Don't these fans deserve better?

Now I am starting to get why St. Louis has been passed over for expansion into Major League Soccer these last couple years. We knew going into the rounds of expansion the one thing hurting the bid was the money side. Apparently the money is being drained from their current teams in the USSF Division II and on the ladies side of things in the WPS.

Dave Lange at the Globe-Democrat has a long article on the matter. I’d recommend checking it out.

Jeff Cooper the guy who headed up the expansion bid for the Gateway City is said to no longer be the majority owner of the clubs. Its not too surprising that its come to this. I recall talking with a couple folks in the St. Louis area about a MLS expansion team a while back and they all said that it would never happen with Cooper leading the way because of the money issues. He was never the richest guy and he also struggled in getting other investors to jump on board with his ideas they said.

According to the article another issue hurting the clubs is the cost to maintain the stadium they are using. They currently play at Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park, which Anheuser-Busch Inbev donated to Cooper’s group last summer. Folks there are saying that place is sucking them dry.

It sucks to hear this about this market but at the same time I think MLS should feel pretty good about not going there just yet. They saw the bigger issue that Cooper and his group didn’t see which probably would have meant this club wouldn’t have lasted after a season in MLS is run this way.

I still see a future for professional soccer in St. Louis but it has to be with someone else leading the way. While I love the passion that Cooper has here it stinks to see it coming at a big price for this area. Hopefully something changes quick and they get their act together financially.

Original St. Louis stadium design.

With Montreal all but given an expansion key to Major League Soccer there is still one bid that will be up for grabs, that lovely 20th spot. St. Louis is hoping to be that city that finally gets into MLS. While they already had one stadium option in their initial proposal to MLS, they now seem to have another couple options coming up.

According to Tim Logan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, two more sites are being discussed along with the Collinsville stadium. One site includes a stadium that is with another developer that isn’t even associated with Jeff Cooper and his group that was heading the St. Louis to MLS drive.

Gateway Real Estate Partners recently submitted a proposal to Richmond Heights to build a $395 million mixed-use project, centered around a new 18,500-seat stadium, along Hanley Road south of Highway 40. It’d also include housing, hotels, retail, office space and perhaps a movie theater.

It’s on the site known as Hadley Township, where Richmond Heights and Michelson Commercial Realty and Development worked for three years to try and craft a workable project. That effort ended in February, and Richmond Heights officials sought new proposals.

Interesting that some random developer wanted to build a new soccer stadium. Maybe he was watching Field of Dreams or something and thought if you build it they will come. Cooper released a statement regarding the proposed site saying he is still focused on Fenton (at the St. Louis Soccer Park) and Collinsville.

Ryan Woods approached me with his plan some time ago, but none of our discussions have been serious.  In the meantime, earlier this year we acquired the St. Louis Soccer Park from Anheuser-Busch and are committed to exploring that site as a potential home for a new, state-of-the-art stadium for professional soccer.  Also, we continue to work with Collinsville, which has been a terrific partner to date.  The Richmond Heights proposal is not one that has our attention at this time.

Apparently things are still early in the development stages for everything here but from what it sounds like this new location would be a good fit for a soccer team in St. Louis. Most would agree that it is better than Collinsville, which is a good drive outside of St. Louis.

I think St. Louis still has a long way to go here to get a MLS club. As badly as MLS wants to be in that city they need to focus on getting the right money in their corner for an expansion bid. But seeing a couple new plans for stadiums gives some signs of hope in the Gateway City, small hope but hope nonetheless.

Going back to Friday’s thoughts about the 2009 edition of SuperLiga, I realized that maybe one thing to help improve the tournament’s ability to reach people may be to do what happened in St. Louis this past weekend.

For those who don’t know the city of St. Louis hosted an opening round game for Kansas City since their current stadium was a bit busy with minor league baseball this past weekend.

St. Louis stepped up and hosted a game in a slightly smaller stadium that holds just over 6,000. It turns out that the final number of folks that were there was just a shade over 5,200.

One has to wonder if putting more games in random towns like St. Louis to test out potential MLS markets would work for SuperLiga. One also has to wonder in St. Louis’ case if they would be able to handle a MLS club full-time based on the numbers they pulled in this weekend for the SuperLiga contest. Some have said that even though the announced final attendance was pretty good for the stadium size that there were plenty of noticeable empty seats in the stands.

What do you make of St. Louis as a MLS market now that you’ve seen a fairly big game there? For me I still believe the league needs to be in that market. I know Don Garber agrees still with that even though the money just isn’t there still for a potential owner.

So what do you make of the potential with St. Louis? Also do you believe SuperLiga would be good in other markets that don’t currently have a MLS club? Would that rasie the level of interest any for this tournament?

