August 27, 2007 by Jeff Cooper

It has been a very exciting, rewarding and busy two weeks since our St. Louis Soccer United group made its presentation to the Collinsville City Council.  Our experience thus far has confirmed without a doubt that our plan to bring Major League Soccer to the greater St. Louis area is well worth the effort.

When we embarked upon this path about two years ago, we commissioned multiple feasibility, economic impact and market research studies to determine whether St. Louis would rally behind its own MLS club.  We explored the viability of our proposed Collinsville site, among other locations, and we crunched every possible number that would have an effect on our ability to provide a terrific sports and entertainment experience in a first-class stadium that anchors a “destination” mixed-use development.  Our instincts told us this would work, given that St. Louis is Soccertown USA.  That said, it was comforting that our research supported our instincts.

What we could never have measured, or possibly imagined, is the extreme level of interest and enthusiasm the project has generated.  In a word, it’s astounding.  Everyone wants to talk to us, whether it be St. Louis sports fans, citizens of Collinsville, the news media, business and civic leaders, soccer associations, you name it.  And almost without exception, everyone is wildly supportive.

Now, two more weeks remain before our proposed pre-annexation agreement will go to the Collinsville City Council for vote.  In essence, a pre-annexation agreement would be a general framework that St. Louis Soccer United and the City of Collinsville would work from to build a professional soccer stadium and surrounding development to attract a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to the St. Louis region.  The MLS club would be the flagship tenant, so to speak, of a new community that will feature youth training fields, high quality housing, a vibrant office complex, an exciting mix of retail, courtyards, walking trails and much more over 400 acres tucked inside Interstates 55-70 and 255, south of Horseshoe Lake Road.

It is quite a plan, and we commissioned Economic Research Associates (ERA) to study it before moving forward in earnest.  ERA is the premier international consulting firm of its type, working primarily in real estate, entertainment and leisure, as well as in land use policy and planning.  In a nutshell, ERA delivers the most accurate, complete and indisputable analysis in the industry.

As we told the Collinsville City Council two weeks ago, ERA’s independent analysis estimates 7,607 jobs during construction and 2,505 ongoing, full-time positions thereafter.  The effect of this is a one-time economic impact during construction of $705 million and an annual ongoing economic impact of $221 million.  Over 10 years, the grand total of economic impact over 10 years is staggering … $2.9 billion.

The enormity and potential of our plan is why I mentioned in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch that whatever details can be shared with the public well ahead of the vote on September 10, those details will be shared.  There are two weeks to go until the vote, and my pledge to everyone – the City Council of Collinsville, the citizens of Collinsville and the entire St. Louis region – is to provide the answers to your questions.  In the meantime, I thank everyone for visiting our website and the incredible support that continues to grow.