St. Louis 2009? Article from MLSnet.com

[flippin269]

http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20070810&content_id=110819&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp

This probably couldn't be from a source more credible. St. Louis's possible 2009 expansion is talked about in an article in MLS's own home website.

The approval of the stadium plan would make St. Louis a primary candidate for MLS expansion in 2009. The league has already announced that a team will return to the Bay Area in California in 2008 with the return of the San Jose Earthquakes, who were relocated to Houston prior to the 2006 MLS season. The league has stated that it is looking to expand in a couple of other locations over the next few years before capping expansion for some time.

There's a lot more in the article. Read up and enjoy. It also mentions that for the expansion to take place, they would have to start construction November this year, and the stadium would be completed in time for the 2009 season.

[stevethiel]

Sounds like an interesting place. :)

Collinsville is the self-proclaimed "Horseradish Capital of the World", including an annual Horseradish Fest. The city and surrounding area are said to produce 85% of the world's horseradish, of such high quality that it's actually exported to Germany and China (key users of the herb) for gourmet use.

90W also passes thru Collinsville, thus making it one quarter of the distance west from Greenwich, England or east of the International_Date_Line.

Collinsville is also home "the world's largest catsup bottle", a 170 foot tall water tower in the shape of a ketchup bottle.

Kidding aside, I think St. Louis is a great market as it creates a nice group of natural rivalries in the midwest with KC, Chicago, and Columbus. I hope it happens, along with a Pacific NW team, in 2009.

[kebzach]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/srlinks.nsf/story/EE58F4B9BEFAE881862573330079250B?OpenDocument


http://www.stltoday.com/mds/sports/flash/333


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/DE846AF8A145D23786257334000CE5E0?OpenDocument

[XaviusX]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/srlinks.nsf/story/EE58F4B9BEFAE881862573330079250B?OpenDocument


http://www.stltoday.com/mds/sports/flash/333


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/DE846AF8A145D23786257334000CE5E0?OpenDocument


Impressive plan! I really hope it goes through without any issues. St. Louis has a lot of Soccer History in this country. Plus, they would become instant rivals with Kansas City. :)

[evangel]

Having an article dedicated to it at the MLS site means that it's almost instantly put it at the top of the expansion list, if the soccer stadium is allowed by the city, of course. All indications are that it will (barring a DC style breakdown, but I don't think St. Louis' local government is as unreliable as DC's):rolleyes:.

The ones who must be most angry at this news must be the Philly fans. It looks like the league wants to cap expansion at 16 and leave it like that for quite a couple of years. St. Louis would most likely enter in the Eastern conference, so Philly would have to wait many more years to have a team. They certainly are nowhere near as far on their stadium plans as this. And MLS certainly doesn't want another unbalance of teams like this year. Unless they decide to cap the current expansions at 18, but there doesn't seem to be much indication of that happening.

[tguy24]

^^Their is no and will not be a cap on the number of teams. MLS will go anywhere in north america with an owber will to built and SSS and pay the expansion fee.

MLS will be in ever major North American city by 2020.

[stevethiel]

MLS will be in ever major North American city by 2020.

That might be a stretch. I guess it depends on what your definition of 'major' is.

[csufguy]

Good news fro STL. I believe this is a win win for both the city and team with the team only asking for $20 mil. I am going to keep my fingers crossed, but now is definitely the time for new cities to persue expansion.

[flippin269]

The ones who must be most angry at this news must be the Philly fans. It looks like the league wants to cap expansion at 16 and leave it like that for quite a couple of years. St. Louis would most likely enter in the Eastern conference, so Philly would have to wait many more years to have a team. They certainly are nowhere near as far on their stadium plans as this. And MLS certainly doesn't want another unbalance of teams like this year. Unless they decide to cap the current expansions at 18, but there doesn't seem to be much indication of that happening.

The good news for Philly is that expansion has now been announced that the cap will be 18 teams by 2014 instead of just 16 by 2012. That means 5 new teams in the next 7 years with San Jose being one of them.

Seattle and Philly will still probably take two of those spots. If St. Louis is approved, that means one more city with those four by 2014.

[tfoz]

The competition for the next 2 spots is really heating up, that's 3 cities who are really knocking down the door now, it's a shame that one will have to miss out (unless of course MLS is going to 18 and not 16)

[evangel]

^^Their is no and will not be a cap on the number of teams. MLS will go anywhere in north america with an owber will to built and SSS and pay the expansion fee.

MLS will be in ever major North American city by 2020.

Well, the article mentions that MLS is looking to cap after a certain number, at least until the league has become profitable overall. After the lessons learned from the NASL, there will definitely be a cap that will last a couple of years. It won't be over 18, at it seems to me like it will be 16. After this amount of teams is reached, most likely before the 2010 World Cup, there will be a period of some years to measure how the league does, especially in regards to the Designated Player rule and youth development.

The years to look out for are the seasons between the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Things might go well enough sometime in this period (hopefully due to a really good US performance at the World Cup) for there to be more teams, but it'll more than likely be a capped period for expansion.

