This could change the expansion race.

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03-11-2009, 09:44 PM
Keystone FC

This could change the expansion race.

St. Louis United to get the Ahneuser-Busch Soccer Park:
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news...._mls&fext=.jsp

this takes care of a place to play and it's in St. Louis so that makes it even better.
Here is the facility:
http://www.abconference.com/docs/spo...esdiagrams.htm

I think this puts Vancouver in trouble with Portland's City Council giving the go ahead for MLS .
03-11-2009, 09:49 PM
flatpicker

hmmmm.... interesting...
03-11-2009, 09:51 PM
rocker

the new site is further away than Collinsville, has "flooding problems" and doesn't have easy highway access, according to an article I read. i don't think this is gonna make a diff.
03-11-2009, 09:52 PM
Flipityflu

well, it would change things if the capacity wasn't 6,000 max...

of course, thats not to say that it couldn't be expanded, but i haven't heard of anybody putting down a chunk of money to do that.
03-11-2009, 09:57 PM
djking2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keystone FC

I think this puts Vancouver in trouble with Portland's City Council giving the go ahead for MLS .

Anheuser-Busch would be a great corporate partner but the stadium holds 6000 so they can't use it as is. Even the bid spokesman isn't all that excited about the stadium in his quotes. St. Louis should go after Barca or Bex money. It's one of the contenders that has an established fan base and football tradition.

To be clear. If A-B were offering to invest I would agree with you but based on what I read they aren't, they offered the park. As it is.
03-11-2009, 09:57 PM
nascarguy

one east one west
03-11-2009, 10:03 PM
egoodwin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flipityflu

well, it would change things if the capacity wasn't 6,000 max...

of course, thats not to say that it couldn't be expanded, but i haven't heard of anybody putting down a chunk of money to do that.

6k is a lot, KC can't even fill that
03-11-2009, 10:08 PM
Flipityflu

well, i don't think MLS is looking to have a franchise working the KC model :).
03-11-2009, 11:44 PM
james

i honestly dont think St.Louis could sell anymore tickets then KC dispite some people claiming its a Soccer bed area, St. Louis would find it hard selling out that 6,000 seat stadium! lol
03-12-2009, 12:09 AM
Razcle

SO many people in the US claim that St.Louis is a hot bed for soccer and that they have an amazing knowledgeable fan base. Can someone please explain to me where this passionate fan base is. I have not heard a peep from them since TFC started, except for them to say Oh...the US team (St.Louis) of the 1950's beat England and Brazil in some ancient tournament (i cant remember which one)..

WHo gives a flying fuck. Get a USL team, get a fan base then come up to the MLS if you can handle it....Fuck off St.Louis
03-12-2009, 12:24 AM
devioustrevor

From what I understand this new site is still almost 30 miles outside of St. Louis. It's not much different than the previously proposed site other than which side of the Missouri River it's on.
03-12-2009, 09:27 AM
NF-FC

here's some historical data, average attendance and attendance ranking of the St.Louis stars of the NASL:

1967- 7613, 1st
1968- 5388, 6th
1969- 2274, 4th
1970- 2745, 4th
1971- 3579, 4th
1972- 7773, 1st
1973- 6337, 3rd
1974- 7374, 7th
1975- 6071, 11th
1976- 6150, 11th
1977- 9794, 10th

It looks like in the early years, they were a solid club. Some of those 2,000 numbers look pathetic, but the whole league was. from 72 on through the end the drew consistent numbers, but when the rest of the league started to take of they didn't.

What does it all mean? I'm not that sure. They didn't have any of those NASL wonder years like Seattle, New York, San Jose or Washington, but neither did Chicago. Then you look at a team like Tampa Bay Rowdies success in the NASL, and the utter failure that was the Mutiny.

My position is that no stadium's should be built outside of city limits without LRT. For all the Toronto's and Seattle's this league will always be held back by the Commerce City's and Frisco's. (Scary thought, how shitty would Columbus be if their stadium wasn't in the city!) If St.Louis can get a nice shiny new SSS built in St. Louis proper, then god speed. Until then, Fuckoff.
03-12-2009, 11:23 AM
Vancouver MLS

Hey Sport Billy if you're here read this and stick it where the sun doesn't shine!

http://www.team1040.ca/news/story/?id=1821
03-12-2009, 05:24 PM
Redcoe15

^ He'd problably want to stick it into every orifice you have, with Johnnie Monster pinning you to the ground. And for good reason.
03-12-2009, 05:49 PM
rocker

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razcle

SO many people in the US claim that St.Louis is a hot bed for soccer and that they have an amazing knowledgeable fan base. Can someone please explain to me where this passionate fan base is.

I've been saying the same thing.. I wanna know objective measures about this.. participation rates of kids? television viewing ratings? something.

I have a feeling the whole Soccer USA thing has an element of myth to it, by that I mean perhaps it has been blown out of proportion. I would have to see such data for places like Vancouver and Portland as well, to see if they have more participation and viewing of the sport, or more players in MLS or elsewhere, than St. Louis. I can think of Twellman and Diramando as MLSers from St. Louis..... but currently there's nobody from Missouri in the USA national team soccer pool.

Actually, if you look at the birthplaces (states) of the guys currently on, or have recently played on, the USA national team, the biggest number come from California (10). Second highest is New Jersey (5). Third is Texas (4).

Now, not every MLS city has a player from that city on the USA national team. But they don't go calling themselves Soccer USA either :)
I'm sure people like footy in St. Louis, but I doubt the interest is highest in America there, or so significant that it puts them above all other expansion cities.
03-12-2009, 06:54 PM
ensco

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocker

I've been saying the same thing.. I wanna know objective measures about this.. participation rates of kids? television viewing ratings? something.

I have a feeling the whole Soccer USA thing has an element of myth to it, by that I mean perhaps it has been blown out of proportion. I would have to see such data for places like Vancouver and Portland as well, to see if they have more participation and viewing of the sport, or more players in MLS or elsewhere, than St. Louis. I can think of Twellman and Diramando as MLSers from St. Louis..... but currently there's nobody from Missouri in the USA national team soccer pool.

Actually, if you look at the birthplaces (states) of the guys currently on, or have recently played on, the USA national team, the biggest number come from California (10). Second highest is New Jersey (5). Third is Texas (4).

Now, not every MLS city has a player from that city on the USA national team. But they don't go calling themselves Soccer USA either :)
I'm sure people like footy in St. Louis, but I doubt the interest is highest in America there, or so significant that it puts them above all other expansion cities.

I agree with the general thrust of this. Toronto would never have been considered a good candidate by anyone on this board, given the Lynx attendance and the fact that the Blizzard had only middling success.

My best guess is that stadium location, and population base, are the two most important variables. There also does need to be some sort of discount applied to any sunbelt city, although I think subjectively think Miami, with the right stadium location, could be the biggest success in MLS.