In light of today's announcement that Kansas City's franchise (formerly known as the Wizards) has been re-branded Sporting Kansas City, Major League Soccer has also announced a re-branding of its conferences, formerly known as the Western and Eastern Conferences.
The Reserve Squad has learned that the move coincided with the KC announcement so that the two conferences would be balanced.
For the 2011 season, the team's 18 squads will be divided as follows:
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
[TABLE=class: grid, width: 452]
[TR]
[TD]Ridiculous Euro Moniker Conference[/TD]
[TD]Goofy Regional Nickname Conference[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sporting Kansas[/TD]
[TD]Chicago Fire[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Toronto FC[/TD]
[TD]New England Revolution[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]DC United[/TD]
[TD]Philadelphia Union[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Real Salt Lake[/TD]
[TD]Los Angeles Galaxy[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Houston Dynamo[/TD]
[TD]Colorado Rapids[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]FC Dallas[/TD]
[TD]San Jose Earthquakes[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Chivas USA[/TD]
[TD]Portland Timbers[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Vancouver Whitecaps FC*[/TD]
[TD]New York Red Bulls**[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Seattle Sounders FC*[/TD]
[TD]Columbus Crew***[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
*Included in the REIM Conference by virtue of having added a superfluous "FC" upon MLS entry.
**Red Bulls name considered "regional" by virtue of reported popularity of Red Bull/vodka combination in Harrison, New Jersey.
***Hey, they gotta go somewhere.
