(Photo Credit: David Carson)
Major League Soccer has officially opened the gate on wanting to come to St. Louis, and has begun a search for the prime site to build and host a stadium fitting for an MLS team. And the top site on the list is the riverfront site originally planned for a sports team no longer in the city.
Don Garber, who is the commissioner of MLS, stated how he was “very excited” about the idea of having an expansion soccer team play in St. Louis. He did not guarantee that it would happen, but was very optimistic about the possibility.
“With an expansion team, you can actually build a club that is born in St. Louis,” Garber said. He also emphasized how the team can build a strong fan-base over the course of generations by being born and bred in the city. Garber has indicated that cities such as Sacramento, Detroit, San Diego, San Antonio, Atlanta and Minneapolis also could get an expansion team. Since he’s taken over as commissioner, he’s been pivotal in expanding soccer across the country, adding MLS teams in Orlando and New York last year, bringing the total number of teams up to 20.
Garber sees at least four teams possibly being added by 2020.
The advantage to this is that all of the aforementioned cities are not fighting for one team.
But the biggest keys for St. Louis will be: having a devoted fan-base to the product, a solid organization that will be able to properly run the team, and of course, the right site for a stadium. Garber has already met multiple local groups and leaders throughout the area in regards to proposals, and the planning is just getting started.
Bottom-line: Major League Soccer could very well arrive in St. Louis to kick off the next upcoming decade.
