I dont see why St. Louis wouldnt be a place tp bring a new team. People honestly dont realize how big soccer is here. It is one of the most played sports and a good tradition. Just look at St. louis University. Brian McBride, Taylor Twellaman and a lot of other players came from here. 5 members of the 1950 upset team were from here. Its a big soccer city and I think a professional league would be very well recieved. I understand soccer is a big in places like Cali and Texas but they already have teams. Why not expand a little more in the midwest rather than just Chicago and Kansas City? Thats just my thoughts but I know a team would be well recieved and appreciated.
An expansion team in St. Louis has been discussed in other threads. Most agree it would be a great MLS town. There are two hurdles in the way: 1. Where (what stadium) would they play? 2. Who would pony up the cash for the team?
well in answer to your first question, I think that SLU's facility might do, but there would be parking ordeals, but then again they can make a garage they seem to do that a lot here in st. louis. They could make SLU sit up to 20k and what people dont realize is is that that 20k would COME, and then more. Soccer is HUGE here. And in answer to he o so famouse cash question. Why wouldnt Anheiser Busch sponsor one? Has noone seen the facility they have set up in Chesterfield? Or heard of the 30 plus select teams they sponsor? I played for them, they like soccer there. The Busch team plays INTERNATIONALLY. We were in a european tour last year. And they paid for it. It isnt like they dont have the money to shell out. And if you needed more this may sound stupid but here in STL when it comes time for needing money its called fundraising, It may sound stupid but i know for a face that churches and private leagues would do it. It seems like a stretched idea, but if you think about all of the teams, all of the little kids, each getting money, thats gunna add up fast. There are a lot of wealthy people based especially in the West County area and in West County soccer is the biggest. There are a lot of parents that own soccer facilities and parks. People WANT team here and a lot of people would donate towards one. Its a fact, suggest it, bring it, and the people will come.
You know....if they are looking for a place to build the stadium besides the city area, you could head down to the valley in Chesterfield. They are already starting to build a soccer complex down there and there is room for parking and things. It would cost more though because of the area. They are better off just expanding on SLU and building a parking garage.
I love it how soccer is HUGE everywhere until you're expected to product 16K plus crowds week in week out. Then when the crowds get thin the excuses start rolling in: Management isn't promoting to the right people. Oh, the Rams had a game at the same time. The Cards are in town. Busch had a free beer giveaway. St. Louis is way down the list of potential MLS sites. (Don't get me wrong I'd love to see MLS in every top American city, but it ain't happening.) St. Louis' sports market is already crowded given the size of the metropolitan area and that is another strike against it. Cities soccer was HUGE in: Tampa Miami San Jose
You talk about having attendance and having it start to drift look at all the places where there already ARE teams. St. Louis is THE soccer city in America. You people dont get it. Come to West Co. in Missouri for a day and you could drive around and see people playing soccer everywhere. People WANT a team here, there wouldnt be low numbers for attendance. They would probabaly have the greatest number. Have you ever seen what the Steamers did? Sold out Kiel Center all the time. There are probably about 100,000 people who play soccer in just West County ALONE. West County is the richest part of Missouri and the biggest soccer area. People would help pay for a team and you could get 20k crowds every game garunteed. You have no clue how much peeople like soccer here, its like a dynasty. St Louis had their own soccer league for 30 years. We have the top Highschool and college programs, And if you will please recall who lead the nation in college soccer attendance? St. louis University. Dont let the exscuse be that people wouldnt come to the games. Sports attendance is the highest in all sports here and soccer wouldnt be a downfall.
ha, no not quite. It is by far the richest area. The cost of living in West Co. is a LOT. This is where all of the car dealiership owners and all of the doctrs dentists etc. live. I live here, not to say that i am amoung that class. But this is considered the "spoiled kid" area.
If you want to talk about participating numbers in soccer try this, In West County alone in st. louis there are over 100 schools with soccer prgrams that include 50 plus childeren, male and female for each respective team. Then you can add about another 5000 from all of the little kids that play in the church leagues here. Add another 5000 from all of the select teams that run threw here, regional, national, and international. Not to mention that was just the KIDS numbers. Look at the all of the differant inter city leagues and indoor leagues they have here. All these kids and parents that are starting their won leagues. Just ask people who come from here. If you want to have a place where you will get a good fan response and good attendace at games come here. We have people that drive down to KC just to watch the Wizards. Bring them a team here and youll be surprised.
