Biggie or Tupac? Hella or Wicked? Las Vegas or Atlantic City? In & Out or Five Guys? Eastern Conference or Western Conference?
Wednesday MLS released 'breaking news' that Atlanta will be the league's twenty third team expected to join MLS in 2017. This makes it the fourth expansion team announced joining New York City FC and Orlando City SC who will join the league in 2015 and Miami who will join in 2017. The league has stated that it hopes to have 24 teams by 2020.
At this point you may be noticing all of these teams have something in common. And no, it's not that they are all lacking a stadium, although they do have that in common. It's the fact they are all decidedly on the East Coast. This means surely they all would end up in the Eastern Conference in which Houston currently plays. Since all leagues strive to have balanced conferences this must mean Houston will end up back in the Western Conference where they played previously. Right? But without knowing for certain where the other team will lay geographically we don't know how MLS will see Houston.
Frankly, I think Houston will fall whereever it is convenient for MLS to have it fall. Because while the rest of the country might be arguing over In & Out vs. Five Guys, Houston is decidedly screaming "IT'S WHATABURGER Y'ALL!"
Old school fans may be more comfortable in the Western Conference which the team competed in until 2011 when they moved to the Eastern Conference. The team's two championship seasons came in 2006 and 2007 seasons while a part of the Western Conference. The only time they missed the playoffs in 2010 was right before their switch to the Eastern Conference. The Western Conference is often talked about as being the stronger conference of the two with teams like the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders.
But what really matters is how Don Garber sees Houston. While the reality of Houston may be they are really just hanging out in a Whatabuger listening to Bun B eventually the question must be asked: are they Biggie or are they Tupac?