MLS bid: M)akes L)ittle S)ense

I’m thinking $80,000 is a lot of green, that there are much better ways Las Vegas could spend such a sum, that this continuous pursuit of a Major League Soccer team is more about ego than responsibility. What am I missing here? The MLS has unveiled a plan for expansion to 28 teams, setting in motion the goal of adding two franchises by the middle of 2017 and two more at a later time. It identified 10 cities currently in the mix for such consideration. San Diego made the list, along with Charlotte and Sacramento and St. Louis and others. Las Vegas didn’t.

It was nowhere to be found, more invisible than Chargers fans in Los Angeles.

Now, it’s true the MLS would put a team on the moon if it meant someone paid the $150 million expansion fee and built a stadium among all the lunar rock. The MLS will go anywhere for the right price to support what is a dying business model and have its owners bleed red ink from those cities willing to pay, temperatures ranging from boiling to freezing be damned.

But that doesn’t mean a decision such as the one the Las Vegas City Council made earlier this month — approving a contract up to $80,000 for a New Yorkbased company to help develop a campaign that might land Las Vegas an MLS franchise — is either correct or sensible. It’s neither.

You might remember this is a

road the city traveled before, once floating plans for a $200 million stadium in downtown’s Symphony Park, a concept summarily nixed a few years ago when the MLS eliminated the city from its expansion thoughts.

I now have to wonder: Is this latest attempt really about what’s best for the town or simply bruised egos around City Hall?

It was before a 5-2 vote in favor of spending the $80,000 — councilmen Bob Beers and Stavros Anthony remain against the chase for an MLS team, meaning they must be doing some actual research — that Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said this about continuing the pursuit: “If not, everything is going to go to the other end of the Strip and we’re just going to watch ourselves die.” Is that was this is about? Is this some schoolyard spat over sports and one side (city) is upset the other (county) is set to build an NFL stadium and welcome the Raiders while at the same time preparing for the arrival of the National Hockey League this year?

“There remains a huge interest in a Major League Soccer expansion team,” Goodman said Thursday night during her State of the City address. Really? From who? Goodman and her husband, Oscar, have as mayors of Las Vegas long fought the fight to bring major league professional sports into city limits. It’s fine if the framework of such an endeavor makes financial and civic sense in a given moment of time. I understood the city making a strong push for the NFL stadium to be built downtown, an unsuccessful campaign but one that was a reasonable goal that it should have pursued.

This infatuation with landing the MLS isn’t.

Once you get past the smallbut-sort-of-significant parts about building a stadium for hundreds of millions of dollars and discovering ownership to pay the expansion fee, which ranks as the league’s greatest source of income, who’s buying all the tickets?

How far can the sports entertainment dollar stretch in the nation’s 40th media market when competing with the NHL and likely NFL and UNLV athletics?

Las Vegas doesn’t support Rebels football.

It only supports Rebels basketball when it’s winning.

Where are all these soccer fans coming from?

The Mayor’s Cup is a wonderful event that draws youth players from all over the world here in February, but that doesn’t for a second prove an MLS team would be suitably supported.

More importantly, there is this: MLS commissioner Don Garber has made it clear his league is far more interested in filling a void in markets with departing major league franchises (see San Diego and St. Louis) and not ones, in the case of Las Vegas with the NHL and possibly NFL, doing the opposite.

It’s true that, while not as pricey as attending an NFL game, the MLS is hardly a cheap outing. The average ticket price for a league played throughout the spring and summer is still $46 for a product that is about a 4 on a scale of 1-10 when compared to others across the world.

It’s below all leagues in Europe — Spain, England, Germany, Italy, France — and probably similar or below the second division in those countries. It’s behind Mexico and maybe Argentina and Brazil. It will soon rank below China. The more it expands, the more an MLS talent pool is diluted.

Las Vegas would be much better off drawing exhibition crowds in a 65,000-seat domed stadium for teams such as Manchester United and Barcelona than trying to sell over 20 or so MLS games each year. Or just have an annual MLS exhibition match such as the one the Los Angeles Galaxy is set to play against San Jose on Feb. 11 at Cashman Field.

But in pointing out Thursday several important areas in which the city must continue improving, Carolyn Goodman offered much better and smarter ways to spend dollars.

Public safety. Health care. Education. The homeless.

I assume $80,000 could find some good within that list, far more than continuing to pursue a professional soccer league that obviously has its expansion focus aimed elsewhere.