ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE MEDIA From: The St. Louis Lions Contact: Tony Glavin 2 Woodlands Parkway (636)939-5151 Cottleville, MO 63376 www.stllions.com Dec. 1, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ST. LOUIS LIONS ANNOUNCE EFFORT TO ACQUIRE MEN’S PROFESSIONAL UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES FIRST DIVISION FRANCHISE FOR ST. LOUIS Cottleville...Following the Annual General Meeting of the United Soccer Leagues (USL) in Tampa, Florida November 21-24, 2008, St. Louis soccer icon Tony Glavin has decided to begin the process to acquire a men’s professional team to play in the USL First Division beginning in 2010. Glavin, who is Owner, President and Head Coach of the St. Louis Lions USL Premier Development League franchise located in the St. Louis region, will be heading a group of investors who will bring some of the highest quality professional soccer being played in the United States to the region. “We’re well aware of the wonderful effort to bring Major League Soccer to the St. Louis area and we certainly wish Mr. Cooper and his group our hope for every success in Collinsville” said Glavin. “However a USL1 franchise is a very different creature than the MLS. To begin with, while the quality of play in the USL has proven itself to be comparable to that of the MLS in both the 2008 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup and the 2008 CONCACAF Champions League of international play, USL franchise fees have historically been well under $1 million, while MLS franchise fees are now at some $40 million. Where the MLS might need to fill a 20,000 seat stadium for every game to break even, we’ll be looking at something on the scale of 3-5,000 attendance per game to be profitable.” In the 2008 Lamar Hunt US Open, USL1 Charleston Battery defeated both FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo of the MLS before falling 3-1 to DC United of the MLS. In earlier rounds, Crystal Palace Baltimore, a Second Division (USL2) team beat two MLS teams before losing to DC United. In CONCACAF play, both Montreal and Puerto Rico of the USL have moved into the knock-out rounds of international play against the best teams in the Americas. Buoying the bid by the St. Louis Lions are a number of developments that argue for future success. When sports apparel and equipment giant Nike acquired the UK based Umbro sports shoe and apparel company, it also became a 94% owner of the United Soccer League. Mark Duggan, President of Umbro-The Americas, announced at the Annual General Meeting that Nike is committed to the success of the league. As USL President Francisco Marcos stated earlier, “Whether we are covered in diamonds (the Umbro logo) or surrounded by the swoosh (the Nike logo) I am convinced that the combination of Nike + Umbro is future of soccer, and certainly ours.” With a lucrative(for American soccer) television contract in hand with the Fox Soccer Channel along with players and television audiences throughout North and South America, the USL has also begun to look abroad for strategic partnerships and once again, Tony Glavin and the St. Louis Lions are well placed. As Tim Holt, USL Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer said at the USL AGM, “The USL continues to evolve into a viable alternative league model for Pro Soccer in North America featuring the USL developmental pyramid with an increasing focus on international relationships.” English Premier League teams West Ham and Bromley have begun player exchange and player development projects with the league while Glavin has developed a relationship with the famed Celtic FC from his hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. “What also makes our efforts attractive to the league is the fact that we have so much of the necessary infrastructure in place, including five full size fields, an indoor soccer field and facility, an extensive youth program and a thousand seat stadium with full size professional field along with all the necessary land for further development,” said Glavin. “We’re going to be looking at expanding our stadium and installing a variety of seating while expanding our parking to accommodate the larger crowds. It is for those reasons we feel assured of our own success even with an MLS franchise less than fifty miles away.” The United Soccer League has room for growth with the Seattle Sounders, a USL1 team joining the MLS next year and the Atlanta Silverbacks taking a hiatus as Atlanta bids for an MLS franchise for 2010. Current USL1 franchises are: Minnesota Thunder Rochester Rhinos Carolina Railbacks Montreal Impact Charleston Battery Portland Timbers Vancouver Whitecaps Miami FC Blues Puerto Rico Islanders For the 2008 season, there was a 30 game league schedule with 15 home games. The United Soccer Leagues was founded in 1986 and the USL1 began play in 1996. Currently there are 120 franchises comprise USL1, USL2, USL-Premier Development League, and USL-W, a women’s league. There is also an extensive SUPER Y league composed of youth boys and girls teams with players competing at the highest levels of youth soccer competition. The St. Louis Lions was a awarded a USL-PDL franchise in 2005 and was named “Rookie Franchise of the Year” in 2006. Tony Glavin is a former professional player from Scotland who has played and coached professionally in the United States since 1978 with the Philadelphia Fury and the St. Louis Steamers. He was a three time MISL All-Star and also won the MISL All-Star Most Valuable Player Award. He has coached the St. Louis Steamers, the Kansas City Comets and the Dayton Dynamo. “I look forward to the day in the very near future when there is competition between two professional soccer teams in the St. Louis region that takes on all the excitement and fanaticism I remember as a boy in Scotland when the Old Firm, Glasgow Rangers, the Bluenoses and Glasgow Celtic, the Bhoys, faced off in a cross town rivalry, “ said Glavin. “When we have generated that kind of passion St. Louis will have regained its place as the soccer capital of the United States.” Press Conference with more details to follow in January.
