MLS in Toronto

[Georgios10]

MLS gives Toronto end-of-month deadline

By Brian Trusdell

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (Oct. 11, 2005) AP _ Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber on Tuesday set an end-of-the month deadline for Toronto officials to agree on a stadium site and other financial issues or miss its chance to be granted an expansion team in the U.S. league for 2007.

Garber's declaration was seen by many as a way to spur to Toronto's city council, which has an Oct. 26 vote scheduled to approve 9.5 million Canadian dollars (US$8.07 million) in funding for a 62-million-Canadian-dollar (US$52.7 million), 20,000-capacity stadium at city-owned Exhibition Place.

MLS has been negotiating for about a year with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), owner of both the city's National Hockey League team and National Basketball Association Raptors, but has seen two stadium proposals fall apart.

"It's dead,' Garber said, if the latest proposal isn't approved by the end of the month.

MLS' board of governors, representatives of the league's 12 teams, will vote on Nov. 12 to admit as many as two new teams to start the 2007 season. The vote, which will be taken a day before MLS Cup in Dallas, also will consider Houston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Milwaukee and St. Louis for expansion teams, Garber said.

MLSE, which Garber said would pay an entry fee ``slightly higher' than the $10 million in the last round of expansion, has agreed to help fund the Toronto stadium, along with the federal and provincial governments.

Garber said at the beginning of the season that Toronto was all but assured of getting a team in the next round of expansion, and appeared to reiterate that pledge, assuming the local, provincial and federal agreements all reach an agreement with MLSE over a stadium, which also would be used for the 2007 World Youth Championship.

``We are close to finalizing a deal for '07. We've given MLSE an exclusive window through the end of the month, Oct. 31 to negotiate a deal for an expansion team,' Garber said.

Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake began play this season in MLS, the first new teams since the Chicago Fire and Miami Fusion were added in 1998. The Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny were folded before the 2002 season.