http://respublica.typepad.com/respublica/ http://www.stlouissoccerunited.com/content/view/39/81/ - More info included here, thanks to jfranz Yes, STL MLS SSS. The city council of Collinsville, IL met tonight at 7:30 PM and voted 4 to 1 to approve annexation of land for the planned SSS development. Apparently there still need to be some votes on financing, but the first step is taken and we are firmly on the road to a Collinsville stadium and St. Louis in MLS.
So should we expect an announcement in the next few days from Garber and Co. granting the franchise for 2009? The blogs I read including ones from Cooper himself seemed to point to it happening tomorrow if this was voted through.
Philly and Seattle, it's go time. Odds are very slim MLS adds three teams in the next round of expansion so it's a matter of which of you joins St. Louis in MLS in 09. Whomever gets their stadia in place first likely gets to join St. Louis as teams 15 and 16. Tick-tock, tick-tock, Clarice.
I doubt it. We should see something towards MLS cup time. But I could be wrong. Maybe Garber could announce it sooner so that StL can have enough time to build their stadium in time for 2009.
St. Louis Soccer United with the latest news and quotes from MLS brass: http://www.stlouissoccerunited.com/content/view/39/81/
You are clearly a madman. I have reported your post. Why must Seattle fans be the victim of this hellish Inquisition, when so many other teams began life in NFL stadiums?
Seattle fans like their stadiums like they like their women: big and beautiful. Enough of this anorexic 18,500-seater crap. METRO FOREVER, NOW OR NEVER NBS
Nah, j/k, don't want to threadjack. I'm just really happy to see one of America's greatest cities building a quality ground and hopefully getting an MLS franchise. I really hope that they aren't pitted against Philly, whom I also want to see in the league. That would be tragic. METRO FOREVER, NOW OR NEVER NBS
4 hours to KC, 4 hours to Chicago, 6 hours to Indy Can you say "DERBY TIME" ??? Could be some sweet rivalries brewing there...
It's such a love triangle, though. KC loves STL, but STL loves Chicago. And Chicago loves DC or something, so I guess it's a fairly nontriangular sort of triangle in the end. Hm. METRO FOREVER, NOW OR NEVER NBS
That's kinda wierd, huh? Illinois will have two MLS teams, and one of them will be named St. Louis. At the same time, Missouri has one team, and they're in Kansas City
They are still just bitter about the whole Don Denkinger blown call in 85 WS. Doesn't matter who the Derby is with. There will always be away fans at their home games against Wiz/fire thus increasing the atmosphere 10 fold.
I meant that you hate them and want your hate to be returned, but their true hate is Chicago. And Chicago, meanwhile, has committed the hate in its heart to another... It's a big set of unreciprocated rivalries! Maybe we should change their names so the Europeans don't get confused and make fun of us METRO FOREVER, NOW OR NEVER NBS
I would tend to agree except that here is Garber's quote from the Philadelphia meeting last week about what happens if the stadium plan isn't finalized by the end of the year. "After that, he said, Philadelphia falls from the top of the list for potential sites on the East Coast to host a franchise and compliment the upcoming West Coast addition of the league’s as-yet unnamed 15th team, expected to begin play in 2009." So the real question here is the real fight St. Louis and Seattle for 2009 or Philly and Seattle for 2010?
Welcome, St. Louis (fill-in team name here) to the MLS class of 2009! If the MLS would go to a single table format imagine the possibable rivalries. As mentiuoned earlier, you can have Derby matches with a KC, or Chicago. I would love to see MLS go to a single table format. a la, EPL. This would certainly generate rivalries.
They would also generate rivalries if they were in the same conference. two home games against rivals do not hurt. People in KC come out to hate STL.
well cooper says 2009. "Collinsville is also sending a strong message to Major League Soccer on behalf of the entire St. Louis metropolitan area – St. Louis is the best soccer community in the nation and we’re ready for Major League Soccer in 2009. Our commitment is absolute, and I am looking forward to expressing those thoughts when we reconnect with MLS Commissioner Don Garber and his executive team in the days ahead to discuss next steps.”
First off, congrats to St. Louis soccer fans on this important step. KC and St. Louis right now don't really compete for anything important, other than maybe KU-MU, and since KC is so divided on that subject, it's less about the cities. Any inferiority complex or "hate" in KC mainly revolves around baseball, and the glaring differences in our MLB franchises. We are a proud winning franchise of the past, turned into a laughing stock. In truth, it's KC fans that hold onto Don Denkinger, because it's all we've got. With interleague play, the rivalry is felt more strongly on the KC side, because "rivalry" wins like that are all we've been able to look forward to since about 1987. The Cardinals have been a class organization for years, with only short periods of ineptitude, so there really is more of a David and Goliath feeling today when they play. Chiefs fans don't really see the Rams as a rival, and vice versa, but that's mainly because conference rivalries in the NFL take precedence. If you put the Rams in the AFC West with the Raiders/Broncos etc., that would really build the intesity. I fully expect the MLS rivalry to be heated for 4 reasons. 1. Proximity and the possibility of doable one day roadtrips. (no hotel/flight) 2. Parity of the league virtually ensures important points will be on the line. 3. The nature of the game (blown calls, feeling robbed etc.) 4. Soccer fans aren't like Chiefs, Rams, Royals, or Cardinals fans.