Yeah, 20 clubs by 2012. It’s something that really doesn’t shock me in the least bit because I think the league has dropped some hints at this in the past that few have picked up on.

So who will be in the mix for this next round? Easily we have to believe that if Portland is really being announced this week that this quick expansion round means that the league is giving another pass to St. Louis to get their stuff in order. It only makes sense that they are doing this to me for St. Louis alone.

Sure it means only cities like Ottawa and even recent expansion dropouts Miami, Atlanta and Montreal can re-try their hand at MLS. Though on Montreal I kind of get a feeling that Montreal may have a problem leaving the USL first division now that Portland and Vancouver are getting out. They may see themselves as a top dog there.

What doy you make of this announcement by Garber? Good for the league? Too much too soon?

With the 2009 MLS season about to kick off this week and everything that’s happened the week gone by, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the future regarding our league.

Last week we saw drama from the Pacific northwest to the Gateway City. The fact that the vote in Portland on Wednesday would not only dictate how far their own bid would go, it would also influence the Ottawa bid and especially the St. Louis bid. However, even before all this 11th hour drama began, what looks like the one certain lock has been the quiet, yet steady bid the whole time since all original bids were announced back in the fall.

At first we all thought Montreal would be in instantly including yours truly. Montreal already have a state of the art stadium that can easily expanded to meet the needs of MLS. The Impact already have a rivalry with Toronto FC and it would be enhanced in league play. Of course not forgetting fan support. It looked like potential ownership had deep enough pockets but maybe not deep enough as we thought.

Arthur Blank and his Atlanta bid dropping out was not a complete surprise as he has apparently lost some money in this downturn and it was always an underdog at best. Atlanta should be kept in mind for the future though, but at the moment other cities are better fits currently then them.

Then the biggest surprise of them all thus far, was Miami dropping out of the race. Not only having a billionaire potential owner from Bolivia, but with the help of arguably the biggest club side in the world joining the bid was something MLS simply could not ignore not only because of what the name FC Barcelona stands for globally, but because the club already have a marketing partnership with SUM for the next five years.

I for one was never a fan of the Miami bid for a number of reasons and the only reason why Claure and company lasted as long as they did was because of the Spanish giants involvement. In the future MLS should try the Miami market again depending on the economic climate and measuring it up with other bids that may come into play. Currently there are just more deserving cities right now.

So with two near enough certainties dropping out early the field, it then became an open race for the most part.

Vancouver has been the one bid that nobody heard a peep from and at the moment, that is good news. Everything has seemed to fall in place in BC: deep pockets, stadium deal done and fan support. Of course stranger things have happened such as two early favorites dropping out so don’t count them in until it’s officially announced, but it does look an almost certainty.

If Vancouver is in, that leaves a closer race for the last spot. Portland got what they needed Wednesday, however, they were not counting on Anheuser-Busch joining Albert Pujols and Jeff Cooper the same day. Who would have thought competition for expansion franchises in MLS would get this competitive five years ago?

It doesn’t take a Ivy league graduate to figure out that Portland would be an excellent fit for MLS. They have the owner with deep pockets, extremely strong fan support with an instant local rivalry with the Sounders and Whitecaps (if Vancouver gets in) and now have officially a stadium deal in place. Although it seems that $15m must come up from somewhere which looks like the final hurdle that needs to be cleared.

St. Louis must be thinking what else have we got to do to impress Don Garber after losing the 2010 expansion race to Philadelphia and possibly the 2011 race. The question that remains is not so much a potential ownership group with deep pockets now because of the events that took place last week, the question is are they too late? One wonders why Jeff Cooper could not get Anheuser-Busch on board much earlier. However, it certainly gives MLS much to think about by extending the decision to March 31st.

The other Canadian bid in the capital did raise a number of eyebrows when the bids were announced. Classed as an underdog just as Atlanta was is a credit to the Ottawa bid that they have lasted this long. However, just as the Atlanta and Miami bids before them, they should be considered for future expansion should the league choose to expand further. Right now, there are other bids that just fit better currently plus the stadium deal hasn’t been officially put in place yet.

Jeff Cooper said recently in a interview with Gol TV he thinks all original seven bids were good enough and in an ideal environment MLS would like all seven bids to join the league. It’s hard to disagree with that statement. Unfortunately, putting aside all the paperwork and obstacles that need to be cleared, the truth is the talent pool is not big enough to accommodate seven new clubs all at once in North America. Include the current salary cap in the equation then it would be more difficult to bring in more foreign players. However, with roster size changes, number of foreign players per team, the cap will increase and therefore teams will have a little bit more room to be flexible in bringing in new talent. Should MLS continue to expand by another two teams in 2012 or 2013, the choices should be obvious ones.

