urbanSTL

you know where the best place for an MLS stadium would be? The old Arena site! ok, so there's a few new condo buildings - so what? who would want to have a soccer stadium in their backyard? It's got good transportation access (right off 40), near the hill, and highly visible to the metro area.



My other vote would be for the old Praxair site, if they haven't decided what to do with it.

I mentioned it in the other MLS thread, but I still like the idea of a soccer stadium occupying the former Sportsmans Park site at Dodier & Grand. Perusing through my copy of Streets and Streetcars of St. Louis, I saw it had a blurb about how their used to be a fairly active community around Busch Stadium right up to when the Cardinals moved downtown. The stadium, both literally and figuratively, turned off the lights in the surrounding neighborhood. Could an MLS stadium (and Grand streetcar) bring life back to the north side?

I love the symbolism, but the stadium would not be in area where west countians would be confortable visiting, surround retail would be much less of an option . . .



Along Manchester would be fantastic because fans could combine a game and dinner, maybe even shopping AND Kirkwood/Webster Groves/Richmond Heights/Clayton/etc are all very close. Not to mention easy access from west county.

The Doug Logan blog is written by a MLS insider, the best I can tell he does have more info than your average joe. Here is his entry for Thursday Nov. 9



Two Words



Saint Louis











Enough said







Read it here-



http://www.logansrevenge.blogspot.com/





I am not sure if he is playing with us, the powers that be are still very mum on any details and no anouncement date has been set by the MLS on expansion.



Note we host the NCAA final four in early December, get your tickets early.

Beer City wrote:Note we host the NCAA final four in early December, get your tickets early.

Too late. I believe it is sold out.

^ Where is it being played? I'd be surprised if it's sold out - only because at Indiana the team was always one of the top draws in NCAA and averaged only a couple thousand. The finals I've seen on TV drew maybe 7-8,000?

^Hermann Stadium at SLU.

Ihnen wrote:^ Where is it being played? I'd be surprised if it's sold out - only because at Indiana the team was always one of the top draws in NCAA and averaged only a couple thousand. The finals I've seen on TV drew maybe 7-8,000?

Which is about what Hermann Stadium holds, with the additional bleachers being brought in.



From here: http://www.stlouissports.org/soccer/index.php

TICKET UPDATE



Individual tickets for the 2006 NCAA Men’s College Cup are sold out. Additional tickets may be released for public sale in the week prior to the event, should the participating teams not purchase their allotted tickets. We encourage you to check back at that time in case more tickets can be made available.



Although individual tickets are no longer on sale, a limited number of hospitality packages, which include tickets, are available. For more information, call 314-206-7388.

I don't know about other teams, but Indiana fans travel well - if they were to make it tickets will be very difficult to come by.



Back on topic - any more about an MLS team and a new stadium along Manchester!?!?

Ihnen wrote:I don't know about other teams, but Indiana fans travel well - if they were to make it tickets will be very difficult to come by.

Tickets are difficult to come by regardless of who shows up. It's sold out. That's what sold out means. Tickets are difficult to come by because there are none.

Ihnen wrote:Back on topic - any more about an MLS team and a new stadium along Manchester!?!?

Hopefully they will find a better location than that.

Tickets are difficult to come by regardless of who shows up. It's sold out. That's what sold out means. Tickets are difficult to come by because there are none.

Yeah, um, thanks.



Ever been to a "sold out" event? You can still get tickets, but not as easily if there are a couple thousand people wanting tickets. It's the same as the NCAA Final Four in basketball. The final game here with Illinois was very difficult to get tickets for because of all the Illini fans nearby. If Illinois had lost it would have been easy and cheap. I've been to a championship game in Minneapolis where none of the teams were within 1,500 miles - an easy $20 ticket.

Because of its location? You dont seem like one worthy of season tickets anyway. 20k season tickets to a fan like you and it would be a Rams game.

can anyone estimate the commute from DT to this location near horseshoe lake?

thanks

10 minutes w/o traffic.

So is this on a light rail line? shouldnt the state of illinois require this for new major attractions?

No its not on a Metro line however I would prefer that it was.

In my eyes you should be a diehard fan if you have season tickets. The ones that have season tickets that arent huge fans only bring everyone else down. Kinda like most of the people in the lower bowl at the dome.

One of the Madison County Metrolink options would pass right in front of the proposed stadium location at Horseshoe Lake Rd and I-255.



http://www.ewgateway.org/pdffiles/libra ... ofAlts.pdf

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:As feared, it looks like it might be in Collinsville.



No season tickets for me.

Good for Collinsville. Good for MLS fans.



I think most of us knew the city probably wasn't going to land this, and I can think of many suburban locations that would've been less ideal, so I don't see what the big deal is. Hopefully the people working on this can close the deal!

Downtown2007 wrote:In my eyes you should be a diehard fan if you have season tickets. The ones that have season tickets that arent huge fans only bring everyone else down. Kinda like most of the people in the lower bowl at the dome.

!? Someone reads too much of what steven jackson says. most people in the lower bowl are diehards, as is everyone else in the stadium. If you pay that much, you'd BETTER care who wins - the corporate types who don't care are up in the boxes, not field level.



Collinsville isn't a bad location no, but it's certainly not convenient to the majority of the St. Louis area population. 10 min from downtown? Yeah, in what universe? Gametime is prime traffic time, unless it's a weekend. Good luck getting across the bridge. I still think this should've been on the riverfront or south city (or replacing the dreadful Forest Park lofts).

migueltejada wrote:I still think this should've been on the riverfront or south city (or replacing the dreadful Forest Park lofts).

That would've been my preference as well, but I'd still rather see MLS in Collinsville than at Soccer Park in Fenton (the I-44/I-270 bottleneck often hampers access to Soccer Park Road, Earth City (traffic out there is no better, or St. Charles (which is only slightly more convenient than traveling to Kansas City to see the Wizards).



Naturally the city would've been my first choice, but I think Collinsville would work out fine.

Bridge traffic thins out at about 5:30-5:45. I see it everyday on my way home. 15 mins max w/o traffic.

I understand that there are tax incentives to locate in Collinsville, but does anyone really think this will be a long-term success (10+years?). More than 80% of the metro area lives 20mins west or more, in some cases much more. How many St. Charles parents will drive to Collinsville to catch a game?