Chris Coates
Collinsville Herald
August 15, 2007

Close to $225 million in additional revenue estimated 

The $400 million soccer stadium and mixed-use complex planned for a farmer's field at Horseshoe Lake Road and Interstate 255 could generate as much as $3 billion over 10 years, create several thousand jobs and secure Collinsville on the international soccer map, the developer told the City Council Monday.

"David Beckham -- if this plan is approved -- will play in Collinsville," said Alton attorney Jeff Cooper, referring to the European soccer star whose premier this month for the Major League Soccer team Los Angeles Galaxy drew hordes of media attention.

Cooper, an Alton attorney who made millions on asbestos litigation, for several years has been working to lure Major League Soccer to grant an expansion team to St. Louis.

Monday, he took his case to the Collinsville City Council, pitching the 400-acre project as a major economic generator for the region capable of creating $15 million in permit fees and 130,000 hotel night stays.

"That is brand new money -- money that wouldn't have been coming to Collinsville, that wouldn't have been coming the St. Louis regional at all," he said.

The project has the backing of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, which found that the complex could create 7,600 construction jobs, 3,000 permanent positions and $221.6 million in revenue for St. Clair and Madison counties.

"It will further stimulate economic development, create new jobs, help make the entire region a better place to live, work and play," the group's president and CEO, Dick Fleming, told the council Monday.

Renderings show an open-air, 18,500-seat stadium surrounded by a village-like setting of store-lined boulevards, a reflecting pool, soccer fields and more than 80 acres of parkland with trails.

Also planned are 300,000 square feet of office and retail, two 120-room hotels and a housing element with as many as 1,600 units.