It looks nice, but I really hope Mr. Cooper doesn't sink alot of money into the Soccer Park. The Soccer Park should be a short term solution, Mr. Cooper should be looking to build a cheap Saputo type D2 SSS(that can be expanded) in the city somewhere.
Oh I forgot about it being in a flood plain. Well scratch that idea. Always nice to dream. I would rather them use a new stadium too, but I don't see them doing that anytime soon.
Soccer Park has the huge advantage of already being owned by the team. I'd personally love a stadium in the city, but you'd have to sell a lot of extra tickets to pay for a whole new facility, even a cheap one. Drawing 5,000 a game at Soccer Park would be more profitable than drawing 7,000 in a newly built urban stadium. If it's part of a push toward MLS, that might make the investment worth it. But I think Cooper's sticking with Fenton for the foreseeable future. (Of course, right about now, the foreseeable future is about two hours. Events could make a fool of any one of us.)
There is plenty of room to expand Soccer Park. The land to the North of the Soccer Park is county owned and I think the county would cooperate. The real question is going to be whether the Corps of Engineers will let them mess with the levee. After that they are going to have to get an additional ingress/egress location which isn't going to be easy.
Back when MLS was at 12 going on 14 teams, Garber announced that the league would get to 16 and take a deep breath. Then they came up with a couple other good candidates beyond Seattle and Philly, and Garber said they were going up to 18 and would then take a deep breath. Now, it looks like Montreal will be #19. I think the only reason MLS will "pause" any time in the next 15 years is if there aren't good expansion candidates. If, for example, Beckham exercises his option for a team in Miami for #20, but then Arthur Blank gets funding help from ATL and Cooper gets a rich backer, then Garber will be announcing that MLS will pause at 22 teams and re-assess. (Until NYC2 and...well, you get the point.)
Jasontoon I don't disagree with you, I think the Soccer Park is great for the short term. There's no need for a new SSS to be built untill this team has built a strong fanbase and turns a profit, then a new SSS should be built in the city. The Soccer Park should go up to 7,000 +, if attendance is good for a period of a couple years then its time to build a new SSS. It wouldn't hurt for Mr. Cooper to start scouting out land in the city just in case, I don't see the need to wait for MLS to build a 12-14K seat SSS if you have a team that is supported and draws well.
If the city of St. Louis wouldn't give Cooper any support when he tried to build a stadium for MLS two years ago, why would they support an NASL one now? That's why they were going to build in Collinsville. I'd love a stadium in the city, but it just ain't gonna happen.
I wouldn't say it's totally out of the question, especially with the "Northside Plan" taking shape. Ran across this: http://www.mayorslay.com/desk/display.asp?deskID=1371 I realize he mentions it as a champion style stadium (World Cup,Pro Playoffs, NCAA Finals) , and that he appears to only be asking as conversation, but I think it still shows that the idea is probably, lightly, floating around City Hall.
Building a 18,500 seat SSS with practice fields for a team we don't have is way different then building a D2 size SSS for a team that we do have. Again, all depends on the support.
With the announcement of Montreal, it is official, MLS has killed off the "Old" USL-1. They have cherry picked the league clean!! With the possible number of expansion slots being "1", and Garber's desire to see a team in the Southeast, it is not looking good for St. Louis!!
Garber's "desire" is very flexible. He's "desired" St. Louis for a long time, too. Mostly, he seems to desire anywhere with huge sacks of cash.
Huge sacks of cash is exactly what it's been all about. Let's flash back to just over a year ago to what Don Garber said while in St.Louis for the draft: 1) “We want a team in St. Louis.” 2) “We are hopeful we can work with Jeff to find investors to help bring his application to point where it meets what we’re looking for,” 3)Garber said he and league president Mark Abbott will “sell like heck to get investors interested in the market” and he also preached patience, saying that the league first spoke with Vancouver investor Jeff Mallett almost 10 years ago. And the best answer from his interview with Tom Timmermann (http://interact.stltoday.com/blogzo...09/01/my-qa-with-mls-commissioner-don-garber/) Me: As it stands now, Jeff Cooper’s ownership group … Garber: Not yet finalized. We really want to be in St. Louis, but in order to be here, we have to continue sure to insure that every aspect of Jeff Cooper’s bid is solid and one of the weaknesses it has today is it that Jeff has not yet been able to secure an investor who has very deep pockets. And that’s not just to satisfy the league’s needs, more importantly that’s to assure that the team will be successful in St. Louis, that it can make the right investments in the community, that it can make the right investments in player development, fan development, marketing, promotion, invest properly in administrative support, both on and off field staff. Those are the things. Lastly should there be economic challenges for the league, we need to know that that group can have a couple rocky years. Right now, we’re not yet secure that his group can satisfy all the objectives so the team will be successful. Now, other bids have other weaknesses. Every bid has got different aspects that needed to be rounded out. Myself and Mark Abbott are spending time with all the prospect to insure that they can be as successful as possible.
