Kent McDill
MLSNet.com
November 18, 2008  

Albert Pujols, the veteran St. Louis Cardinals first baseman, has joined the ownership group for the proposed Major League Soccer team in St. Louis.

St. Louis Soccer United is one of seven bids being considered for expansion by MLS.

The announcement of Pujols' involvement comes one day after Major League Baseball announced Pujols was the Most Valuable Player for the National League in 2008.

"Albert, like any pro athlete, but Albert in particular, is a hero in St. Louis," said Jeff Cooper, an East Alton, Ill. lawyer who is lead investor for the St. Louis Soccer United group that is fronting the expansion bid. "Him being a part of it, the kids in our youth group know they are part of something very special. For us it is a big, big deal."

Having Pujols involved in the St. Louis bid will draw parallels to the involvement of Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash with the Vancouver expansion group bid.

"I am very proud and excited to join the effort to bring Major League Soccer to the St. Louis area," Pujols said in a statement released by St. Louis Soccer United. "This means a lot to me and my family, as we all love soccer and we believe in MLS.

"Plus, this is something that will be great for our community, especially our youth," he said. "I strongly encourage St. Louis business leaders and sports fans to join me in this effort. St. Louis is an unbelievable sports town and we'll be a great city for Major League Soccer."

St. Louis Soccer United was one of seven expansion bids submitted to Major League Soccer last month. Cooper said he expects to win one of the two available expansion slots being offered.

"I feel great about it," Cooper said. "We are the only bid, as far as I know, that has a stadium deal done, where we will control the revenues of the stadium and own it, and it is a finalized process."

A master plan and design for a $400 million soccer, retail and entertainment complex in Collinsville, Ill. has been completed by the firm of Suttle Mindlin Architects. It will include 14 fields for use by area youth and school teams.

Collinsville is a collar community for St. Louis, just on the east side of the Mississippi River. As MLS soccer-specific stadiums go, Cooper said the Collinsville site is closer to the downtown area than most.

"We are eight miles and eight minutes, all highway from downtown St. Louis," Cooper said. "You can stand on the ground at our site and you have a beautiful view of downtown and the Arch. It is as an easy place to get to.

"From a sporting perspective and an everyday perspective, there is a huge connection with St. Louis," he said. "Everybody who grows up on the Illinois side of the river is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, a St. Louis Blues fan, and that is the way it will be with MLS. We are one of the closest stadiums to downtown in MLS, closer than Toyota Park in Chicago, or Home Depot (Center, for Los Angeles and Chivas), or Dick's Sporting Goods (Park, for Denver)."

Cooper said for people living north and south of St. Louis on the Missouri side, it is easier to get to Collinsville than it is to get downtown.

For anyone aware of the history of soccer in the United States, it is sort of a surprise St. Louis has not been a part of MLS from the start. St. Louis has a storied soccer history, based in large part from the area's strong Italian neighborhoods, but Cooper said the city has suffered from not having a stadium to place an MLS team. That problem no longer exists.

Besides having a stadium deal done, St. Louis also has the advantage that Major League Soccer wants to have more representation in the Midwest of the United States. Presently, MLS has Chicago, Columbus and Kansas City in areas that might be considered Midwestern United States.

"We are historical rivals with Chicago in every sport," Cooper said. "It has been such a heated rivalry between the two cities, and we are situated so closely, a four-hour drive, that it would have a European feel to it, where away supporters would make up a lot of the crowd."

That is something Pujols, a native of the Dominican Republic, certainly knows about, having played for the St. Louis Cardinals since 2001 and seeing a pitched rivalry with the Chicago Cubs.

"He really likes soccer a lot," Cooper said. "I think his wife played more than he did, but he is a typical kick-it-around guy.

"Obviously, his involvement strengthens our bid," he said. "It helps in every aspect, and obviously having Albert involved makes us deeper financially. It makes us more attractive as a group when you have someone of his stature that involved in the group. People are going to want to be a part of the business Albert is involved in."

Pujols' involvement also speaks to the MLS criteria of having local ownership involved.

"He is as big a star as there is in St. Louis, and for that matter, across the country, when it comes to baseball," Cooper said.

St. Louis is in the expansion mix along with Portland, Atlanta and Miami in the U.S. and Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver in Canada.

"We feel our bid stands above everyone else's," Cooper said. "That being said, the way soccer is going to break through, every great market (in North America) are phenomenal markets and great for soccer. I hope everybody gets a team eventually."