Bernie Miklasz
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
January 14, 2008

ST. LOUIS — Friday night at the Missouri Athletic Club, Jeff Cooper served as the keynote speaker at the annual Hermann Awards banquet, which honors the top college soccer players in the nation.

Cooper's words resonated, and I wish everyone in the local soccer community could have heard them. Much of Cooper's speech addressed the heritage, history and role that soccer plays in the St. Louis culture. Cooper is passionate about the game and dedicated to bringing a Major League Soccer expansion franchise here.

Cooper doesn't want to be a celebrity, a mogul or a local power broker. He's generated considerable personal wealth through his successful law firm. I don't believe Cooper expects to profit from owning a soccer franchise; there are surer ways to make money.

As corny as it sounds, Cooper is driven to bring the MLS here for a simple reason: He believes St. Louis is the heartbeat of U.S. soccer, and if any American city should have a thriving MLS franchise, it's this one.

I hope MLS rewards Cooper's devotion. He's done all of the right things, topped by his successful plan to fund a gorgeous soccer stadium, just across the river in Collinsville. It's just what MLS asked for: a soccer-specific venue, quaint and classy, easily accessible.

Cooper has been a terrific ambassador for the sport, and I can't believe that MLS would want anyone else to be a part of the league, part of the mission to grow the beautiful game in the U.S.

But with MLS close to making a decision on the 16th and final expansion team to begin play in 2009, St. Louis and Cooper may be denied, or at least held off.

It's down to St. Louis and Philadelphia. St. Louis has secure stadium funding in place, and Philadelphia is still scrambling to come up with a stadium plan. St. Louis has the edge in soccer tradition. But Philadelphia has two primary advantages over St. Louis: a stronger overall ownership group and the No. 4 television market in America.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber respects and likes Cooper and has encouraged him at every turn, but MLS would like Cooper to cultivate a broader, better-bankrolled ownership group. Again, Cooper is wealthy, but he's no billionaire, and MLS doesn't want him to go it alone.

MLS is getting stronger, and the pockets in the league are running deeper. The standards for ownership are higher than they used to be; MLS recently attracted billionaire Paul Allen as a partner in the Seattle expansion franchise.

Cooper has tried to line up other investors. More than a few potential partners have told him to get the team, and then they'll pitch in. But it doesn't work that way.

MLS wants the group in place before it awards the franchise. I believe MLS takes Cooper for granted; he'd be a great owner by himself. But I can understand MLS' desire to have the optimum financial foundation for a team.

And locally, the Cardinals, Rams and Blues are each owned by multiple partners — mostly out-of-towners, which oddly has become the STL way. So it makes sense for MLS to want the same thing here. And if someone else steps forward with lots of money to take the lead on this quest, Cooper is willing to be the minority partner. Whatever it takes, he will do.

"We're confident that we'll find the right partners very soon," Cooper said. "You have to remember that it's easier to find money than great partners, and that's our mission. This community deserves a first-class MLS ownership group. We won't quit until we put that group together."

The reality: Unless Cooper can recruit an associate or two, the next MLS team is probably headed to Philadelphia. St. Louis would still be in good position to land the 17th MLS franchise, to begin play in 2010 or 2011. Everything else is in place. But Cooper needs ownership collaborators, or STL may get shut out. In this case, Cooper can't score an unassisted goal.