THEME WEEK - Expansion Ideas

[JaytheGreat]

Since we just expanded last season I don't think it should happen anytime soon, that being said lets look at some good places to look at. Lets look at continents first, there are 2 clubs in North America (Montreal and Hollywood), 1 club in South America (Buenos Aires), 4 clubs in Europe (London, Paris, Athens, and Catalonia), 2 clubs in Africa (Cairo and Accra), 2 clubs in Asia (Toyko and Seoul), and 1 in Oceana (Sydney). At first glance there are a lot of places in North America and Europe to expand, a few good places in South America and Africa but I'd say Asia and Oceania is kinda tapped out.

Starting with North America I'd love to see Mexico City get a team, the football culture in Mexico is incredible and it's a bit of a shame they don't already have one. Cancun, Tijuana, Guadalajara, and Monterrey would all be great cities to expand to if you don't want to go to Mexico City. In the US places like Texas (Dallas or Houston, possible San Antionio), St. Louis/Kansas City or New York/New Jersey would be good places to expand, you have 3 big football regions in the US represented (West coast, South, Midwest, and East coast). Canada's bids would probably Toronto or Vancouver, both would have somewhat close geographical rivals in Hollywood FC and Montreal respectively.

In South America it's a no brainer, BRING A TEAM TO BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro would be my choice but Sao Paulo would be nice to see as well. Brazil has an automatic super intense rival with Argentina and the games with the Brazil team and CA Buenos Aires would be must watch match ups every time they play. If your looking for a non Brazil place to expand in my choices would be Lime (Peru), Montevideo (Uruguay), or Bogota (Colombia).

Oh Europe I don't think you should get an expansion team in the next go around but the fact that Berlin, Rome, and Madrid don't have teams is criminal. Places like Manchester, Lisbon, Brussels, Milan, Vienna, Glasgow, Lyon, Belgrade or Warsaw would be cool to see. Could also go to teams that could represent a region like Catalunya, it would be interesting to see a Midlands or Normandy, Tuscany, Bavaria type team. There are a lot of cities and regions you could go for expansion here, it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

So there are three cities that come to mind when looking to expand in Africa and that's Johannesburg (South Africa), Alexanderia (Egypt), and Casablanca (Morocco), while not the biggest cities in Africa but I think they there are the most well known/popular. Obviously Alexanderia would come in with a big rivalry against Cairo but I'm not sure expanding into Egypt is a great with other cities available. If you don't like those three cities my suggestion would Lagos Nigeria. Nigeria has a big footballing culture and I'd really like to see them get a team in the future.

Not a huge fan of giving a team to China so I'll be skipping over them, if your looking big population centers we'd be looking to India, specifically cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. But my picks would be Manila (Philippines), or Bangkok (Thailand), both cities are well known and beautiful. It's a bit of a stretch but like I said not counting Chinese cities leads to slim pickings.

If expansion goes to Oceania it would be in Australia with cities like Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or Auckland, Out of those I would choose Melbourne, 2nd biggest city in Australia that has a built in rivalry with Sydney with the two cities being pretty close to each other. Melbourne is a really awesome city and if there's expansion there that's where I'd want it to be.