September 24, 2007 by Jeff Cooper

At the Collinsville City Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 10, it was pointed out by the city manager as well as advocates of our stadium and development proposal that one of the intangible pluses to bringing Major League Soccer here would be worldwide exposure for Collinsville.

Exposure, or awareness, is a difficult benefit to measure.  But I think we can safely say that exposure is a starting point.  Already, Collinsville is enjoying some very positive exposure. 

Last week alone, for instance, Collinsville was mentioned in stories appearing the New York Times, Las Vegas Sun, Kansas City Star and Rochester Democrat.  Collinsville was also noted in the Chicago Tribune’s soccer blog and even on Major League Soccer’s own website, mlsnet.com.

To be clear, at this point Collinsville’s exposure in these major news media outlets is just what I describe – a mention.  The stories are not about Collinsville – yet.  But there is no question that Collinsville is being positioned very favorably in these stories, if only for the fact the city is partner to a successful campaign (thus far) to land an MLS expansion franchise.  And these stories are read by the entire MLS community, which includes league officials, team owners, media partners, sponsors and much more.

Other potential expansion markets are well aware of Collinsville’s vision.  From last week’s newspaper coverage, note that Las Vegas and Rochester are considered expansion candidates and the same can be said for New York, which has been mentioned as a possibility for a second team to complement the Red Bulls, who currently play in New Jersey.  In all three markets, all eyes are upon us.

Closer to home, Kansas City and Chicago are cities which would be natural rivals for a St. Louis team, so fans and news media there also have a stake in our efforts.  To these media outlets and beyond, we reflect favorably as a candidate to win an expansion MLS club because of what we’ve forged with the City of Collinsville.  Our position is strong because of Collinsville.  And when St. Louis is mentioned as an MLS market, so is Collinsville.

Should we be awarded an expansion franchise in the weeks ahead, then certainly we can count on stories specifically about Collinsville – its history, outstanding reputation, accessibility, terrific quality of life and vision for the future.  But even slight mentions today in newspapers as reputable as the New York Times means, in my opinion, that Collinsville is doing something right.  We clearly believe that and are very proud to be a partner with Collinsville in our mutual quest to become the next expansion market for Major League Soccer in 2009.