![]() ![]() Of course, sources in Sacramento contend to The Athletic that those costs wouldn’t have risen so high if Burkle, who has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion (according to Forbes), hadn’t dragged his feet on nearly every initiative pertaining to the would-be MLS club.īurkle entered MLS with a pretty sterling reputation. Add that to the expansion fee, and any potential buyer will be looking at a price tag somewhere between $600 and $700 million, not including building out the first team roster and building a training facility, just to get a team up and running in Sacramento. The proposed facility would have cost slightly less than $400 million had construction began in recent months, compared to $252 million estimated in a term sheet from April 2019, a few months after Burkle began engaging with the Sacramento ownership group. Sources also confirmed rising costs of stadium construction played a role. In its statement announcing the news, the league cited the financial ramifications of the pandemic as one reason for Burkle pulling out. Burkle never paid any of his expansion fee to the league. Burkle agreed in 2019 to pay a $200 million expansion fee to join the league, but that fee has since gone up - Charlotte paid between $300 and $325 million for its bid later that year - and it’s not yet known if MLS will charge a higher fee to any new owner in Sacramento. Getting Sacramento back into MLS won’t be cheap, however. I know the mayor has taken a lot of calls, we’ve taken a lot of calls and continue to sort of expand that search because there is interest.” ![]() The bulk of the hard work has been done, everything is in place and we know that we can move quickly when we have an investor in place, so those conversations have been very productive. “We do have an urgency in these conversations because we are ready to go,” he said. He added that Republic is trying to move with urgency the club is betting that the quicker it can find a new controlling owner, the better the odds it will again be granted a berth in MLS. He was elevated to president last week after former president and COO Ben Gumpert stepped down from his role with the club in the wake of the Burkle news.ĭunivant said that the organization has continued the conversations with potential investors that were first mentioned by Steinberg and Nagle last week. MLS, to their credit, continues to say that our market is a great market and we’re going to add to and make MLS better when we join.”Ī five-time MLS Cup champion during his playing career, Dunivant joined Sacramento in 2018 as general manager. “We have everything in place and any questions about our market have been answered - our market has passed the test over and over. “We’re looking forward and we’re full steam ahead,” Republic president and GM Todd Dunivant told The Athletic on Wednesday. Kevin Nagle, who owns Republic FC in USL and had a minority stake in Burkle’s group, told the newspaper that he has also “been receiving serious inquiries” since the Burkle news broke. The city has helped along the stadium process and Mayor Darrell Steinberg told The Sacramento Bee after Burkle’s exit that his “phone is ringing off the hook” with “significant interest” from potential investors in the MLS team. The MLS plan also has extensive political support. And remember, just because your city isn’t listed below doesn’t mean it won’t one day get an MLS expansion team - it’s reasonable to think that another dark horse may emerge at some point in the next few years. ![]() Let’s take a look, starting with Sacramento and proceeding alphabetically through a few other candidates. Which cities might make a run at the (at least) three remaining MLS expansion slots? What ownership groups could emerge in certain markets? Which city might be next? Charlotte wasn’t on the top of anyone’s mind when the last round of expansion began, but the city ended up skipping the line because of owner David Tepper’s aggressive pitch and willingness to pay an expansion fee upwards of $300 million. There’s also the potential for surprises. Despite the Burkle fiasco, Sacramento remains an intriguing option as well. ![]() Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego and Detroit remain interesting options for a league that is looking to expand its footprint while attracting local support and billionaire investors. The current candidate cities won’t be a surprise to those who have followed Major League Soccer’s expansion over the last decade. ![]()
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