In 2019, Don Garber and MLS announced they would expand to 30 teams. A year later, Don Garber said the cities of Las Vegas, Indianapolis, San Diego, Detroit, and Phoenix were clubs interested in joining MLS. Four of those cities had a USL or NISA club at the time of the announcement. Today, one of those USL teams has ceased to exist, another may be in jeopardy now, and the NISA club is now a USL club.
On April 25th, 2024, the Mayor of Indianapolis, Joe Hogsett, announced an unnamed ownership group would put in a bid for an MLS club. Along with the announcement, the owners of Indy XI (the USL Championship team in Indianapolis), Keystone Group, announced the City had backed out of the $1 billion fund for Eleven Park. The stadium was announced in 2022 and was planned to be a 20,000-seat stadium. It would also include additional apartments, office buildings, and other amenities. Last year, the stadium broke ground. That means that the mayor and city council agreed to stop the funding of a sports facility in mid-construction that would also add additional jobs to the people of Indianapolis and stop their backing of an existing club for a potential club. If the city does not get the bid, it could have repercussions for elected officials. When you look at social media, the people of Indianapolis are not happy about the announcement.
This is not the first time a team in the USL was in danger by the expansion by the MLS. San Diego Loyal played their final season in 2023 after the announcement by the MLS that they would expand to San Diego with the club San Diego FC. SD Loyal made the announcement just three months after San Diego FC was announced. The reason was due to not being able to find a stadium solution. As for San Diego FC, they will play their matches at the Snapdragon Stadium, which the Loyal could have used to play their matches. Instead of looking for a solution to integrate San Deigo Loyal, MLS had their club created which led to the destruction of a club in a rival league.
Miami had a soccer club before Inter Miami, Miami FC. Miami is a different story than San Diego. Unlike the Loyal, Miami FC attracts a very small audience. They averaged only 190 people a game a year before the arrival of Inter Miami, per Transfermarkt. It has gone up since Inter Miami's inaugural season. Last season, the average attendance was 1,432 and this season it is 826 so far. The problem falls on the people of Miami though. Inter Miami increased their attendance by 35% to 17,061 last year from the prior season. It still begs the question of how much longer Miami FC will last when they are competing against a club with Leonel Messi for attendance.
Las Vegas Lights is another USL Championship club but are in a city being looked at by MLS also for expansion. Even worse, the current owner, José Bautista, is not part of the organization and is in talks with Don Garber to join the MLS, who would be the owners of Aston Villa. Phoenix is a different story. The USL team, Phoenix Rising, talked to MLS to join the league, which is a more positive solution. Tampa Bay Rowdies did the same thing when they were pursuing an MLS bid.
MLS does speak to the current existing clubs in the city. They did it with Louisville City, San Diego Loyal, Sacramento Republic, and others, but when that failed, they move in with their own clubs, i.e., San Diego FC and now potentially Indy MLS club. What MLS is doing is not helping the growth of the sport. They are aiming to monopolize the sport by destroying their competition, USL. This would not be a problem if USSF would create an open system or step in to put it to a stop. If MLS is the sole soccer league in the US with only 30-40 cities with a team, then you would isolate the hundreds of cities that have fans and players without a club to help accomplish their dream. Even in other sports leagues in the US we do not see a campaign like this. NFL did not actively work to end the XFL and the other football leagues. The NHL and the MLB have minor leagues all over the country. I do not prefer having minor leagues in soccer here in the US. It would be preferable that the MLS and USL work together to expand the sport and/or USSF implement policies that protect smaller leagues from bigger leagues.