News: Expansion Bid News - catch all thread

Bit of a legendary bit of sports biz that was!

Not sure where the brothers were originally from but I think they only ended up in St. Louis with their team because it was, at the time, the largest market in America without a NBA team and they were positioning themselves to be included in the merger....not excluded - which ended up being an accidental bit of good fortune for them.

 

http://www.soccermadeinstlouis.com/...later,_Major_League_Soccer_for_St._Louis.html

 

Have people forgotten that SLSG was "part of" Cooper's larger club structure for those two years? It's why the Athletica logo was SO similar to the SLSG logo.

 

No, that's correct, it was a general umbrella organization. My point was that Cooper and his surprise investors were officially organizing/running the entire umbrella - Cooper even managed the merger of three existing youth clubs to make SLSG in its current incarnation, if I remember correctly. So while SLSG was run semi-autonomously, it still was a small part of the larger structure. That's why I'm hesitant to say the new ownership structure is "better", especially as I'm not sure how different it is from the structure that was in place four or five years ago.

My big question at the moment: where's Glavin in all of this? Even if USL Pro liked Soccer Park, I would think it would've been smart to have the owner of the existing USL-affiliated team at least be involved somehow.

 

Very true! Though the cynical side of me says that's only because youth club fees make it easy for youth clubs to be profitable, and thus easy to spin off. X-D

 

This may not qualify as news exactly, since it happened last year, but I just heard that Shahid Khan, who almost bought the Rams (and now owns the Jacksonville Jaguars), bought Fulham. Maybe he'll see the benefits of a growing franchise system like MLS in a great soccer town like St. Louis now that Fulham has been relegated.

 

I think Mr. Khan is more likely to take his grid iron interest to London than bring his soccer interest from London.

 

update on the USL PRO team and their focus on year one:

http://soccernewsday.com/usa/a/1901/st-louis-usl-pro-franchise-focused-on-year-one

 

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_0a858490-b7b8-5104-8e1a-92863cbbaece.html

Is this being discussed...

 

Interesting chatter. But wayyyyyy too early to really start a convo over.

STLFC JUST got started and stadium money just doesn't come easily anymore even for the NFL.

Let's wait a few years.

 

Well I guess we will see after New Years.

Will be interesting how the solve the conflict between the Rams not owning the stadium and there not being any new tax money used for a new stadium. Something don't add up

 

Is that a SSS I spy in the background of the riverfront Rams stadium?

https://simmqb.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/rams-story.jpg

 

Good luck to St Louis area soccer fans.

Commissioner: St. Louis in mix for next round of expansion
http://www.artesianews.com/1052152/commissioner-st-louis-in-mix-for-next-round-of-expansion.html

 

I have not seen this posted, the Joe Buck-narrated pitch for the new Rams stadium includes renderings of what it would look like for Saint Louis MLS matchdays.

http://www.foxsports.com/midwest/st...-in-new-st-louis-stadium-project-video-061615

 

LOL..this doesn't matter because an owner doesn't exist for an MLS team here. The stadium isn't being built anyway because a lawsuit has been filed to stop it since you cannot continue issuing bonds for a new project without a vote of the people!