MLS: Are the New York Red Bulls for sale?
By Zac Wassink
Major League Soccer team New York Red Bulls are for sale.
Kinda. Sorta.
Maybe.
Grant Wahl of SI.com dropped two bombshells on Wednesday that weren’t actually bombshells for those who have followed the Red Bulls for any significant amount of time:
Red Bulls captain Thierry Henry won’t play for the club again after this fall.
The Red Bulls won’t be in the MLS for the long haul.
That 2014 will likely be Henry’s last season with the Red Bulls has been the worst-kept secret in MLS for roughly two years. The 37-year old footballing legend has marathons-worth of wear and tear on his body. Henry has done more than enough while part of the North American top-flight, including helping the Red Bulls end their trophy drought last October when the team won the Supporters’ Shield (award for best regular season record).
Wahl wrote the following on a potential Red Bulls sale:
“While Marc de Grandpre, the club’s head of commercial operations, says the team is not for sale, one source says that if a buyer approached Red Bull and offered $300 million for the Red Bulls and their stadium, the deal would get done within 48 hours.”
The Red Bulls and MLS commissioner Don Garber have both denied that the club is for sale.
News that Red Bull could be on the verge of calling time on the company’s MLS experiment resulted in expected speculation and rumors hitting the Twitterverse. Rather than having to search “Red Bulls” or “RBNY” on Twitter, we’ve lumped together all of the logical and crazy notions into one convenient location.
May 21, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Yankees president Randy Levine (left) , Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber (middle) and Manchester City FC chief executive officer Ferran Soriano pose for a photo after announcing the formation of the New York City Football Club as the 20th team in Major League Soccer. The team will begin play in the 2015 season. Mandatory Credit: MLS via USA TODAY Sports
Rumor: New York City Football Club buy Red Bull Arena; Red Bulls disappear
To the surprise of nobody who has knowledge of New York City politics and who followed the now defunct “MLS to Queens” debacle, the love child of Manchester City and the New York Yankees doesn’t have a permanent home one and a half years into its existence. Five months have passed since the unannounced goal of NYCFC being able to introduce a site for a future soccer-specific stadium, and the club is apparently no closer to nailing down a home than it was last spring.
A RBNY-NYCFC groundshare has, since the expansion MLS side was announced in May 2013, always been the logical temporary solution. NYCFC replacing the Red Bulls is not and never was the plan. Mr. Garber has, since day one of his post, (allegedly) pined for the NYC and LA markets to feature multiple MLS franchises.
There is little reason to believe he is ready to give up on that dream.
Rumor: New York Cosmos buy Red Bulls, move from NASL to MLS
Joining MLS was the final goal of those running the Cosmos reboot four years ago. The hope, at the time, was that the Cosmos could work out a temporary deal with the New York Mets that would have had the club play home games at Citi Field while their arena was being built somewhere in NYC. I even saw mock-ups of “Cosmos at Citi Field” tickets that summer.
Long gone are those days, those rumors, and that Cosmos administration. The current Cosmos call the North American Soccer League home, and New York won the NASL championship (Soccer Bowl 2013) last fall.
Those running the Cosmos were happy to compete with the Red Bulls and MLS as of 2013. Might that change now that news that Red Bull want out has gone public?
We shall see.
Jun 24, 2014; Chester, PA, USA; New York Cosmos goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer (1) celebrates a goal by New York Cosmos forward Alessandro Noselli (not pictured) along with Cosmos defender Roversio Rodrigues de Barros (6) and defender Carlos Mendes (4) during the second half of the U.S. Open Cup match against the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park. The Union won the match 2-1 after two overtime periods. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports
Rumor: New York Cosmos buy Red Bull Arena but remain in NASL; Red Bulls disappear
Mr. Garber is still MLS commissioner. He still, by all accounts, wants two teams in the NYC/NJ region.
Not happening.
Rumor: David Beckham group takes Red Bulls over
Beckham’s MLS player deal included a clause that would allow him to one day own a club. His original idea was to start up an expansion side down in Miami. That plan has hit roadblock after roadblock after roadblock, however, to the point that it was rumored this past June that Beckham could instead take over the to-be rebranded Chivas USA franchise.
Beckham is reportedly still keen on making his Miami MLS dream a reality. Imagine, just imagine, soccer’s most-famous face — sorry, Cristiano Ronaldo — completing pressers and promotional events in the sports mecca of the United States.
David Beckham gets on Boomer & Carton and on the Mike Francesa show. Beckham goes live in studio for an edition of The Michael Kay Show that airs on national television via the YES Network. Beckham to New York is almost too good to be true as it pertains to marketing.
What say you, Dave? Want to take a bite out of the big apple?
You could always speak to Thierry about that penthouse.
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