Sacramento still pushing forward despite Minnesota announcement
Monday's news of Minnesota United's advance discussions with MLS about becoming the next expansion team hit hard in the California capital Sacramento. The USL champions were pushing hard for an expansion slot in MLS as well and will now basically have to go back to the drawing board a bit to find out how to be more attractive than a potential Miami bid with David Beckham.
The Sacramento Business Journal reported on Tuesday that the city is still pushing forward on a plan to help build a stadium in downtown Sacramento.
Mayor Kevin Johnson announced an initiative called "Operation Turnkey" to make sure all entitlements, financing and pre-planning for a stadium in the railyard can be finished in the next couple years. That would mean being able to break ground almost instantly when — not if, he emphasized — the league awards Sacramento an expansion franchise.
"We'll be looking at all opportunities to make progress," Johnson said at a Sacramento City Hall news conference. "Simply put, we're going to deliver like we always do in Sacramento."
The report also suggested that Sacramento is downplaying how things are in Miami and how it is benefitting them right now. It actually calls out Miami as the 24th expansion city in MLS, which isn't 100% true just yet. The league never officially awarded them such a thing.
Like I've been saying for a couple weeks, my gut tells me MLS still figures out a way to get Sacramento into the league here by 2020. The little movement in Miami is definitely going to help out but also the geography of it all may help too. Minnesota coming into the league in say 2018 or 2019 will likely have a counterpart, which will most likely be in an opposing conference. So if it is Miami, they'll end up in the West but with Sacramento, they'll go to the East.
MLS releases statement on Minnesota expansion
MLS set to announce Minnesota bid this week