Bringing a team to every major North American city will be difficult for different reasons. After you pass 20 teams in a league, there would start to be major conflicts with the international schedule. Which is one reason why countries have promotion and relegation: to allow more regions of the country to have teams without having scheduling conflicts. Since I don't think that will ever be implemented in the MLS, the only thing I could think of would be to have an NFL style schedule, where one team only faces half of all the other teams in a given season. There would have to be some kind of strange rotation of fixtures between teams in each conference every year.

With that said, I think St. Louis is a long awaited spot for an MLS team. It is deservedly called one of the major soccer hotbeds in the US, and I'd love to see how high its attendance figures would be like.

Edit: Didn't see what flippin269 wrote. That's great, since 18 is number I would really like to see in the next couple of years. I still think most of what I wrote stands, though. Those years after the next World Cup will be interesting.

[Juan Luis Guerra]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/srlinks.nsf/story/EE58F4B9BEFAE881862573330079250B?OpenDocument


http://www.stltoday.com/mds/sports/flash/333


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/DE846AF8A145D23786257334000CE5E0?OpenDocument


Thanks Kebzach, it's nice seeing you. It's been a long time. Thanks for this 3 articules. Now the question is: Is St Louis big enough to attract enough soccer fans?. I give you my opinion. St Louis is a soccer town. Anything that is in philadelphia is a soccer favorite atmosphere. So, i think it will be a great expansion site.

[ironhead]

OMFG - Please make this happen!

The stadium looks brilliant. I absolutely love the roof - it looks like it would help generate a great atmosphere inside the ground.

[bellysk8er2005]

Impressive plan! I really hope it goes through without any issues. St. Louis has a lot of Soccer History in this country. Plus, they would become instant rivals with Kansas City. :)
dont for get chi town we hate them(dam cubs)

[Tkebh979]

Couple of things...

If this happens, I'm going to live to regret moving to Denver. Dick's is great, but it doesn't have 1000 single family homes! (Score?)

Seriously though, with a full roof, that could easily be the loudest park in MLS. I went to the Chivas/Dynamo playoff game last year at HDC.. which was loud (As Chivas fans are known to be), but their section was open-air at the end of the park.

Anyone else's interest piqued by the name of the group, "St. Louis Soccer United?" StL United? ...meh...

Critiques aside, if this plan comes to fruition, I will be flying back to StL for the home opener. :rolleyes:

[mitchs3]

Here's the quote that struck me:

"Major League Soccer is excited about St, Louis Soccer United's efforts to bring an MLS team to one of the most passionate and storied soccer markets in the United States," said MLS president Mark Abbott. "We continue to believe the greater St. Louis area would be a tremendous home for an MLS club and are pleased to see the interest from the city of Collinsville in a soccer-specific stadium and mixed-use development. If approved, Collinsville would join a long line of communities that have partnered with MLS clubs to build world-class stadiums."

Unless I'm misreading that, did the MLS President just promise that if this stadium is approved Collinsville will have a team? No hedging, no maybe, just "If approved, Collinsville would ..." Unbelievable. Obviously, nothing is apparently in writing yet, but no wonder Cooper is willing to say the percentage likelihood is 'high 90's'. Wow.

[Sport Billy]

Here's the quote that struck me:

"Major League Soccer is excited about St, Louis Soccer United's efforts to bring an MLS team to one of the most passionate and storied soccer markets in the United States," said MLS president Mark Abbott. "We continue to believe the greater St. Louis area would be a tremendous home for an MLS club and are pleased to see the interest from the city of Collinsville in a soccer-specific stadium and mixed-use development. If approved, Collinsville would join a long line of communities that have partnered with MLS clubs to build world-class stadiums."

Unless I'm misreading that, did the MLS President just promise that if this stadium is approved Collinsville will have a team? No hedging, no maybe, just "If approved, Collinsville would ..." Unbelievable. Obviously, nothing is apparently in writing yet, but no wonder Cooper is willing to say the percentage likelihood is 'high 90's'. Wow.

His way out is to say by "approved", he meant "approved by the league"

[ironhead]

MLS would be fools to not award STL a franchise, provided that the stadium/facility proposal is approved by the Collinsville City Council.

[Seph]

MLS would be fools to not award STL a franchise, provided that the stadium/facility proposal is approved by the Collinsville City Council.

I think MLS wants to be here, and that's part of why they've taken it slow on naming expansion cities. They know it's a fantastic market fan-wise, they've just been giving time for the money/stadium stuff to be put in place.

[chopsuey12]

Simply amazing I can't wait there had been so much hype about this before so its nice to know its very possible. If this is true it will be amazin considering I live in Caseyville which is smack next to it. And i am sure that we will fill up at least 2/3 of the stadium. Not nessacarily becuz we are a huge soccer region but becuz it would mean a new hangout for teens and a place to go to on weekends for adults. Sometimes ppl don't wanna drive to STL due to the traffic to watch sports games...now (hopefully) they won't have to. LEts show we are a soccer city!