Late Monday night, after the Collinsville City Council had given the go-ahead for a massive development project that would include a soccer stadium, Jeff Cooper was on the phone. The man behind the bid to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to the St. Louis area called MLS President Mark Abbott, who oversees business matters such as expansion, to give him the good news. "Collinsville and our group sent a message tonight,'' Cooper told Abbott. Article here
And this from Abbott at the bottom: "It's a very key development, having a stadium,'' Abbott said of the vote. "We're really pleased with the result of last night's meeting, and we'll continue discussions with Jeff on the ownership side. I think it will be a process of continuing the positive momentum that resulted from the vote." Timmerman also mentions that Garber is being on record somewhere as saying that since there are so many strong candidates all apparently close enough to being ready right now, one option that MLS is actively considering is adding two franchises in 2009 and then instead of pausing as previously discussed, pushing on to 18 in 2010. I've not seen that reported anywhere else, has anybody else got a link to the source of such a quote from Garber? Isn't that outlandish of a statement if true, though I don't know who is quite as advanced as the oft-mentioned favorites of St. Louis, Seattle, and Philly. Portland would provide a very nice balance up in the Northwest, but are they really that close?
It sounded like Las Vegas was ready whenever the league was ready, I don't know if they had any govermental hurdles to overcome before proceeding with their plan. They definitely won't need public funding.