St. Louis Business Journal
August 11, 2008 - 10:45 AM

Women's Professional Soccer announced Monday plans to put a team in Atlanta in 2010, which will be the second year of play for the league.

Atlanta's team will come into the league along with an expansion franchise from Philadelphia, joining teams in St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York and Washington D.C.

Atlanta's WPS team name, logo, colors, coaching and front office staff will be announced later.

Atlanta entrepreneur T. Fitz Johnson, former CEO of consulting and management services firm Eagle Group International LLC, will head Atlanta's WPS ownership group and will be the team's managing partner. A member of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Johnson has ties to soccer at the youth, collegiate, amateur and professional levels.

St. Louis-area lawyer Jeff Cooper heads the WPS franchise in St. Louis. Cooper also chairs St. Louis Soccer United, a group working to bring a Major League Soccer men's team to Collinsville, Ill., in Metro East.

Despite being passed over in February for an MLS team, Cooper said recently he is as confident as ever that Collinsville will receive a franchise once the makeup of his investor group is finalized. Once the St. Louis area is awarded a team, possibly as soon as later this year, Cooper said, work will start on a planned $400 million stadium and mixed-use development called The Fields.