As our divorce with the NFL is near complete and all we get for our $15-million in spending efforts keeping an NFL team, along with gathering hundreds of millions in potential funds to build a publically funded stadium, is a middle finger and a thanks for playing along notice from the Rams and the NFL.
But don’t despair readers, for now that we’ve divorced the NFL we get to date again with leagues who want to be with us. To get with a league that is willing to be invested in our lives and cities. Hey I know a league that is a perfect for St. Louis! Major League Soccer (MLS).
It’s great! It’s growing, and is popular, and it’s interested in you! And it’d be a perfect match! St. Louis is known as the original soccer capital of America. It even has a proud lineage of producing both soccer and World Cup talent.
Okay look in all seriousness our city got _ _ _ _ _ _ by the NFL. However this isn’t the end for us. So we lost something we loved, but it didn’t love us back. Let’s get serious about now shifting focus on renewing a love in what has been a St. Louis past time of soccer again.
The stadium task force did a marvelous job of organizing a game plan and should not be looked at as failures, but rather our cities champions. So we didn’t win the fight, it was a rigged fight, but we gave it one heck of a fight. Plus, clearly it’s evident the ability to fund a stadium is possible in St. Louis. So let’s scale it down for a MLS sized stadium.
The MLS has even said it believes an expansion team in St. Louis could easily happen. In 2013 and reaffirmed in 2015 when MLS Commissioner Don Gaber visited during the NFL stadium fight he mentioned his openness to the MLS coming to St. Louis. At the time he hinted at if the stadium was built it’d be a near done deal the MLS would come here. Now let’s focus on that and take this rigged loss into a major win.
Note that in years past there have been efforts to put the MLS here with some of those teams eventually landing is cities like Vancouver and Salt Lake.
Also there is a person in all of this that can help fund this endeavor, Jack Taylor. St. Louis native Jack Taylor is the owner of Enterprise and National Car Rental (which was the sponsor of the now dead stadium). He is worth over $9-billion and has already shown in this process that his companies are willing to invest in a stadium here in St. Louis. Though it is unfair to demand such an investment out of the Taylor family, I would like to know if they would have any interest in ownership of a team and stadium.
Now for some numbers:
The average pure MLS stadium (pure meaning not joint with a football or baseball stadium) seats between 18,000 – 30,000. Most teams will have about 18- home games a season. So let’s say that the MLS comes here, that means that potentially around 400,000 fans per season. In contrast our NFL attendance has been about the same over the past few years.
Also tickets would be much cheaper giving a greater participation to lower income citizens since the average ticket for a supporter section (really dedicated fans like the American Outlaws) sits between $10- $26 per person (though prices are higher for single game tickets).
Now let’s talk cost of this stadium.
The cost of a soccer park varies from the low end of $50-million (Columbus) to $300-million (New York City). But a comparable stadium done recently would put the price probable around cost around the $100-million to $150-million. Given that National Car Rental put up a $158-million / 20-years naming rights deal perhaps now there can be a move to get a deal like that done for an MLS expansion.
I know it sucks to lose a team, but let’s be honest. Is it better to be at the mercy of a league with no loyalty to the fans but be relevant on Sunday afternoons a few months a year? OR, call me crazy, do an equally favorable yet cheaper deal with the MLS that has said numerous times they want to be here… It may suck to be dumped for no reason, but at least now we as a city can move on and enjoy a better union with a different league.
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There are a few small obstacles though. Just to get a franchise, you have to pay $150 million to the MLS. That’s just for the fee before one name gets sewn on a uniform or one boot steps on the pitch. Then you need 2 to 4 marquee, name recognizable players (which would cost you 400 million alone), staff, coaching, front office, etc., etc. You’d need about 1 billion just to be competitive. Difficult to say the least. Jack Taylor has made comments that he would be interested in being involved with getting an MLS team here is St. Louis, but I haven’t seen or heard anything concrete yet. Until then, the wait goes on………..
$1 billion? How do you figure? $150 million for expansion, $150-$200 million for a stadium and maybe another $10 million split between 18 players guaranteed, then if they decide they want to shell out for a great player they might need to pay $10-$20 million in transfer fees for that player. Only Messi and Ronaldo would command a $200 million transfer fee. I think it’d cost less than $500 million to bring a competitive MLS team to STL.
As a New England Revolution fan, I would rather someone invest in buying my team from Bob Kraft, but that’s hoping…
It’s alright, you’ll get your stadium in 2032.
Maybe you’ll get rid of the crayola logo sooner.
Seeing as the team president has said numerous times that the Revs logo won’t change until there’s a stadium (and as a Revs fan I agree, won’t be anytime soon)…don’t count on it.
I think you probably do want an investment group worth $1 billion or more.
But, I think you are overestimating the cost of players by a lot.
The salary cap is $3.5 million per team, excluding up to 4 designated players.
Some teams don’t use the DP slots. Only 10 players in the entire MLS make $4.5 million or more.
And marquee players can be had for less. Didier Drogba for example earned about $2 million from Montreal last year.
Suppose the team spent $5 million for one marquee player and $2 million each on two lesser DPs. That’s a player payroll of $12.5 million total.
Maybe the team might choose to spend $10 million to acquire players on contract, but I think most MLS signings are free (ie. the player is a free agent so you don’t have to pay his old team)
The majority owner of Orlando City (who signed Kaka and are moving into a new 25k stadium in 2017) is not even close to being a billionaire. The current MLS champions are not owned by a billionaire. The owner of the team they played in the final is not a billionaire. MLS has billionaire owners, but you don’t need $1B to win in MLS. My Revs are owned by a billionaire (many times over) and we’ve lost 5 MLS Cup finals.
Can a St Louis MLS team play in the dome until a SSS is ready?
the st louis cardinals ballbase team’s string of success is about to come to an end. good chance looking at a decade of losing records while they rebuild so st louisians going to need something else to do in the summer and since mlb experts say most cardinal fans are just fairweather fans like yankee new yorkers it would not be hard to get them to switch to The MLS. just need to find 100M new franchise fee!
For an MLS team, you would already have an indoor and outdoor training facility along with team offices by obtaining Rams Park. I’m unsure if there would be a way to expand the complex and add a soccer stadium for games along with parking.
Just a thought. At least this could be a start.
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