MLS commissioner has 'no doubt' St. Louis can be successful soccer market
ST. LOUIS -- If St. Louis builds a new downtown football stadium, the Rams might not be the only team to call it home.
Major League Soccer always fit into the ambitious plans of the St. Louis Stadium task force led by Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz. They quickly got the attention of MLS commissioner Don Garber, who visited the city on a "fact-finding mission" and spoke to local soccer fans at Ballpark Village on Tuesday.
"This is a strong soccer market," Garber said. "It's always needed, in our view, (an MLS) team to be here. We have no doubt this would be a successful market, but we've got to do this right. We've got to take our time."
He said meetings with community leaders including mayor Francis Slay, Peacock, Blitz and many others interested in soccer -- as well as a closer look at the site and plans for the proposed riverfront stadium -- only confirmed that view. Garber also acknowledged the city's rich history of producing soccer talent, and he doesn't believe it would be difficult to find a capable ownership group.
The 20-team league plans to expand to 24 by 2018, with Atlanta already set to begin in 2017 and Los Angeles FC to follow in 2018. Minnesota United FC and a team owned by a group featuring former England captain David Beckham will also join the league, although Garber said their start dates are not yet finalized.
"We know in the next year we'll finalize the next round of expansion, and that's 2020 and beyond, and you'd like to think that St. Louis can be part of that round," Garber said. "You'd also like to see Sacramento as part of that round and a handful of other cities, but I don't know how large MLS can be."
Soccer-specific stadiums are ideal, but otherwise Garber said the new St. Louis stadium would meet the league's desires for a downtown stadium in a passionate soccer community. He'll be watching to see if St. Louis FC can maintain its crowds of at least 4,000 in each of its first four home games, and perhaps the USL club could follow in the footsteps of recent MLS expansion teams in Orlando and Portland.
The league will celebrate its 20th birthday next season, a year after launching new television deals to go along with a new labor agreement. Garber expects much more growth in the future, but where and how that will take shape remains unclear.
Just like it is for United States National team coach Jurgen Klinsmann when he's looking to fill out his roster, St. Louis will certainly be on the radar.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