First of all where do u get off with the delusional teenager? It isnt delusional. There arent places where soccer numbers are registerred higher. There are a LOT of people who could sponsor a stadium. People say that Anheiser Busch doesnt like soccer and wont do it but thats where all of the b.s starts. They already have a facitlity made and they already sponsor international select teams that travel everywhere and play. And you are the one who needs a reality check, talking like st louis is some kind of farm fest. Thats Illinois. Have you ever BEEN to west county? There arent people like that here it is one of the richest countys in the nation. And the county loves soccer. If St Louis can manage 10k crowds for weekly soccer games for a college level event then they can manage 15k and probably much more for a major league team. The sports response here is amazing Dont talk like you know what goes on here and like were all a bunch of urban farmers. Talk about reality check dang, that was like what...100 years ago? Well welcome welcome to the NEW st louis for you. Its called suburbs and parishes and schools...not pig fests and kids running around with corn straws n their mouths, And even if I am the delusional teenager at least Im not the ignorant adult. Come here and take a look and then tell me who has the soccer city.
ok, lets get back on track talking about something related to st louis and expansion and not the kiddie stuff. aymore of this this and posts will be deleted. stlsoccer21- please look at the first thread, it has listed a thread already on your topic. segroves- enough.
I'm a St. Louis boy myself, although I'm not living there right now, and both ends of this arguement have some merit. St. Loiuis is indeed a soccer hotbed. There isn't nearly the prejudice against soccer from your average guy type in St. Louis than most other places in the US. There are good players, good coaches, and plenty of fans. I do think that given an MLS quality team, you'd be able to at least match if not exceed what other MLS teams are drawing. Hell, when indoor soccer was going strong St. Louis outdrew what many MLS teams get. However, there is also the point that there really isn't a good place for them to play right now. SLU is pretty small and there isn't a ton of room for expansion, plus you'd have to work around SLU events and you'd be at the mercy of the college, which doesn't exactly have a good reputation for playing with others. They like to run the show. So, we would need a new facility. And, yeah, there's plenty of doctors and lawyers in West County, but running an MLS team takes WAY more than doctor and lawyer money. If there was an interested party stepping up and wanting to own a team in St. Louis and had the bucks, I have no doubt the league would be lookng at the city. But, there isn't, so they're not. I doubt we'll see a team in St. Louis for another decade or more, when and if MLS starts looking like a profitable venture. MLS just isn't getting many new investors on board these days, and I don't see them opening up new teams in any city without both an investor and plans for a stadium, both of which St. Louis has not come up with. Now, if MLS starts being a profitable league someday, all this will change, but until then, I'm not holding my breath and I'll keep going to FIRE games.
Yeah Im done arguing, not because you have made any sensible point or anything. All I was trying to say was that St. Louis is a soccer hotbed, one of the biggest, and that a MLS Team would be well recieved here, and attendance would be huge, with out doubt. As soon as MLS gets going some more they will realize that a large number of their players come from this area and gow well soccer is recieved here and I look forward to that day. But as for AB not shelling out money for sports stadiums..um...two words. Busch Stadium, they are the ones that had it built. They arent going to build the new one, so whose to say they wouldnt turn their money toward an MLS team?
Well said, Mike. As a native Kansas Citian, I would love to have a team in Saint Louis for the rivalry alone. But A-B has had 8 years to show any interest in either MLS or the WUSA. MLS hasn't exactly been a "stealth" league like lacrosse or rugby. It is, afterall, the "World's Game". I can show you any number of soccer jerseys bith "Budweiser" blazoned across them. I would guess that soccer games are second only to baseball games in the sheer number of broadcast hours on American television each year. I can tell you that Anschutz and Hunt haven't exactly been sitting around letting things "happen", they have spent the last 8 years actively courting new ownership and investment. Somehow they have cajoled Kraft into staying, but everyone else has dropped out. Sure, Saint Louis might make a fine MLS market. There's really only one way to find out. But like the poor slobs in Seattle are finding out -> no ownership -> no franchise. Yesterday's promises, and the "hey, Anschutz could handle yet another team, why does he hate us" persecution complex ignore reality. Like Mike pointed out, anyone that claims that a given city will show great support is smoking crack. Nobody really knows. The Rowdies rocked Tampa, while the Mutiny barely made a blip. The Tornadoes spawned the Dallas Cup and have turned the Dallas region into a virtual factory for youth soccer, yet the Burn, until this year, showed only steady - not spectacular - support. If soccer is so "huge" in Saint Louis, I ask that you go downtown at lunch and ask random folks what they think of Chris Klein, Matt McKeon, Steve Ralston, Taylor Twellman, Ty Keough, and others. 95% of the time, you are going to get "who?" as a response.
