case. Glenn Fine, the principal deputy in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Defense, said the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the DOD's OIG, said GDMA, Francis’ contract firm, created a scheme to defraud the Navy of tens of millions of dollars via overbilling for supplying goods and services. The Navy created a Consolidated Disposition Authority (CDA) which was tasked with determining whether hundreds of Navy officers should be charged under the UCMJ, or alternatively, to be subjected to administrative actions. Fine said the CDA has already adjudicated 300-plus cases.


title: Fat Leonard scandal

text: The private sector used feedback surveys to assess personnel performance, a method the Army adopted in 2001. The Army's initiative helped identify serious ethics problems amongst leaders. Besides “command climate” surveys, "360" evaluations identified causes for discipline or oversight among its upper ranks. The Navy has not extended such feedback to gather information from lower-ranking personnel, however.