MLS should do whatever it takes to get the Montreal Impact in the league simply because it makes so much sense in every way and there is too much potential there to ignore. The other should go to either Portland or St. Louis whichever is the one that loses in the current race.

At the moment Portland is favorite and all signs point to them winning, but just as Miami and Montreal showed us nothing is guaranteed.

Wow. If Major League Soccer was looking for a serious deep pocket for the St. Louis bid they may have gotten it. Today Anheuser-Busch has joined Jeff Cooper and his group to get a MLS club in the Gateway City.

“It’s huge. It’s a turning point,” Cooper said. “This commitment brings a lot of credibility to our bid, and shows the league how serious we are.”

“This is the best situation we could have hoped for,” Cooper said. “Whether it throws us over the top, that’s up to the MLS.”

Of course it all depends on the vote in Portland today. St. Louis is hoping to hear good news out of PDX later tonight. The league has already stepped up and posted a report on this matter.

I guess if things go well in Portland tonight St. Louis will turn to the USL for a club. Right? More than likely. Its kind of weird to think that they don’t already have USL-1 team right now anyways.

“Obviously I’ve always felt good about where we sit with this,” he said from San Francisco, where he was at WPS league meetings. “We’ve got a lot of good things going. At end of the day, do I feel like we’ll get it? Yes I do.”

“What I do know is, we don’t have the problems Miami has in terms of bids,” he said. “We have a stadium that’s revenue controlled. It’s going to be a good run for us over the next few months.”

Cooper even mentioned that economic reasons have not troubled the bid.

“We stand as ready as we’ve been,” he said. “Nothing has deterred us. I feel good about our bid and where we stand. Personally I think it’s a shame Miami is out, it’s a great city, and I thought the same about Montreal and Atlanta. They need to be in the league. But the league needs to come to St. Louis first.”

Yeah, even though Miami is out you gotta believe Cooper is loving the fact that the big dog is out of the running here. I still have a feeling he and the league are meeting a lot these days to discuss a deal to get the city a club before long. If Cooper can get an expansion fee at a discounted rate like what Miami and Montreal have been reported to trying to do.

As much as I really want to see St. Louis in the league, at this point I just feel like they’ve been passed up here by the two cities in the Pac-Northwest.

For weeks I had said that since the league didn’t go a head and grant Miami a bid like most had thought they would before today that something was going wrong. A few months back most expected Miami to already be planning for 2010. But instead there was a delay and that delay ended today as bid died.

Sorry Miami fans, it just wasn’t in the cards for you after all. And to be real honest it is a smart move on the league’s part to not try that market just yet here. One day down the road for sure but definitely not now.

I liked the passion some people had about the Miami bid. Believe me there were plenty of commentors on here about how Miami would get a club in 2010 and that good news was around the corner for the bid. Turns out their wishful thinking was just that.

Today all we will see is a flood of Miami bashers out there and a slew of Miami fans that will just be upset more than anything.

In the end we have four left on the floor to pick from. Portland, a strong bid that is close to getting the public support that it needs to get a bid; Vancouver, a well-backed bid in a city that would probably handle a MLS team pretty well; St. Louis, once seen as a front-runner is now probably more of a dark horse than anything today; and Ottawa, the most laughed at bid in the bunch.

I am still hopeful that St. Louis can get it done in the end but money has and will probably continue to be an issue with them.

My money today, just like it has been for the last several months is on Portland for one bid and now more than ever I believe Vancouver is the other. We will see in a couple short weeks.

Where do you see the league going to now? Miami, the bid seen as a front-runner for months is gone…so who is now in line to take the bids?

Miami is still the front-runner for the expansion race.

We started a few months ago with seven hopefuls. Now we are looking at just five. Montreal cooled their jets about MLS expansion back at MLS Cup  and Atlanta did the same last week during the SuperDraft.

Five cities remain in what is starting to sound like a nasty episode of Survivor. Portland, Vancouver, Ottawa, Miami and St. Louis remain. Only two will move on.

Yeah, sounds too much like a reality show.

Anyways, what do we make of the final five here? Will another fall through before the league announces their plans? It’s possible with comments Don Garber made about St. Louis and their situation recently.

Money is still a big issues with most of these bids. Even if the owners have deep pockets that still may not be good enough for the league. And even if the bids have good stadium projects it may not matter.

So where do I see the remaining five? I figured it would be best to rank the final cities before the league made their decision. Here is where I see them standing right now. You may agree or disagree with what I am about to say, and that is fine. Just because a city is ranked above another does not mean I fully support it’s bid for expansion. I think you all know that already though.