USL1 is great. the refs suck ballsack, but the league is fun to follow and there is a lot of pride in it right now with all the domestic and international success.
????There is a league in this world where refs do not suck ballsack? I love press releases. Sellin hard. Sellin hard. Good luck. The more teams the better I always say.
This will be great!!! A true pro-team to cheer for, and with the quality program TG youth club and the PDL Lions are we should be able to attrack the best of the best talent from the midwest and abroad. Now if only Des Moines makes the jump to USL1 we'll have a big league rivalry going, to further the PDL Lions vs Menace games!!!
While I'd love to have more teams in USL-1, I think this is pretty foolish to do before MLS makes its decision on St. Louis this coming spring. Seriously, there's no way that St. Louis can support both a USL-1 team and an MLS team. The last place that tried that that I can think of is Columbus. Long time ago now, at the beginning of MLS, but while both leagues have gotten stronger, the outcome will be the same. But, one way or another, y'all will have a pro team there, it seems. Congratulations!
This is good news for USL. In this ecomony, I wonder if we'll see more investor groups looking at USL versus MLS becuase of the lower operating expenses.
Can St Louis support 3 professional soccer teams? No, of course they can't Nevertheless, if St Louis gets no MLS franchise, USL1 would be a good alternative
Where would a USL pro team play in StL? I thought St Louis Unv didn't want to share its stadium (is there another location)?
At this point SLU is not involved. As the press release states we have our current complex with 5 fields that include two full size fields that meets FIFA regulations. We also own the land surrounding the fields that allows for us to expand our operations.
While true you have the fields, are there plans to erect a 3-5,000 seat stadium on that land by 2010? Would the stadium be placed on the existing fields or on the surrounding land you mention?
Yes we could have the expansion of the stadium complete by 2010. We could also play one season at a local university if the expansion is not complete on the stadium. There are several options but expansion on our currently owned land is very much possible.
Isn't it very likely that Cooper's group, if they fail in getting MLS, will lose their Collinsville stadium project? I thought they had to go MLS in order to get the money to build the stadium.
I think that the article said that the St. Louis Lions already owned a soccer complex with one field having 1000 seats, and that they were planning on expanding the capacity of that to a 5k-6k stadium. Don't quote me on that though, I'm on my phone and too lazy to look up the article.
I google-mapped the complex and while there looked to be six fields plus ample space for expansion, I did not see any seats. Of course this was from geo-synchronous orbit so I can't say for certain.
With Garber saying the the STL MLS bid pockes arent deep enough it looks like D1 is more promising. question, are there any talks with the people invovled with stl-mls working with the USL aspirations? It would be great if even some of the investors come on board with USLd1 good luck guys mikey
Yeah, best of luck to the Lions bringing higher-level soccer to the area. I'd have the same question as Mikey. Obviously, you guys have been building your own thing for a while now, so you don't owe anybody else anything. If working with Jeff Cooper's group is something you'd rather not do, would the Lions consider waiving their USL-1 territorial rights so Cooper can put another USL-1 team at the opposite end of the metro area? Let's say his team would play at Korte Stadium in Edwardsville, where the WPS team is playing this season. That's a pretty big distance between the two teams - over 40 miles. And with the economics of USL-1, it seems like each team could thrive without infringing on the other. If both teams could draw for their 15 or so games what the Rascals and Grizzlies do over 40+ games, that'd be solid USL-1 attendance. In the Lions' USL-1 press release, Tony Glavin said all the right things about creating a future derby with the potential MLS team. If anything, a USL-1 crosstown derby could be even more potent, because the teams would be competing in the same league and would play at least a couple of times a year. Again, the Rascals/Grizzlies comparison is apt - those games are invariably the best-attended and most impassioned on either team's schedule. I have no idea if Cooper will actually pursue USL-1, or if USL would allow two teams in the same metro area. But the prospect is intriguing. And even if that never pans out, I'm looking forward to the Lions bringing USL-1 to the St. Louis area.
For the record, jasontoon outlined about 75% of my perfect world in his previous post. ^.^ What about the 25% you ask? Well, 10% would be Cooper's teams playing in Collinsville vs. Edwardsville, but whatever (that's not for this thread). The remaining 15%? Glavin creating the Lions U23 in the PDL to compliment the Lions in USL1. That's the one and only downer for me in the possibility to the Lions promoting to USL-1: it leaves no PDL teams in the area for local college student-athletes to play on during the summer. So, I'm asking anyone who might have the info, are there any hints of Glavin also-keeping/planning-on-recreating a PDL team? (jasontoon's Q, whether USL/Glavin would let Cooper also have a USL-1 team, also still stands)