We’ve spent alot of time on this site discussing MLS expansion and why Portland and St Louis are more natural fits for MLS (not soccer/football specifically but MLS which is after all an inferior product to European football). However in uncertain economic times where Jeff Cooper’s group isn’t assured of getting a stadium built in St Louis, Portland needs a major overhaul of PGE Park and bids in Vancouver and Atlanta also are probably going to be affected by the financial situation, Miami stands alone as a sure bet to get off the ground.

With a stadium already built and being used at Florida International University in addition to the financial backing of both Barcelona and Marcelo Claure makes Miami a clear leader in the expansion race. I have previously stated my preference for a new Miami team to play at the home of the NASL Fort Lauderdale Strikers or MLS Miami Fusion: Lockhart Stadium. I do believe the FIU location combined with the use of field turf is a significant drawback for the new club.

The core of American Soccer supporting audience in south Florida (note I did not say European/Latin Football supporting audience) is skewed towards the northern part of the metropolitan area: Palm Beach and Broward Counties. Youth Soccer tends to be strongest in Wellington, Boca Raton and Coral Springs rather than in Miami-Dade County. This can be clearly evidenced by the current professionals such as Jozy Altidore, Cory Gibbs, and Tyrone Marshall among others who have played youth soccer in Palm Beach or Broward counties. Miami-Dade County tends to be more supportive of international football than domestic football: that’s why the Miami Torros/Gatos flopped and moved to Fort Lauderdale where they were successful for a number of years. That’s why Miami’s clubs in the old APSL and ASL failed much more quickly than the teams in Fort Lauderdale.

But with Barca Miami having committed to playing in Miami-Dade County, concerns about the bid must be articulated. At the same time, in these economic times no other bid adds up to Miami’s. While other cities will be in my opinion preferable markets for MLS, the league’s race to expand despite the financial crisis probably means Miami should be and very well may be a lock for a new team. Now the challenge will be to make sure the new team is more successful initially than were the Fusion and can somehow pick up where the Fusion left off in its last glorious season in MLS.

The Miami Fusion was contracted after the 2001 MLS season. Since that time south Florida football fans, myself included have been eager to see the league return to the area. In October, FC Barcelona in partnership with local businessman Marcelo Claure announced their intention to bring the MLS back to South Florida. Claure is the founder of Brightstar and the owner of FC Bolivar in Bolivia. As of this writing Miami is the clear front runner to be awarded one of the two new expansion franchises by the league. Also in the running are St Louis, Portland, Vancouver, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Ottawa.

The regions football fans are very sophisticated and numerous. That is part of the reason MLS failed before and could fail again. South Florida is the area in the nation with the most football fans outside of New York and Los Angeles. The television ratings and local media coverage of the sport are impressive by any standard. Yet none of this translated into success for the Miami Fusion from 1998 to 2000. MLS was seen by the ethnic fans of all persuasions in the region as an inferior and overly Americanized product. In 2001, the Fusion began to turn things around and had a huge upsurge in fan support and attendance.

Football should not struggle the way other sports do in south Florida if done right. But “doing it right” is not necessarily in the hands of Barcelona or Claure. If MLS treats the Miami market the way it has previously of in a typical American sporting way, the results could once again be disastrous. The whole landscape of MLS and Miami is littered with pitfalls that cannot simply be ignored.

The new club would play at Florida International University (FIU), about 35 miles southwest of Lockhart Stadium, where the Miami Fusion played. This location could make it difficult for fans of the previous Fusion franchise to attend matches. In addition, FIU is substantially west of Downtown Miami and south of the metropolitan area’s population center. Being pinned down at FIU also means for the foreseeable future the new team will not have a full football academy/practice facility which is now becoming the norm in MLS. The Home Depot Center began a trend of MLS clubs not only building soccer specific stadiums, but also youth academies, training pitches, and other facilities.

South Florida is an infamously fickle sporting culture. While the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and the University of Miami’s American football team enjoy consistent local support in the form of TV ratings, merchandise sales but necessarily attendance, the other sports teams both college and professional in the area do not. Not only do the Florida Marlins, Miami Heat and Florida Panthers struggle to maintain consistent fan interest but they often play in front of half empty crowds. The University of Miami’s local popularity in American football does not extend to Basketball or Baseball where even in successful seasons; small facilities for those sports are half full. Florida International University the proposed home of the new MLS team, and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) who plays at Lockhart Stadium, the former home of the Fusion usually are fortunate to draw a decent crowd for American football. FAU has received post season bowl bids two consecutive seasons, yet continues to not only play in front of a half empty stadium, but they struggle for more than a mere mention in the local newspapers.

When the Fusion finally turned the corner in 2001, the majority of the new fans were from Palm Beach and Broward counties, areas that are far less accessible to FIU than Lockhart Stadium. So in other words, the new club would have to start over in building a fan base, with little residual affect from the Fusion days. The rebuilding of the MLS brand locally can only be accomplished if the product is considered presentable to the football loving masses. South Floridians understand football in a way most Americans do not. While this may sound positive, it is a big part of the reason MLS failed here previously. Unlike other American cities that struggle with football/soccer, because of competition from other sports and lack of understanding of the game, Miami struggled with MLS because the product was inferior to what the vast majority of ethnic fans deemed acceptable.

Most pundits agree that Miami is odds-on favorites to get a Major League Soccer team in 2010 or 2011. After all, with a name like Barcelona tied to the club, how could MLS refuse?

While the vast majority of articles about the expansion bid have been positive, I wanted to get a few things off my chest so the news is more balanced than what’s been printed in the media thus far.

Let me first say that I was a Miami Fusion season ticket holder, a member of the Afusionados supporters group and covered the Fusion as a member of the media. Plus, I proposed to my wife on the Fusion pitch at Lockhart Stadium during half-time of a MLS match, so you could say I have a deep emotional bond with the now departed Miami Fusion operation.

For the past several months I’ve been following the behind-the-scenes negotations regarding the Fusion, but never thought it would actually come to this whereby Miami is literally one step away from seeing a MLS team return to South Florida once again.

At this point, I’m extremely excited about the prospect of Miami being awarded a MLS team, but here are my reservations:

1. The field at Florida International University Stadium is field turf, not grass.
2. The Florida International University Stadium is home to a college football team, not a MLS team — which means that there will be fixture congestion and the Barca Miami team will always have second choice.
3. The stadium is in western Miami, which is an inconvenient location for many including (1) people who can’t afford to drive on the Florida Turnpike toll road, and (2) those driving from the east and north east such as residents of West Palm Beach, which is 80 minutes away from FIU.

If Barcelona wasn’t involved in this deal, then there would be a lot more naysayers regarding Miami’s chance of seeing a MLS team come to South Florida again.

The ideal location for Barca Miami would be downtown Miami on the site of the former Orange Bowl where the City of Miami was looking for investors to put in $50 million to help build the stadium next door to the future home of the Florida Marlins baseball team. But when Florida International University is offering its stadium rent-free to a MLS team, how could Barcelona and Marcelo Claure not take them up on the offer?

In life, nothing is perfect. Such is the state of the Barca Miami bid, but if it means the opportunity of professional soccer returning to South Florida, then I’m all in favor of it and will support the team. The question is whether the rest of the soccer fans in the area will do the same.