[And please spare us all from the typical "City Name and 2010 or 2011" comments...if you have anything to say about this stuff please actually put a thoughtful comment on here and not something that I will want to delete. Believe I get way too tired of saying those kinds of comments everywhere I go that has an expansion discussion. Sorry for the rant. ]

1. Miami

It’s pretty clear that the league won’t be able to pass up this bid. Barca Miami or whatever it will be called (God I hope they come up with an actual name and not that) is bid with loads of money…and a big name in FCB. The league’s relationship with the Spanish club would probably go to waste if this bid is passed up for some reason. I have my doubt about it as I have probably made clear but for right now they are the clear favorites to be selected for a bid.

Now I also don’t think they will be a MLS club in 2010. Even if Philly continues to have issues I just don’t buy into Miami being back in the league as early as next year. Just my opinion though. I’m sure there will be floods of comments with Miami 2010 or whatever.

I still believe that the Barca owners have no idea what they are really getting into as far as dealing with MLS roster rules and such go. I know it will be more on Marcelo Claure to do the day-to-day running of this club but even he won’t be able to handle the weird rules that the league imposes on clubs. But that is a story for another day.

Pluses on the bid: Loads of money, big name.

Minuses on the bid: History in Miami, Stadium deal isn’t as sweet as some think it is due to two words: Field Turf.

2. Portland

The more bad press St. Louis gets the better for Portland. I know their owners are trying to do whatever they can to get a bid in place for 2011. Right now I have them getting in because I do see Paulson ponying up the cash to get the renovations in place at PGE Park and enough to pay the expansion fee. But if St. Louis get’s their act together in the bank department they may get the nod above Portland…it just all comes down to who the league sees having more money and right now it is Portland.

Pluses on the bid: History in city, supporters group larger than any other bid, most MLS-ready of any bid.

Minuses on the bid: Stadium situation needs to be resolved, money still not all there.

3. St. Louis

This one was tough for me but right now it looks like St. Louis may get left out yet again. The money is the real issue with this bid still and the league continues to discuss it. Not a good sign. Thing is the league wants to be there and they will before long. It just may not be in 2011. In 2013 or whenever I would have to think a deal will finally work out. Sad part too since they actually have a legit stadium plan and not some shared facility with a college.

Pluses on the bid: Stadium deal (the only one with a legit stadium and not a renovation or shared deal), history of the sport in the city.

Minuses on the bid: Money situation.

4. Vancouver

Montreal dropping out really opened the door for Vancouver but right now the bid just isn’t as strong as the other American bids. Sure the makeover to BC Place is nice but let’s be real honest about it here, the league doesn’t have to go to another Canadian city right away again. Toronto has been great but the next Canadian city can wait a little while longer.

Vancouver could still sneak in over Portland but I just don’t think they will right now. The league wants a true rival to Seattle and Portland would be better at that than Vancouver. I know Vancouver supporters will claim that they will be a rival for Seattle and Toronto but I think TFC will be fine without Vancouver where as Seattle will not thrive as well without Portland.

Pluses on the bid: Rivalries to Seattle/Toronto, money situation may be just as good as Miami.

Minuses on the bid: Stadium deal isn’t that great, would be better with a true soccer stadium.

5. Ottawa

Why was this a bid in the first place? How it is still standing is another thing. At least they can say they won’t be dead last in this since Atlanta and Montreal backed out. Its just sad this ownership group wasn’t in another city or we may be talking about it more.

Pluses on the bid: Stadium deal was pretty nice.

Minuses on the bid: Everything else. Just a waste of a bid really.

While some folks in the Gateway City are dreaming of a Major League Soccer team in 2011, a few others are wanting a bit of a test run in the USL in 2010. Reports out of St. Louis suggest that the city could enter the USL first division as early as 2010.

Tony Glavin, the former indoor player who came to St. Louis from Scotland and stayed to become a coach, has met with officials of the United Soccer Leagues about having a team in the USL First Division.

“When I put together my youth program, part of the goal was to build a pyramid of youth programs through men’s and women’s senior teams and hopefully a professional team,” said Glavin, who already has an amateur team in the USL’s Premier Development League. “We’ve talked about it enough and now we’re trying to piece things together to make it happen by 2010.”

According to the report, the expansion fee for the USL is much cheaper than it would be to enter MLS. With only a $1 million fee to enter the league it seems more appealing to try it out. Gavin would have to find a suitable stadium situation as the USL requires a 5,000 seat stadium.

Even better news for those still wanting a MLS club, even should both bids go through it won’t mean the USL team will have to fold. Gavin believes the two can co-exist with one another in the same city. A risky move if it happens but I honestly think its a great idea for them to get on board with the USL before a possible MLS bid.

While the MLS decision will come down before March, Gavin and his potential owner group will have to wait until July.

What do you all make of this news? Is it a good idea for them to try things out in the USL before entering MLS?