News: Expansion Bid News - catch all thread

Here is how the Vancouver media reported the Atlanta announcement.

Only posting it here because it contains some quotes from Garber regarding St. Louis.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Atlanta+backs+franchise/1186712/story.html

 

It is just a rehash of an earlier article.

 

Something tells me that Garber still wants Miami/Barca badly. He is over in Barcelona right now apparently...

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/barcelona-rethinks-bid-for-mls-expansion-club/

"Garber, who was on vacation last week in Spain, met with Oliver on Friday, although there are no details about the meeting. Garber will attend Saturday’s match between Barcelona and crosstown rival Espanyol. The league and Barcelona last year signed a strategic agreement, before the submission of bids for an expansion team, that is scheduled to bring Barcelona to the United States on tour for a series of games over the next five years or so."

Please tell me Garber is not over there begging Miami/Barca to come into the league.

 

What city is the front runner now?

 

Vancouver!

 

I just read a blog from STL Today? It had an "interview" with Cooper, and he still sounds confident that you kids are going to have a football team in 2011. I hope so, anyway. Is this an actual site, or just a bunch of hooey? I only ask 'cause the link was on Sport Billy's second favorite website, MLS Rumors.

 

If it was on STL Today then it was real. There is a new article on there with an interview with Cooper. STL Today is the official website for the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

 

stltoday.com is the website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The blog in question was written by Tom Timmerman, who writes about soccer for the P-D.

 

Thanks! I guess I'm just used to anything on MLS Rumors being a crock of horse manure. I really hope you guys get your club this time. Not only would it be good for both STL and MLS, you kids have been around the block on this thing too many times to get the shaft-a-roonie once again. Best of luck.

 

Cooper: Do I feel like we’ll get it? Yes.

 

Ah...I assume this is what Bill McDermott was hinting at.

 

"Anheuser-Busch entered a letter of intent to transfer ownership of the Anheuser-Busch Center in St. Louis County, commonly referred to as Soccer Park, to the group."

Opening up the whole west side vs. east side can of worms again. This is awfully late in the process for this. As one of the commenters on KSDK's site mentioned, this seems likes InBev dumping somthing that they see as a drain on their corporate profits. As much as I would prefer this location, as it is much closer to my house than Collinsville, I can't see this helping the process right now.

How much would it cost to put a flood wall around Soccer Park? Wasn't most of it under water last spring?

 

Yes, this is definitely an odd late-game move. Nice piece of land, and soccer fans know where it is, so that helps. But that doesn't equal an MLS stadium. Still trying to wrap my head around this...

Is Cooper hoping that just the addition of the A-B name to the bid will add enough heft to help with MLS?

Is this a fallback plan for a USL-1 team? "Cooper said capacity could approach 10,000 by adding bleachers along the goal lines" - that would put it in USL-1 territory. Also a nice venue for WPS. But nowhere near MLS capacity. What gives?

Has MLS had reservations about the Collinsville location? If so, does this help? It's closer to more people, but it's still not the kind of downtown stadium MLS supposedly drools over.

"begin play in 2011 or 2012" - where does 2012 come from? First we've heard of that. Has MLS told Cooper that he could enter after the next two if he gets a few more details lined up? But the story still says "two expansion franchises".

So many questions...my gut instinct at the moment: this is being done with USL-1 in mind.

 

Good observations. I bet this is where the WPS or potential USL-1 would play. I really hope that this is more of a "play in Missouri, not Illinois" deal.

I think highway access could be improved. What I doubt is the ability to build a SSS and youth fields. It would wipe out the best place for high school and youth teams to play. (And where would people have wedding receptions???)

I agree this is too late to sway MLS brass. But you never know, maybe A-B is a big enough deal to get some attention.

 

That's exactly what sprung to my mind when I heard this: 'dispose of non-core business assets' or whatever the corporate speak they came out with when the In Bev deal was going down (like the theme parks).

Darn good question. Yes it was.

It is certainly being spun as A-B joins the effort. Hopefully that is what it is, if only in a small way, and not just an asset dump trying to be spun. I think everyone had thought for a long time that if we could get certain MLS involved parties, such as A-B, Checketts and Kroenke, to exert some influence it might help the process.

In this economy, I just keep thinking that if the magical $500 million super secret investor really does exist, they can't turn this bid down, can they? So, maybe they are trying to get as many $40MM checks as they can and will in fact admit more than just the two.

WPS and USL (if MLS falls through) both make sense here. Also, don't forget for now all of those SLSU stickers on cars all over town. As we sit here today, SLSU's biggest activity is the combined youth club structure. This is a great place for those clubs if the Collinsville complex never happens.

I think this best sums it up. I was about ready to blast Shelts for another out of left field posting and lo and behold it is not him making stuff up but a genuinely out of left field development not of his making, but an actual "whoa" development.

Also strange that there is nothing on the SLSU site about this. They must have laid off their web developer.

ADDENDUM:

I posted this before reading the Post-Dispatch article referenced in this new thread. Sounds like having the complex for the youth system is the main benefit, but that having an option for future expansion is another benefit.

Man, while I would be disappointed if STL doesn't get in this time around at least the process would be OVER in a couple of weeks - sink or swim. If we just start over again on the Missouri side of the river, what a pain.

 

Article on STLToday quotes Cooper as saying he is still determined to bring a team even if it doesn't happen this time around. But I think the Collinsville deal is dead if we don't get the expansion team this time. Maybe having the Soccer Park is part of a deal looking forward.

The women should be playing there immediately. Never understood why they would play at SUI-E.

 

May not be the full reason, but if WPS was going to wind up at Collinsville eventually, they probably wanted to start out nearby.

 

Here's what I think is an important question. Coors Light is the official beer of the NFL. Does MLS have an official beer sponsor? Bud has been very involved with the last few World Cups, and they have advertised on MLS telecasts before. Would InBev put the Budweiser logo on the front of the St. Louis MLS jersey? Is there any reason to think that this is really a three horse race once again?

 

Words cannot express how f'n mad I would be if the team pulled out of SIUE at this point. fyi I'm doing a supporters group and it's not easy finding a ton of members for a team that hasn't played yet and then to up and tell them they have to drive an extra 30 minutes when a few of them are collage students with NO cars? This little guy > times about a million.

Good for some Missourians... terrible for the IL side if this is what happens... I'm venting mad...

 

So are you going to tell all the people that have already bought tickets to Athletica that......oh by the way, we just moved the venue 40 miles away? Are they going to offer refunds to those who already bought tickets at SIU?

The SIU site made sense because the new stadium was going to be in Collinsville, only a few miles from Edwardsville, therefore moving the team in the future wouldn't have been that big of a move. The teams offices are in Collinsville, not far from where the new stadium would have been built. It may not make as much sense down the road, if they don't build the stadium in Collinsville. After seeing some of the saves Hope Solo made in the Algarve Cup, I would drive 40 miles to watch her play!

I think you are 100% correct about Cooper looking down the road. And I definitely think Cooper is looking more USL than MLS at this point.

 

I don't think there's any question that they'll be playing at SIUE this season. As for the future, who knows? This latest development shows that the whole soccer scene at the moment is totally unpredictable.