The only accurate statements made by Seagroves during this entire conversation are what everyone already knows about Saint Louis, 1) The Saint Louis area currently does not have a suitable MLS facility. 2) Currently the area is lacking a sponsor willing to pony up the dough. 3) Certain areas of Saint Louis City proper are blighted. The rest of his commentary is as usual a steaming pile of stinkin manure sprinkled with mommentary bits of comedy. Mike you really ought to have more respect to the traditional Soccer Capital of the United States. The historical impact that Saint Louis area players, coaches, builders and ambassadors of the game cannot be overlooked by anyone and in fact is second to none in the history of the game of soccer in our country.
What about pointing out the lack of "accurate statements" from the other side? Saying that Saint Louis would support an MLS team is not a fact. There is no proof or dis-proof. Just wishing. As far as calling Saint Louis the "soccer capital" of the US, this ain't the 1950s. Saint Louis is nothing on the professional soccer map of the US other than the home town of a few players. UCLA, Charleston VA, suburban New Jersey, Chapel Hill, and Dallas can make likewise claims.
The above statement may or may not be accurate. Quite a few Saint Louisians will recognize Ty's name! However if you went into downtown Chicago and randomly asked who is, Jim Curtin, Jesse Marsch, Andy Williams or Carlos Bocanegro, guess what you would get the same, Who? Go to downtown Denver and ask what they think of Chris Carrieri, John Spencer, Richard Kotschau and Mark Chung and you get a blank look, Go downtown to New York and ask a random person what they think of, Bob Bradley, Eddie Pope, Richie Williams or Steve Jolley and you get mugged for your troubles! The problem here Andy is these are MLS cities so your point is fruitless and means nothing.
Oh, but it does. You don't have a basketball team, but if you start asking about NBA players from Saint Louis, you'll get some responses. Pro soccer hasn't broken through anywhere. To purport that it would in Saint Louis is just speculation. Thanks for making my point for me, Tom.
Are you smokin crack Andy? Saint Louis may not have a team presence in MLS but our footprints are all over the league in many respects. A few players? Try a lot more than a few and many of them are star players. Saint Louis continues to this day to produce many high quality players throughout the various levels of the game in the USA from the amateur ranks and collegiately. For criminy sakes man if it wasn't for St. Louis Kansas City would never even been considered for an MLS franchise. The only reason there is a team in KC instead of Saint Louis is because of your facility while Saint Louis was and is lacking one. Saint Louis brought KC soccer in many real respects. Your Comets indoor team was populated by St. Louis players and coaches. Transplanted Saint Louisians coached many of your youth teamsboth currently and over the years. Your indoor facilities were patterned after our indoor soccer clubs. Are you trying to tell me that Saint Louis has not greatly influenced soccer in KC? The UMKC soccer team is populated mostly by St. Louis players and coached by a St. Louisian as was and is other college programs in the KC area. Their are many cities that have had a strong soccer precence that aren't fortunate enough to have been awarded an MLS franchise due to a myriad of reasons. Among them at the top of the list of course, Saint Louis Philadelphia Detroit Seattle Rochester Jersey Milwaukee San Diego Portland Houston Your KC franchise was awarded for 3 primary reasons, Lamar Hunt and your stadium along with the youth socer explosion that St. Louis helped spawn in your area.
Duly noted Mr. Segroves. Please pardon my spelling error of your last name. As usual your humor is appreciated! I'm in complete agreement regarding your points about our lack of funding and facilility and I have long understood them. Saint Louis continues to be among the nations leaders in producing strong players which is the games most vital ingredient and which by the way all of us soccer fans benefit from with respect to the entertainment value they provide! Also make no mistake there is a very strong private desire among St. Louisians in bringing to St. Louis a MLS team. What is lacking pure and simple is good old fashioned funding.
Your welcome. However if that was your point it was well hidden. However I will make a very simple statement and that is "if" Saint Louis had a team located here for the past 8 years Saint Louisians would recognize their names. Take SLU's soccer team as an example. The team gets regular mentions after each match played with often times highlights shown on all the local TV stations and the team is very well covered by St Louis print and radio media. Another example is Indoor Soccer Icon Darryl Doran is well known in the community. Simply put has Saint Louis had an MLS team the last 8 years much of it would have been populated with home grown talent and the team would have been quite well received here in terms of being a Major League Team with many native players.
1. A-B is not going to buy a team in MLS, or anywhere else, for that matter. They sell beer. They sponsor soccer to do no more than that. They continue their affiliation with Busch SC because it doesn't cost them much and maintains a historic local tie. 2. St. Louis would probably be a good MLS market, once they had things like an owner and a place to play. If they had a NBA team, I wouldn't be as bullish, but that market is big enough to handle NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS. 3. I still think St. Louis would have a chance as an A-League market, particularly if the team was sold as a "St. Louis" team to appeal to the highly chauvinistic St. Louis soccer market. Lots of St. Louis players, lots of appeal to St. Louis' soccer history.