MLS likes new stadium plans here - STLtoday.com
LOUIS • The commissioner of Major League Soccer called St. Louis a “great soccer market” on Tuesday, boosting hopes that a proposed open-air football stadium downtown could — eventually — draw a soccer team as well. At the same time, Commissioner Don Garber said growing MLS was a “long-term project” and cautioned that any expansion into St. Louis wouldn’t happen before 2020 and would also need an ownership group to step forward. He talked at length with Dave Peacock, who co-leads Nixon’s stadium task force, and the HOK architects designing the stadium. The league, which currently has 20 teams, set a goal of 24 teams by 2020 and will reach that by 2018 with the addition of teams in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and a David Beckham-led team likely in Miami. In the next six months, the league will determine its future expansion plans, and Garber expects the league to go beyond 24, though he couldn’t say how far or how soon. Garber also said it was far too early to talk about the financial commitment a team would make and how any lease might be structured. While MLS has pushed for teams to play in soccer-specific stadiums (particularly downtown stadiums), he said he liked what he saw in HOK’s stadium renderings, in which a curtain would come down. Source: www.stltoday.com
