Ottawa to announce MLS expansion bid

With the tremendous success of Toronto FC on the other side of the province as a case study, Ontario's capital city of Ottawa is looking to get into Major League Soccer and has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning to announce an expansion bid and plans on building a world-class soccer stadium.

Eugene Melnyk, owner of Senators Sports & Entertainment, is the driving force behind the possible deal and could be the fifth National Hockey League-based investor-operator of an MLS team and second in Canada, joining Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, the NBA Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC. Colorado Rapids operator Stanley Kroenke owns the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets of the NBA among other teams, while AEG, investor-operator of the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo, own the Los Angeles Kings, and Dave Checketts and Sports Capital Partners, operator of Real Salt Lake, own the St. Louis Blues.

Ottawa is the latest Canadian city interested in possibly adding a Major League Soccer team. Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash joined Vancouver Whitecaps ownership in a bid to land an MLS expansion team in his hometown of Vancouver and Montreal, which is already home to a brand new 14,000-seat soccer stadium (Stade Saputo) is also in contention for an MLS expansion team.

Major League Soccer will expand to 15 teams next year with the addition of the Seattle Sounders and will then add a team in Philadelphia in 2010. Other possible expansion destinations include a second team in New York, St. Louis, Miami, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland.

According to published reports, the New York Mets are looking to be the ownership group of a second New York club. David Howard, the executive vice president for business said the Mets are hoping to get into MLS expansion following the completion of construction for their new $600 million home, Citi Field.

"Our vision is not to be just a successful baseball team, but to be a world-class sports and media entertainment company," Howard told Bloomberg Radio's "On the Ball" program, which will air Saturday. "We're a lot closer to that goal than we were five years ago."