The fate of Chivas USA remains uncertain, but it looks like the league-owned club may end up taking some time off to regroup.
Chivas USA is expected to be sold to a new investor/operator group and then take a hiatus for a minimum of two years to rebrand the club and search for a permanent stadium solution, according to a report by ESPN.
MLS commissioner Don Garber noted the fate of the club for next season hinged on new investor/operators on Sept. 18 and said the league has made no firm decisions about the future of the Red-and-White again on Monday.
“As I stated recently, we have met with multiple potential ownership groups during the last few months and expect to finalize a sale for Chivas USA by the end of the season,'' Garber said in a statement forwarded by the league. “Once we have confirmed a new ownership group, we will discuss the future of the club with the MLS Board of Governors, including whether or not we are going to operate the team in 2015 and beyond.''
As Garber noted, any sale or hiatus hinges on approval by the MLS Board of Governors. The group is next slated to meet in Los Angeles on Oct. 6.
The body will almost certainly weigh the complexities of taking a team off the field for any length of time before agreeing to any course of action, though the lure of turning around a league-owned franchise for a profit in less than a year will have its inevitable pull.
If Chivas USA does not play in 2015, then MLS will almost certainly field 20 teams instead of the expected 21 next season. MLS executives must then figure out how to distribute the Chivas USA players and sort through the inevitable concerns about academy players, draft picks and other issues raised by a club temporarily ceasing operations.
Any potential loss of jobs creates yet another wrinkle ahead of the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations with the MLS Players Union. The current agreement expires on Jan. 31, 2015. MLSPU had no comment on the situation at this time, according to executive director Bob Foose.
