urbanSTL

From Yesterday's SI interview with MLS Commisioner Don Garber.

http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/12 ... ann-gulati

SI: What’s the current timeline for which years you expect your next four expansion teams to start playing in MLS?

Garber: Atlanta in 2017. LAFC in 2018. And we have not yet determined a start date for Minnesota, and we have not yet finalized a deal in Miami. What we do have is a target that I set out years ago that we will [have] 24 teams by 2020.

SI: How soon could we expect team No. 25 to join the league?

Garber: I don’t know the answer to that. But there certainly is more momentum for expansion than ever before. And there are markets now that seem to come up that weren’t even part of our thinking a year or two ago. I just had a great visit in Detroit, and we’ve been spending some time looking at that market. We’ve been having discussions with people in San Diego, discussions with people in St. Louis, and of course we remain really excited about what’s going on in Sacramento.

So the window is officially open again, MLS will expand to 28 teams (4 additional). No timeline given yet, but play will start for or after 2020 season.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2015/12/0 ... ng-updates

The usual suspects-

Sac Town
Indy
San Antonio
Detroit
Las Vegas
Raleigh Durham

And

St. Louis

and the speculation cycle begins again

Can't wait to hit up this thread in 2019 and talk about what a great soccer team we'd have in StL if only we could've gotten an owner for this round.

If St. Louis approves the new stadium, I suspect the chances of our getting MLS are favorable.

I just had a horrible, horrible thought come to mind.

With today's Grubman interview, it sounds reasonable that the Rams will be "saved" after the sheepish Alderman pass the stadium plan tomorrow. But it sounds virtually impossible that the N. Riverfront Stadium ever actually gets built.

And not only that, it seems rather likely that nothing gets accomplished on the stadium front for a few years.

The MLS will want to make its decisions on expansion before too long. We're probably talking years, but not forever. What if we're unable to present the MLS with a concrete stadium plan because the Rams still haven't figured out what they're doing.

The stadium has been sold to us as being a great help towards getting the MLS, but I see a scenario where it ends up screwing us out of a team.

That's a good point, jstriebel.... what I hope happens is that if Rams leave we don't freeze that north riverfront site for the small possibility of another team coming in. As for a soccer-specific stadium, I personally would prefer it to be located across the elevated 40... it would be much more affordable, super-convenient to Metrolink and utilize Cardinals parking infrastructure already in place. A second choice would be Midtown FC playing on that massive SLU lot across from Pevely and again right next to Metrolink. (And the march of St. Louligans from Grove bars to the stadium could be quite impressive.)

I always thought it would be cool to have the MLS stadium built near the SLU campus where the SLU soccer team could be joint tenants. My other dream would be to have it built in KOSCIUSKO.

roger wyoming II wrote:Just to elaborate a bit more; I don't think the North Riverfront site is accommodating to an MLS-specific stadium w/o running into some of the significant infrastructure costs like having to move rail, power line removal, etc. Less demo likely would be needed overall, but we'd still be looking at some significant site costs that the alternatives I mentioned above don't seem to face.

I agree but I do think the city has already done most of the studies so they are ahead on that front. And if the Rams leave there will be a ton of pressure to do something and I think one of the most logical steps is redo the same area that the rams left but with more residential and commercial and I definitely see some pushing for an MLS stadium there.

^ yeah, if the railroad and Ameren are still cooperative and the state is willing to kick in some $$ for site development I could see it happen. But I just foresee cost challenges ahead.

For what it's worth, though. $250 million would probably build one of the best stadiums in the MLS. (Maybe the best but I don't want to make that claim). Anything about $150m is going to get you something very nice.

Hermann stadium at SLU was designed with expansion room when it was redone in the late 90's - But in the mid 2000's they stated that they are not interested in any expansion. Doubtful they would want a stadium that large (18,000 min for MLS currently seats 5,000) and the field would be a mess by October

We need an owner - They new stadium if built would probably be enough on its own to generate an ownership group. Without it we need a bunch of willing rich people

MLS has stated that they prefer urban locations Kosciusko would be ideal, or a smaller footprint on the N riverfront site - would require less parking maybe could keep some of the buildings currently slated for demo.

Until we have a rich dude the point is moot

Soccer park flood damage video

Amsterdam Tavern is reporting Liverpool V Roma on August first at Busch

August 1st

expect a big Bosnian crowd...Roma has a few top Bosnian players on its squad. so much that they have a official Roma Bosnia Twitter.

This seems like a pretty big deal.

http://saintlouisfc.com/sports/msoc/201 ... 0516qzag1l

Saint Louis FC announced today the acquisition of the Springfield Synergy FC franchise of the Premier Development League (PDL), which will be known as the Saint Louis FC U23 team. The new team will allow college players to continue their development during the summer in a professional environment. Saint Louis FC and St. Louis Scott Gallagher will leverage facilities, staff and overall club success to develop the PDL franchise into a sustainable, long term and highly successful operation. While the team will train at World Wide Technology Soccer Park, games will be held in Springfield, Missouri and Collinsville, Illinois for the 2016 season

I wonder why SSFC and not Tony Glavine's PDL outfit in Cottleville.

Not sure but there are 7 USL teams that are B teams for current MLS teams.
21/29 USL teams are affiliated with an MLS team, St.Louis is with Chicago Fire.





More on the US Soccer Pyramid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St ... gue_system