The time for Major League Soccer to look past Miami and David Beckham has come to pass. Don Garber’s 45-day deadline is almost certain to come and go without a resolution in Miami’s favor. Thus the time has come to consider other options.

Let me make the case today that despite the success of Sacramento in USL Pro last year, if Miami is going to lose the chance to return to MLS, another Florida market should be given first option on becoming team 24 (presuming Minnesota is team 23).

The early success of Orlando City SC in MLS, a club that built its support and foundation at the lower division level, should give MLS reason to take a look at two other Florida clubs – the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Jacksonville Armada FC.

The idea of reentering the Miami market was based largely around television, and the size of the local TV market. Jacksonville, whose new NASL entry is already in many ways further ahead of where Orlando City was in 2011, would be among the smallest TV markets in MLS. Tampa Bay, on the other hand, is a larger TV market than Miami and has a history of supporting pro soccer.

Many will point to the folding of the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 2001 as a reason MLS should not return to Tampa/St Petersburg but the plug being pulled on the Mutiny has little relevance today. The Tampa Bay area boasts the best youth soccer infrastructure in the state of Florida, and a second division club that has a richly unique history and local brand recognition. The Tampa Bay Rowdies are a local institution, but when MLS began play in 1996, they were reluctant to embrace any portion of the original NASL’s legacy.

The Rowdies recent success owes itself to Bill Edwards’ ownership and a full embrace of the 1970’s and early 1980’s legacy that made the Rowdies the second best supported soccer club in the United States at the time. Elevating Tampa Bay Rowdies to MLS would mirror the NASL legacy clubs from the Pacific Northwest that have joined the top division and could have a similar local galvanizing effect.

The Tampa Bay area and Orlando are separated by about an hour of interstate and the rivalry between the two clubs sets of fans is about as intense as it gets in US soccer. This would give MLS yet another big localized rivalry, something that can help the league grow.

But what about Jacksonville? The Armada seem to be building something special and unique, and geographically located between Orlando and Atlanta, Jacksonville could give MLS yet another three-team geographic cluster that would foster the types of rivalries needed in this league.

Both the Rowdies and Armada claim publicly to be committed to NASL. But the reality of the pro soccer landscape in the United States today is that lower division teams and owners almost universally seek to join MLS.

When the questions about MLS first surfaced around Tampa Bay in 2010, Orlando wasn’t on the horizon and a return to the area looked logical for the top division. The then-ownership of the Rowdies were coy about MLS, preferring to focus on NASL and rebuilding a legendary brand. Five years later, the brand is well-established again and the time might be right for a jump. Jacksonville also has an opportunity to make the leap should Miami completely fall by wayside, something that looks more likely by the day.

Given that Florida is the third most populated state in the country (after California and Texas, states that both have two MLS teams), Florida needs a second MLS team, and it might be best for the league if that team were not based in the hyper-competitive, political minefield that is Miami-Dade County.