MountainStar pushing prospect of MLS in Borderplex

What do you think about a Major League Soccer team in the Borderplex?

Here’s your chance to sound off!

On Thursday MountainStar sports officially announced it’s launched a web site to gauge the interest. MountainStar Sports President Alan Ledford made it clear there are three key factors in this effort: A strong ownership group, support from fans in this region and perhaps the biggest hurdle, building another stadium Downtown.

“We need to demonstrate to MLS that there is support in the El Paso/Juarez/Las Cruces region for their sport and we need to do it in as big a way as we possibly can,” Ledford said. “This is a very competitive process. There are numerous cities very interested in attracting MLS to their communities: Minneapolis, Sacramento, St. Louis, Austin, San Antonio and one or two others.”

But he said none of those places have what this region does … Mexico!

“They may be larger, they may have a larger corporate base, their TV markets may be different than ours,” Ledford said. “Every community has their strength. We certainly think that this one has some very significant benefits and strengths the league will look at seriously.”

“Really, there are two or three spots before MLS wants to cut things off at 24,” said KLAQ Sports Director Duke Keith, who follows the current 19-team MLS closely. “I think the response will be good. I think people do love the sport here, but I can’t gauge the level of interest in MLS in Mexico. I don’t know how they perceive that.”

“I don’t think there is any doubt of that (there is interest),” said El Pasoan Bill Helm. “There was a lot of people saying, ‘Why not soccer?’ when they were bringing up baseball.”

“I’d love to see it happen,” added El Pasoan Edgar Lopez.

“(The big hurdle is) getting the entity built for it, the venue,” added Helm.

ABC-7 asked Mario Silva, a soccer fan from Juarez, how popular the MLS is in Mexico.

“I think it’s getting more popular,” Silva said, pointing out if the team here signed top players from Mexico there would be more interest. “That would be great. It would be amazing.”

Ledford said he’s had conversations with the City and County about the prospect of a Downtown stadium, but wouldn’t offer specifics, except to say that the interest in building another public-private venue is there.