San Antonio Back In Expansion Race?

As one of Texas’ Major League Soccer teams struggles to remain viable in the face of poor results on the field and even worse ones in the stands, another city in the Lone Star State could be stepping back into the debate on future MLS expansion. San Antonio, the city that flirted with landing a team of their own back in 2005, could again be throwing their name back into the ring, depending on the outcome of the upcoming mayoral election.

A brief history lesson: In early 2005, MLS reached an agreement with then-Mayor Ed Garza to place a team in the San Antonio market, providing certain criteria could be met in a short time. This included (1) finding an ownership group, (2) selling 5,000 season tickets in four months, and (3) finalizing plans for the construction of a soccer-specific stadium. The new franchise was set to play in the 65,000-seat Alamodome while the new facility was being built. City Council voted in favor of the plans by a 9-2 margin, saying that a permanent tenant for the Alamodome would help reduce the financial burden of the stadium on the city.

A few months later the term-limited Garza was replaced by Phil Hardberger, who immediately put an end to the negotiations between the city and MLS, saying that the proposed deal didn’t make financial sense. When asked about the issue at a press conference shortly after taking office, Hardberger told reporters, “Goodbye. That’s what I would tell MLS.” From then on, he would focus his efforts on bringing the city an NFL team, brought on by the New Orleans Saints’ temporary relocation to his city following Hurricane Katrina.

Commissioner Don Garber immediately pulled the plug on the San Antonio market, saying that local officials were not bargaining in good faith. “This has been changed at the 12th hour due to politics, and it is appalling,” he told the San Antonio Express-News at the time. Toronto would be awarded a team later that year. Since then, the city has not been mentioned in any of the expansion talks, but that could be changing when a new mayor gets elected on May 9th, if statements made by the candidates are anything more than just empty campaign promises.

The four leading mayoral candidates were recently asked about the potential of bringing Major League Soccer into their city in an Express-News article. Here is each candidate’s stance on the idea.

Julian Castro: “I believe there is a market here for professional soccer, but I would have to look at the terms of any agreement and the public investment that would be required. The first thing we need to do is to continue to build soccer fields and baseball fields for San Antonians to recreate. I hear that over and over – a shortage of available playing space.”

Diane Cibrian: “I would certainly partner with County Judge Nelson Wolff to renegotiate with MLS. But I also think it’s important to add amateur soccer fields. Our community is deficient in the number of soccer fields we have. We have done a better job with the visitor tax to fund soccer fields. Soccer is a great revenue source for the community. It brings in a lot of visitors. Far too many children I know have to leave town to play soccer. San Antonio has a great soccer fan base. MLS for the future should definitely be considered, but I believe we need more fields for youth soccer.”

Trish DeBerry-Mejia: “The problem I think we had with pursuing of MLS before is that we had no groundswell of support from an education standpoint, a grassroots standpoint. We have a very active soccer community here. I see it when my son goes to play soccer. It is very, very popular. But I think there is a lot of awareness, a lot of outreach that needs to be associated with it. I think we need community input before we look at something like that. And I think what is also important is that we are so short when it comes to youth athletic fields. Thanks to the extension of the tourist tax, we will have club tournaments here, which is only going to enhance tourism. I think we have to get that done (adding more youth fields) first before we look at the recruitment of a Major League Soccer franchise. I’m not opposed to trying to get an MLS team. We just went about the recruitment the wrong way last time.”

Sheila McNeil: “We are definitely looking for good tenants for the Alamodome. That would be a tremendous thing to have. But that decision should really come from the residents of San Antonio. I’m open to whatever is going to help us strengthen our economy and bring revenue to the city, but I would definitely have to listen to the voice of the people, and the same goes with a National Football League team.”

San Antonio has several things going for it that could make it a good fit for an expansion franchise, in my opinion. The estimated 2007 population is 1,328,984, making it the seventh-largest city in America, just behind Philadelphia, a city who was granted an expansion team for the 2010 season. The breakdown by race is 61% Hispanic or Latino and 29.3% white. There is only one other major sports franchise in town - the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs – and a potential expansion franchise would have instant geographic rivals in the Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas, making the reasons for putting a team in San Antonio sound a lot like the reasons for putting a team in Portland, OR, a city less than half its size. Of course, there isn’t a built-in fanbase or a strong ownership group in place in San Antonio just yet, but following the election, who knows what might happen?