MLS Expansion - Could NBA's Steve Nash bring a MLS team to Vancouver?

There are three facts that no one can argue. One, the NBA's Steve Nash is a huge soccer fan. Two, the USL's Vancouver Whitecaps would love to move to MLS. Three, MLS has been more then just a little impressed with the results out of Toronto, thus is very open to the idea of another team in Canada. So the question is, can these three facts turn into a top-league team for Vancouver?

According to Steve's brother, Martin Nash, the basketball star is interested in helping bring MLS to Vancouver. It should be noted that Martin happens to play for Vancouver.

"He's trying to get involved. I don't think he's very involved yet but he wants to get involved. He just wants to give the game of soccer a higher profile in Canada...

Soccer is our first-love sport. We grew up playing it and my dad played it and still plays it, so it's just something embedded into us."

So could there be something to this? Might Nash be the man that helps push Vancouver into MLS?

According to league officials, um, we don't know:

MLS commissioner Don Garber met Steve Nash in May and wrote on the league Web site that the two-time NBA MVP may be interested in getting involved as part of an ownership group trying to bring a team to Canada.

Mark Abbott, the president of MLS, said the league is hesitant to speculate further.

"Steve Nash is obviously interested in soccer in Canada and what his role is ... I don't know how to say it, he would have to say what his role is with respect to that," said Abbott, who is the league's spokesperson on expansion issues.

Nash is already involved in the new Women's professional league, so this doesn't just appear to be idle talk. My guess is if Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot could figure out the stadium issue, Nash would join up in an Oscar De La Hoya style move.

NBA's Steve Nash invests in women's soccer league

The Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash is now a partner in the new Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league.

"I look at my childhood and realize how many athletes I had to look up to," Nash said in a phone interview. "I look at the opportunity to put some of these wonderfully talented athletes who are dedicated and committed and put them in a setting to inspire a whole generation below them."

This is just the type of invest the new WPS needs. Here you have a well-known player of a different sport preaching the wonder that is this game. It will not cause a huge rush of people to watch, but it does give the league a known face to help with the push.

Also, Nash Jeff Mallett, a former president and chief operating officer at Yahoo Inc.*, nails the advantage WPS has over MLS in that WPS will probably be able to get the best players in the world, including Brazilian World Cup stand out Marta.

* edit - as noted in the comments, Nash did not say this, the business man did.