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MLS open to the possibility of expanding to 28 teams

How about another Southeastern team?

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Major League Soccer announced today that it supports the idea of expanding its league to 28 total teams. The league plans to unveil a timeline and an outline of exactly how they hope to do in the near future. With news of David Beckham finally securing a location in Miami to build his stadium, MLS will be at 24 clubs by 2020. Miami will join Atlanta United, Minnesota United, and Los Angeles Football Club as the four expansion teams that will join over the next five years to get to that total of 24.

With four more likely to follow after 2020, could Atlanta United get some company in the Southeast? A lot of people expect Orlando City to be Atlanta's natural rival and Miami would enter the mix too, but it would be great to see a third team from the Southeast join MLS. North Carolina seems like the best hope for such a dream. Raleigh is the current home to the successful hockey team the Carolina Hurricanes. North Carolina is a soccer hotbed with so many fans hungry for a top-division club. There's no doubt it could support a franchise, but is there an ownership group willing to bring one?

San Antonio, Sacramento, and St. Louis are some of the cities that are popular names in the running for the next set of expansion sides, but MLS is already stacked in the central and western markets. If it truly wants to diversify its interests around the nation, it could use another team in the Southeast.

What say you? Would you like to see another MLS club in the Southeast in the next 10 years? Or is three enough?