When will STL have Major League Soccer and would it be supported? (Kansas City: apartments, neighborhood)

[Jimmy Burma]

Hey there St. Louis. I just saw a thread in the Kansas City forum that spoke of the KC/STL rivalry in regards mostly to baseball. Ha, I like both places but will admit that most people in STL probably give little thought to the Royals. Back to my original thought though, Kansas City has MLS (The Wizards) and they've actually done fairly well since they've been in KC and draw decent crowds, and I've also personally known some pretty loyal supporters. I know that STL has a great history with Soccer and think it's a shame that St. Louis doesn't have a MLS Team considering the history and fact that St. Louis is a good sports town. Now if STL did have MLS and they were in the same league as KC than that might make for a pretty good rivalry. Any thoughts on this or has anyone heard anything about the possibility of STL getting an MLS team? How well do you think it would be supported? Any name ideas for the team if you had one?

[arch_genesis]

It won't have a team as long as Cooper is the one heading any efforts to get one. They don't have a stadium to play in and Athletica our WPS team isn't being supported as well as it was when it was at SIUE. That deserves another thread as they're in the wrong place absolutely. As far as MLS goes I think finding a stadium and a site that works is very important. I'm not on board with putting the team in Collinsville, I'd much rather have a stadium in the city at least, preferably downtown.

They can keep Anheuser-Busch Soccer Complex for practice fields or they can keep Collinsville for soccer fields which can always be sold later to developers as cheap land. A stadium downtown would be amazing. I had friends in from New York a few months ago and they loved how our sports venues were all downtown.

Cooper IMO is too aggressive trying to build too much in addition to a stadium. I think being from Collinsville he's too close to the project. He wants to build apartments and housing and lakes and businesses at the fringes of the fields and it sounds very blight and suburban. I think if he were to drop the periphreals and concentrate solely on a stadium one can be built downtown without destroying the street grid.

A 20,000 seat stadium could work and I think with the money he'd save from scrapping his 'soccer town' in Collinsville he could be a nice urban stadium downtown that could anchor a neighborhood like Wrigley's field. The Mayor would love to have the stadium downtown but the city doesn't have the money to assist in anything like that.

That's one reason why I'd prefer the NBA to MLS there really isn't a venue to build.

What I think Cooper needs to do is grab the USL Lions and build the stadium downtown a central location and quit bleeding Athletica attendance, and let the city support the lions. A competitive USL team could easily be tapped for MLS expansion and USL teams have.

Soccer doesn't have to destroy landscape and destroy density to work. I'd prefer an urban stadium and allow for businesses restaurants and density to happen organically.

[arch_genesis]

Collinsville Soccer Complex - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the entire development is valued at near $600 Million. Busch Stadium III didn't cost anymore than 350 million. Like I said Cooper is too close to the project. If he has 600 million to put into building a complex why not just keep ABSoccer Park in Fenton and build a nice 200 million dollar stadium in the city.

File:Philly Union stadium.PNG - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is estimated to cost 115 million.

[arch_genesis]

If we're going to get HSR in the midwest it would benefit rivalries to be able to take the amtrak into the heart of the city. Quinn and Nixon were both pushing for 150-200 MPH rail between Chicago and St. Louis. So why build a stadium in Collinsville and a sea of parking lots? Cardinals fans have no problem getting to games w/o parking they take the metrolink. Same goes for Rams Fans and Blues fans as well. Cooper just isn't the guy to get this done.

[aaronstlcards]

St. Louis Soccer United

[SouthCity09]

lets quit wasting everyones time with the ballpark village and build the soccer stadium in that spot...a 20,000 seat stadium will do.
I think MLS in St.Louis would be a huge success...get a couple of Bosnian players on the team to bring in the Bosnians to the games...there is 50,000 of them in the area after all.

[arch_genesis]

I still think BPV is going to go up and I hope it does. A soccer stadium right there just doesn't sit right with me. I think BPV is going to be successful whenever it does go up. The economy isn't too hot and there's still things to workout w/ bonds but I think it'll break ground within the next year.

[Marksman84]

Would you folks go if an MLS team played in the Metro East (i.e. Monroe County)?

[arch_genesis]

If it had rail access I would go but I wonder why Monroe County specifically?

[Jimmy Burma]

Hmm, it's too bad that there seems to be such an issue of where a St. Louis MLS team would play if the the city had one. I do think MLS would be a success in St. Louis and again STL would actually have two, near by rivals in Kansas City (Wizards) and of course (and probably more so) in Chicago (Fire). I'm actually a bit of a soccer fan and have seen the Wizards in KC a time or two. I think the STL/KC/Chi rivalries could be a lot of fun and hopefully wouldn't get too nasty (I'm thinking young U.S. Soccer Hooligan wannabe's, ha it's already happened on the East Coast see NY versus DC Rivalry). In any case, hopefully it won't be too much longer for St. Louis. Thanks to all who replied and aaronstlcards thanks for the St. Louis United link.