FanHouse

Via BallHype, The World's Beautiful Game passes on news of Steve Nash's recent business trip to Montreal with the commissioner of Major League Soccer to talk Canadian expansion. From a press release on the matter:

Steve, who comes from a soccer family (his brother plays for the Whitecaps), and Jeff, who was part of Canada's National and Olympic soccer team programs as a teenager, are investors in Women's Professional Soccer and could be part of an ownership group for future MLS expansion into Canada.

(Emphasis mine.) Paired with last week's consideration of the depths of soccer's relationship with modern pro basketball, it got me thinking about the modern two-sport star. Kobe has tried to mimic MJ's career, yes? But instead of baseball, Kobe Bean has a soccer jones. It'd be pretty awesome to see him to a brief break from the NBA to try out for the Galaxy, yes? (I'm sure Lakers fans disagree.)

As a fan of both sports, this sort of professional cross-pollination looks terrific. Such a team would get off to a great start, surely, as Nash is a golden Canadian hero. As FanHouse soccer expert David J. Warner notes, Montreal's a terrific soccer city, hosting the very successful Montreal Impact of the United Soccer League. The Impact just opened a new 13,000-seat stadium with a near sell-out, and there's rumor/discussion Montreal's owners would like to move up to the MLS in future expansion.

Nash could be involved in the fund raising there (the MLS expansion fee is something like $40 million), or he could be involved in the promotion of the USL's Vancouver team, the Whitecaps. (British Columbia is Nash's base of operations.) The Whitecaps are in the process of building a new soccer stadium of their own near Vancouver's downtown.

(Again, David Warner's expertise was vital for this post.)