Atlanta is the latest city to try to land a Major League Soccer team. Led by potential owner Arthur Blank, the Atlanta MLS bid aims to bring a team to the city in the state of Georgia in 2011.

Blank is best known for being the owner of the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL. He’s also the owner of the Georgia Force of the Arena Football League. Blank hopes to make an MLS team his third professional team.

While Atlanta would love to be the home of a new MLS team, they are far from the only city interested. Over the next two seasons, Philadelphia and Seattle will join the MLS. In 2011, a number of cities in the United States are trying to get a team including New York, Las Vegas, Portland and St. Louis. Additionally, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa are three Canadian cities also interested in the MLS.

To fee to be granted an expansion team is believed to be a little less than $50 million. Besides the expansion fee, the winning city will likely have to build a stadium that is designed specifically for soccer.

Currently, Major League Soccer has 14 teams. The 13 United States teams are in Chicago, Columbus, Washington D.C., Kansas City, Foxborough, New York City, Carson, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and San Jose. The lone team outside of the United States is Toronto FC in Canada.

Blank has been the owner of the Falcons since 2001 when he bought the team from Taylor Smith for approximately $550 million. In recent years, Blank came into the spotlight after Michael Vick’s arrest in a dog fighting ring. Vick, who was the quarterback and the most popular player on the team, was ultimately sent to jail and is currently serving a 23 month sentence.

Tags: arthur blank, atlanta mls bid, expansion soccer teams, major league soccer, MLS, mls expansion
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