March 17, 2017
A city once deemed “not a three team professional market” by Stan Kroenke, Los Angeles Rams owner, may be seeing the bright lights of Major League Soccer (MLS) as soon as 2020, according to statements released by MLS President and Deputy commissioner Mark Abbott. After grieving the loss of the Rams, St. Louis fans deserve a new team and a new sport to rally behind.
In January, Soccer Club St. Louis announced a formal application to MLS for one of four league expansion slots. Along with a new professional sports team to the area, the group proposed a 20,000-seat stadium, which would require $60 million in tax dollars. The stadium would not only hold games for the new MLS team, but as well bring host to an MLS All-Star game within five years of the inaugural season for the St. Louis team, and for the city to be considered for events like World Cup Qualifiers and international friendlies.
Ever since Kroenke took the caterpillar upon his upper lip and left with the Rams, St. Louis sports fans have shown incredible support for our hometown teams, even in such a difficult time (not like seeing support is out of the norm). St. Louis fans set an attendance record not for watching the current professionals, but instead for watching the alumni at the Winter Classic. Over 40,000 came out to watch what practically was a men’s league game. Pictures of a sea of blue packed into Busch Stadium blasted social media timelines, with captions mocking Kroenke for his remarks about the fragility and instability of the St. Louis market, which he believes is not stable enough to support three professional teams.
In its current stage, I would not place MLS in the realm of the cheesy show business of the NFL or NBA, or in the realm of dads sitting down on a midsummer’s day to listen to the crack of the bat, sipping on a Bud Light, or even in the same territory as maple-loving Canadians and their beloved NHL. MLS is in its completely own realm. It stems from the adoration and passion for soccer and one’s club, not the flashiness of the players and what they wear to the games. That niche is perfect for St. Louis. We’re not a flashy town. We take pride in what is ours, and support it through the good and the bad, as long as we can, up until the moment it is stripped away from us by greed-thirsty creepy old men.
The possibility of an MLS team may be just the remedy we need in a time of dismay for St. Louis sports. Our Rams are gone, they’re even worse in Los Angeles (that’s karma working, Stan) and our Blues are struggling for air without Kevin Shattenkirk (traded to the Washington Capitals) to revive us. With the ballot vote to approve the new team and the new stadium coming April 4, merely days after the Cardinals’ home opener against the Chicago Cubs, we may see a spring revival of baseball and a look to the future in soccer after a blue winter from the St. Louis Blues.
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