I would really like to see St. Louis be team No. 20 in MLS. As much as I believe teams in the SE and Florida are important to the growth of MLS, I think St. Louis should be next. Aside from the history and market size, both of which are important, there's also the proximity to KC and Chicago to provide regional rivalries. Once St. Louis comes aboard, then MLS can basically put all its expansion focus on the Southeast and Florida and slowly add teams in cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh, Miami and Tampa. My question for those in St. Louis is if Cooper is still looking for that deep-pocketed investor for a St. Louis MLS team or is all his energy and focus on the NASL team? And if not Cooper, is there someone else willing to carry the St. Louis MLS banner? Oh, and are the stadium sites - the Anheiser Busch and Illinois ones - still available for an MLS team?
This is completely false. MLS is not stopping at 20. FIFA's "18 teams" will not apply to a country larger than all of Europe. We will see at least 24 teams IMHO. ""In 2011 we'll have 18 teams in our league," Garber said. "That's the size league that FIFA would like their first divisions to be. My guess is we probably expand beyond that in the years to come. Our country is a lot bigger than many of the European countries that might have 75 or 80 million people — ours is 300 million-plus crossing three time zones."" http://www.mymotherlode.com/sports/962185/MLS-appears-set-to-expand-to-Montreal.html
As far as we know, yeah. He landed a couple of British investors for AC, but I don't know how deep-pocketed they are. Nobody that we know of. But Central Illinois businessman Shahid Khan was just, essentially, screwed out of buying the Rams, so he's got money to spend and an ego to soothe... just speculation on my part. The A-B site is where AC St. Louis and Athletica play currently. It's owned by Cooper's group, St. Louis Soccer United. It would need major work to come up to MLS standards and they'd need to buy more land for parking - unfortunately it's right up against a river on one side and some still-used industrial stuff on the others. It would be tricky. Also, it's a big youth soccer complex and SLSU would burn a lot of bridges if he killed all that. Cooper said, when he acquired the property, that they'd be looking at the feasibility of using it for MLS. The Illinois deal, who knows? Collinsville has never said the deal's off, but yeah, I'd imagine that deal has pretty much expired by now. Someone with Khan's money could be a game-changer, though. There are still some parcels of under-used land near downtown that could hold a stadium.
Heard on Sports Open Line on KMOX earlier this evening Ron Jacober saying that he had on good authority that St. Louis ever getting a team was slim to none. Don't know how many grains of salt to take with that, but I must say this is certainly plausible right now. No potential owners rich enough, no one willing to step up to help, no support from MLS, no stadium site (Garber said there wasn't one currently, I think there was a deadline on Collinsville and that plan probably just faded away, and there's logistical challenges with Fenton in terms of parking and flooding and other stuff). It's a shame, really, missing out on a potential soccer hotbed and the soccer capital of the United States. Maybe we should've had an outdoor stadium after all. Then we may have already gotten a soccer team, plus probably having a better atmosphere at Rams games and wouldn't have to worry about them leaving town due to the lease deal, and the Final Four doesn't see us as a regular site anyway.
This is so stupid it's not even funny. Seattle wasn't getting a team until Joe Roth decided he wanted a team. An investor can step up at anytime. If they have enough money, a stadium will work out somewhere. Sure, MLS isn't going to give Cooper a team under current circumstances, but to say "ever" is just asinine.
Please MLS, go to St Louis eventually. Columbus and Chicago my be closer to me, but I like St Louis more. Plus with the crest spruced up a little, and the jerseys done right, AC St Louis in MLS would be pretty sweet
Oh Sure - a better atmosphere at RAMS games in November and December outside? There would have been fewer fans the last few years at the games in December than there already were. Also, Saint Louis is a regular stop for the Midwest Regional Finals.
Last year, maybe, since our team was abnormally HORRIBLE, but if you've gauged the opinions of many football fans in St. Louis and elsewhere, football is meant to be played outdoors and a lot of fans would rather be experiencing what other cities have, braving the elements with their team. And the Midwest Regionals can always be held at Scottrade. Only the Final Four requires a 40,000 seat stadium; the regionals don't.
If the Rams had an outdoor stadium and a decent place to tailgate, I'd have season tickets (despite their record). I won't accept free tickets to the Rams games now because the Dome is crap. It looks like a big electronic football game and the horrible speaker system combined with the non-stop yapping of the PA guy leaves me with a headache.
Hey guys, whats the deal with St Louis Athletica folding and AC St Louis needing bonds to pay its players? Will the mens team fold too, and will this effect any chance at an MLS bid? This sucks.