Sacramento Appears To Finally Win MLS Franchise
Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Ben van der Meer
Photo: A rendering of Sacramento Republic FC’s planned Major League Soccer stadium in the Railyards development. (HNTB)
After working toward the goal for more than five years, Sacramento appears to have finally garnered a Major League Soccer expansion franchise.
A source familiar with the MLS expansion process said league officials would have a downtown Sacramento press conference Monday to announce the city would receive the league’s 29th team.
A Wednesday morning news release from Sacramento Republic FC said a “major soccer announcement” will be made at 11:30 a.m. Monday at The Bank in downtown Sacramento.
In an official statement on Tuesday, Sacramento Republic FC, the lower-level soccer club that would become an MLS team, would only note increased excitement among local MLS boosters.
“We will continue to respect the MLS expansion process and remain confident about the future of our club and our city,” the statement read. “We look forward to sharing more information in the days ahead.”
MLS, as is typical in other expansion announcements, had not issued any official statement Tuesday. The league typically does announce beforehand plans to make a major announcement in a city that receives an expansion team.
If MLS grants Sacramento a team, it would begin league play in 2022 in a new stadium planned on Seventh Street in Sacramento’s Railyards development. Construction of the stadium briefly started and then stopped a few years ago when Sacramento boosters previously believed an announcement was imminent. Work on the stadium would presumably resume at full force soon.
Since Republic FC began play in 2014, joining Major League Soccer went from hope to real possibility as the team had both sellout crowds and a United Soccer League championship in its first year.
Though the team officially applied to join MLS in a 2017 expansion round, concerns from league officials about the financial backing of Republic ownership led to bids from Nashville, Tennessee, and Cincinnati garnering expansion teams instead that year.
More recently, the league also tabbed Austin, Texas, and St. Louis for expansion teams, bringing the league to 28.
But the addition earlier this year of grocery store magnate Ron Burkle and partner Matt Alvarez to Republic ownership seemed to check the last box for the league.
This summer, as MLS made the St. Louis selection official, local expansion boosters said they were confident Sacramento was still in line for a team. League officials maintained Sacramento was still viable in recent months, with word sent quietly in recent weeks that an announcement was likely before the end of the MLS season in November.
The pending announcement Monday would keep in that timeline.