Tom Timmermann
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 28, 2008

With an Oct. 15 deadline approaching for applying to be one of the next two Major League Soccer franchises, St. Louis' bid to get an MLS team looks to be entering the home stretch. Again.

Jeff Cooper, the East Alton attorney who has spearheaded the plan and put together a massive development in Collinsville that would include a stadium, houses, offices, hotels and stores, is filling out the lengthy expansion application the league recently mandated and expects to have all the necessary paperwork turned in ahead of the deadline.
With what Cooper hopes is an investor group that has resources sufficient to the league's liking, it would then be up to the league to make a decision on a St. Louis franchise.

"Once we submit the paperwork, the ball is in their court,'' Cooper said Wednesday. "I strongly believe it will end up working out for St. Louis and MLS in the near future."

Also expected to submit applications are groups in Portland, Montreal, Atlanta and maybe two in Vancouver. The expansion teams would begin play in 2010 or 2011, depending on when the decision was made and how quickly the teams could be ready. A league official said a decision could be made by the end of the year, and no later than April 1.

Signs are promising for St. Louis. At his state of the league address in July, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said the league was close to a deal with St. Louis and that the league needed teams in the Midwest. Shortly after that, the league instituted its application process, which delayed any decision.

But the price of joining MLS keeps going up, and it may soon affect Cooper's bid. When Toronto got a franchise in 2006, the expansion fee was $10 million. The next two teams, Seattle and Philadelphia, joined in the David Beckham era and paid $30 million. If the price of expansion teams keeps going up, it changes the financial picture for Cooper.

"I think it's certainly an issue,'' Cooper said. "It's something you have to look at. As much as I'm committed to bringing pro soccer to St. Louis, the higher the price of joining MLS gets, you have to take a look at it from a business perspective.

"What we were told after Philadelphia got a team was that the price could be as high as $40 million. If it's above that, we'd have a tough time justifying that."

The league has said the expansion fee for teams Nos. 17 and 18 would be a minimum of $40 million, and it seems likely that if St. Louis were chosen, given the length of time Cooper has been negotiating with the league, his price would be $40 million.

"What they say and see will determine where we go,'' Cooper said. "At this point, we're 100 percent focused on MLS, until that proves to be untenable."