The two competing bids for a St. Louis MLS expansion team is no secret, but one of the bids just received a major boost.
The ownership group led by Paul Edgerley, called SC STL, formally announced their plans to bring an MLS expansion team and soccer-specific stadium to the city alongside commissioner Don Garber.
The group also plans to acquire Saint Louis FC, which plays in USL.
“With its rich soccer heritage, St. Louis has always been a market of great interest to Major League Soccer and SC STL is the ideal ownership group that will provide St. Louis the best opportunity for a future expansion team.” said Garber at Thursday’s announcement.
“We have had very productive meetings with lead investor Paul Edgerley and his partners and will continue to do so as they work to bring an expansion team to St. Louis. Their downtown site is the ideal location for a new stadium and we look forward to helping them make it a reality.”
The group plans to build a stadium just west of Union Station, within a mile of the Cardinals’ Busch Stadium and the Blues’ Scottrade Center and will hold a capacity of 20,000 with the ability to expand to 28,500 as well.
The group released renderings of the future venue as well.
The stadium is expected to cost around $200 million, with the public funding at 40 percent – roughly $80 million in total. The group also stated they would cover the league’s expansion fee, which is expected to be between $125-135 million.
If there is one truth in US soccer, its that the rendering never looks like the finished stadium.
Bring on the St. Louis Dumpster Fires!
This looks A LOT like that Cosmos stadium rendering…
And they are all cheap ripoffs of Toyo Ito’s design for the Kaohsiung Stadium finished in 2009. MLS stadia lack ambition, originality and, most of all, imagination.
Let’s just hope they lack the ridiculous stage-area with no seats and nothing more than an eye sore to fans inside the stadium and watching on TV.
That’s setting the bar really high.
No they are not. Ito’s stadium in Gaoxiong is a piece of shit “soccer stadium” with an Olympic track running around the pitch. No thanks.
“Their downtown site is the ideal location for a new stadium”
That rendering does not close to being downtown.
Based off the rendering, they simply laid down the arch and utilized its structure to help build the stadium.
It’s Downtown, it’s just the image above is looking due South away from Downtown, this rendering shows it’s proximity to Downtown a little better: https://cbsstlouis.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/pm3zi.png?w=420&h=249