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St. Louis became the NFL’s latest victim in a long and drawn out game of musical chairs when the Rams jumped ship for the sunny weather and In-N-Out burger of Los Angeles. Naturally, not everybody was happy. After all, nobody likes being left behind for “something better.” Especially a city that prides itself in its die hard fan-ism.
But the departure of one professional sports team could open the door for another. St. Louis now has eyes on the MLS, which it has for some time, but now they have some momentum.
"We obviously heard the news [that the St. Louis Rams are moving to Los Angeles] like everybody else did, and we're tracking that news very closely,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber, speaking to reporters in Baltimore ahead of the MLS Super Draft. “I have yet to speak to the governor or the mayor [of St. Louis], but we have been in touch with the group that was leading the effort for MLS and I think it kind of gives a little more momentum to that city than perhaps before the Rams left."
Music to the city’s ears. For the better part of a decade, St. Louis has been shortlisted as a potential suitor for America’s top league. But for just as long they’ve been passed over by other cities — Portland, Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, etc. — deemed more fit to take on the challenge of integrating an American city to the world’s game.
What most definitely isn’t an issue in bringing an MLS franchise to St. Louis is a lack of soccer interest. St. Louis is crazy about soccer. In November, 43,000 plus screaming fans packed Busch Stadium for a U.S. Men’s National Team game against St. Vincent and the Grenadines; back in 2013 a friendly between Manchester City and Chelsea drew more than 48,000 — a stadium record.
Filling a 20,000 seat soccer specific stadium would be cake. In fact, what might be more difficult would be finding enough stadium pretzels and beer to appease the good people of St. Louis.
Furthermore, that same sentiment — St. Louis being a good place for the MLS, not the pretzels and beer, but maybe that too — is shared with a number of the league’s executives and coaches. Ahead of the Super Draft in Baltimore, SI’s Grant Wahl asked people around the league what city currently without a team that they’d like to see get one. St. Louis was the popular answer.
At this point it’s abundantly clear that interest for soccer in St. Louis isn’t an issue. However, there are certain obstacles that could hinder the city’s MLS aspirations — the same obstacles that have persisted ever since the league’s inception in 1996: dependable financial backing, and a proper soccer stadium (not necessarily soccer specific, but a proper place to play).
“St. Louis has been on our radar screen as long as the league has been in existence,” Garber said in regards to an MLS team in St. Louis. “We’ve never been able to find the right investor, we’ve never been able to find the right stadium solution.”
Unfortunately for St. Louis, and the MLS, it’s those same problems that persist today. Nobody has yet to step forward to back the project, and there’s no proper stadium to be found. Many saw Olympic soccer player Jim Kavanaugh of World Wide Technology as the guy for the job, but he’s been clear about not wanting to take on a lead role (a willing investor, perhaps).
As for a potential stadium, the Edward Jones Dome is a real mess and third tier USL team St. Louis FC plays 20 minutes outside of the city in Fenton with a capacity of just under 6,000. In all likelihood a new stadium would have to be built. Not an insurmountable problem, but another issue that would have to be sorted out.
Seattle is often likened as a model example for a city losing one professional sports team to capitalize on another. A few years back the NBA’s SuperSonics left town for Oklahoma City and and in stepped the Sounders, becoming an immediate success. Unlike St. Louis, however, Seattle had already checked all the boxes on the MLS-ready check list: strong ownership, a good plan, and a proper stadium (preferably downtown, which Seattle is and was). St. Louis has yet to check any of those boxes.
They do have some time to figure it all out, though. Immediate expansion into the league isn’t realistic--regardless of whether or not the city solves its problems. The league currently consists of 20 teams, with expansion set for 24 teams by 2020. However, Garber already has four teams slated to fill that list with Atlanta, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and David Beckham (or Miami).
But there is hope yet. The MLS is eying further expansion to 28 teams any time after 2020 — in fact, you could feel reasonably comfortable banking the office's new cappuccino machine on it, and we all know how much everybody loves that machine — which would be the real window of possibility for St. Louis.
There’s no doubt about it, St. Louis deserves an MLS franchise. It’s one of the greater injustices in America, along with crepes not being a bigger deal. But they have to have the financial backing and a proper stadium in place for that to happen. If they have those components, you can pencil them in as one of the four after the four. But until then, St. Louis will continue to be MLS-less.
