MLS commissioner says St. Louis is "front runner" for expansion team.... (Chesterfield: 2014, buying)

[MUTGR]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/socce...148aaf66e.html

...I think a team would do very well here.

[Jjmars]

What would our name be?

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by Jjmars

What would our name be?

I wish they could use the name "Spirits" like the Spirit of St. Louis like that old ABA team that was here briefly.

I think that would be impossible since the owners of that team are still being paid by the NBA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirits_of_St._Louis

"In the summer of 1976, with the ABA at the point of financial collapse after 9 years, the six surviving franchises (the Virginia Squires went bankrupt immediately after the final season) began negotiating a merger with the NBA. But the senior circuit decided to accept only four teams from the rival league: the Nets (the last ABA champion), Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs.

The NBA placated John Y. Brown, owner of the Kentucky Colonels, by giving him a $3.3 million settlement in exchange for shutting his team down. (Brown later used much of that money to buy the Buffalo Braves of the NBA.) But the owners of the Spirits, the brothers Ozzie and Dan Silna, struck a prescient deal to acquire future television money from the teams that joined the NBA, a 1/7 share from each franchise (or nearly 2% of the entire NBA's TV money), in perpetuity. With network TV deals becoming more and more lucrative, the deal has made the Silnas wealthy, earning them $186 million as of 2008, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and $255 million as of 2012 according to The New York Times.[1] (The NBA nearly succeeded in buying out the Silnas in 1982 by offering $5 million over eight years, but negotiations stalled when the siblings demanded $8 million over five.) On June 27, 2007, it was extended for another 8 years, ensuring another $100 million+ windfall for the Silnas. In 2014, the Silnas reached agreement with the NBA to greatly reduce the perpetual payments and take a lump sum of $500 million.[2] In the last few years before the lump sum agreement, the Silnas were receiving $14.57 million a year, despite being owners of a team that hadn't played one minute of basketball in more than 35 years.[3] The Silnas will, however, still be receiving a now much smaller portion of the television revenue through a new partnership with the former ABA teams the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs. [4]"

[SPonteKC]

**** club, no history.

[Hector2]

It seems MLS insists on naming teams in a faux-European way, so I suggest Lokomotiv St. Louis.

[STL2006]

I really like Gateway FC.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by STL2006

I really like Gateway FC.

Not bad actually.

[Chicago76]

I'd be good with simply River FC.

[Fishtacos]

From a marketing perspective I believe you have to think much bigger. The team needs St. Louis in the name such as the USL's Saint Louis FC. (I like their logo and colors as well as a side note) The team then could also add nicknames to that which is common throughout Europe, and elsewhere. A team will do very well in St. Louis, and it appears St. Louis finally has the money/investors, stadium plan, and full support of the league to make it happen.

[Chicago76]

Originally Posted by Fishtacos

From a marketing perspective I believe you have to think much bigger. The team needs St. Louis in the name such as the USL's Saint Louis FC. (I like their logo and colors as well as a side note) The team then could also add nicknames to that which is common throughout Europe, and elsewhere. A team will do very well in St. Louis, and it appears St. Louis finally has the money/investors, stadium plan, and full support of the league to make it happen.

Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but until we have more than a concept drawing or ambiguous talk about meeting with potential investors, we have neither a stadium plan or investors.

What we have right now are a bunch of hypothetical unnamed uncommitted people willing to listen to the MLS elevator pitch because the idea of being STL sports savior to mend the blow dealt by Dark Lord Kroenke is appealing. I'm more optimistic than I was 6 months ago though. I'd feel a lot better if one of the groups with money came forward more publicly. Even that doesn't give me a huge sense of optimism (See: Beckhams Miami investors).

If it does come to fruition, one of the really exciting things is MLS' trend toward wanting urban locations for their venues. They don't want to see a Collinsville, Chesterfield Valley, St Charles concept. They're going to want to see a plan in the city or on disused industrial land in the county fairly close to the heart of it all.

Re:name. I think having the city name helps to some degree, but branded effectively, I don't think it is completely necessary, but it would need to be really well done. At this point, you could call them the Sauget Stripper for all I care so long as we have a team.

It would be cool too see them make use of the land to be vacated by NGA. Turn some of that area into a park like setting where people can interact more recreationally with the river. Spur some redevelopment in the vacated Lemp site. Parlay the proximity to the breweries into a beer themed name.