NEW YORK — Major League Soccer hopes to announce another expansion soon, this time to Montreal.
Commissioner Don Garber said the league also would like to return to the southeast, in either 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 Thursday.
The league has 16 teams this season and has added clubs in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia, for 2011.
While the league has grown, television ratings are essentially flat. The 14 telecasts on ESPN, ESPN2, FSC and Telefutura this season have averaged 173,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. At a comparable point last year, 12 telecasts averaged 172,000 viewers.
“Ratings for us don’t concern us. It’s a long-term project,” Garber said. “The difference between 250,000 and 400,000 is not the issue. It’s how do you get the 400,000 to become 2 million?”
