Okay, after holding back on the '80s movies and music for the past several weeks, and going with the straight soccer approach, I'm jonesing ... bad.

So here's a double-shot, from the 1985 Matthew Modine, Linda Fiorentino vehicle Vision Quest, a.k.a. Crazy For You (from the Madonna megahit) ... with Modine as the star high school wrestler, Louden Swain, and Fiorentino as his love interest, Carla.

Louden: Do you want some tea?
Carla: Mmm, you come prepared.
Louden: Yeah, I'm just waiting for the day some millionaire will get a flat. I'll pull over and change his tire, pour him some tea and honey, and ... he'll pay my way through college.
Carla: What he'll do is hit you on the head, and you'll wake up with (edited for adult language, violence and strong sexual content).
Louden: What a realist! I'm depressed!

I reference this classic flick because, today, I'm feeling a lot like ol' Louden. You see, I have this dream, this vision ... and I keep getting shot down by realists. I'll share it with you anyway -- it's my dream of what the next wave of MLS expansion teams could be.

It starts with an existing youth soccer club, one that's been around for a fairly long time, serving the soccer-playing community with good coaching, a good atmosphere for development, a winning tradition and a supportive following of ex-players and parents. The kind of club it means something to be a part of. The kind of club that has the backing of all (or at least most of) the area college and high school coaches.

Now, in my dream, that club would be hoping to take things to the next level. First of all, they'd be looking to upgrade their facilities. In the perfect world, they'd acquire a big piece of land, where, say, eight to 10 soccer fields could be laid out. And they'd have housing and cafeterias for visiting teams, and for big tournaments they could host. They'd even be able to offer up the facility for one of the U.S. national teams or youth national teams, men or women, if they needed to hold a camp. Oh, sure, the facility could also be used for summer soccer camps and invitational tournaments -- yeah, the kind of events that clubs have to pay to enter -- but in the perfect world, in my dream, local businessmen would make sure that most of the soccer played there, especially for the local boys and girls, would be free of charge.

There would be all levels of competition at the club, from recreational to elite. Even a "Weekend Warriors" division for all the old-timers who still like to lace 'em up. Sorry guys, you gotta pay for field time.

Now, don't interrupt, it's my dream.

Every kid who came through the club, who wore the colors, would also have a dream -- that on Saturday nights, they'd get to play in "The Stadium." And believe me, in my dream, these kids start bleeding the colors at a young age. It would be such a part of their community ... part of their family ... that missing a game would be a sin.

And "The Stadium" would be a shrine to the club. I see a 20,000-seater with a wide pitch and short, perfect grass. Because at this club, well, for the last dozen years, they've been teaching the kids to keep the ball moving on the ground ... to play good soccer. That style of game was a part of the club, even before they got their MLS team.

Imagine if a group came along that really wanted to do all this? A group that had the money to get the stadium and the training site done? A group that had no qualms about paying the MLS expansion fee? A group that really wanted to do this because ... well, because they've watched their club and the sport of soccer become such a part of so many lives already that they want to dream too, and take it to the professional level?

Could it happen? Is this possible? Or, is MLS just waiting for the next mogul in some major media market -- a market that will expand the league's footprint -- to come forward and rent an NFL stadium for 14 days between April and September?

For what it's worth, here's what Commissioner Don Garber told Bloomberg's Brian Trusdell about the requirements for the league's expansion bids:

"The date for our 'go-no go' is our Cup, it's mid-October 2001. As I've mentioned in the past, expansion is contingent upon three things: it starts with an appropriate facility to play, a stadium. With that comes the type of ownership that has the vision of growing this game over an extended period of time, professional soccer that is, having somebody that is committed to the strategic and financial needs that professional soccer, men's soccer, has in this country. The third is an appropriate environment that has a history of supporting soccer whether at the amateur or grass-roots base or the professional base. And it's a complicated formula to get those three things right. We are still on target to try to get expansion announced for our 2003 season but without that stadium project in place in any market, we will not go forward."

What does all this mean? Maybe it's okay for me to dream.

In Tight Space