Major League Soccer hopes to announce a new team in Montreal soon.
League commissioner Don Garber says it would also like a new team back in the southeast, either to Atlanta or South Florida.
"We're confident that we'll be able to announce a 19th team shortly, and our hope is that 19th team will be in Montreal," he said on Thursday.
The league has 16 teams this season and has added teams for 2011 in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
While Miami and Tampa Bay once had MLS teams, they were eliminated after the 2001 season.
"In 2011 we'll have 18 teams in our league," Garber said. "That's the size league that FIFA would like their first divisions to be. My guess is we probably expand beyond that in the years to come. Our country is a lot bigger than many of the European countries that might have 75 or 80 million people - ours is 300 million-plus crossing three time zones."
While the league has grown, U.S. television ratings are essentially flat. Telecasts on English and Spanish-language channels this season have averaged 173,000 viewers, comparable to last year according to Nielsen Media Research.
"Ratings for us don't concern us. It's a long-term project," Garber said of the league, which started in 1996.
