|
Collinsville's proactive economic development stance, its location and its available ground presents the best opportunity
for the 20,000-seat outdoor stadium and the 110-acre youth soccer complex.
"We're working on a dual track," said Cooper. "We're concentrating on building a stadium and joining one of the two
professional leagues. We've had very good response from both leagues. Both the USL and MLS understand that St. Louis is a
major market. The folks from the MLS have told us time and time again that St. Louis is a dream market for them. They wanted
to include it when they started the league 11 years ago."
Figuring out the public-private partnership it will take to make the stadium deal happen, Cooper says, and putting it
together in just the few months required in order to meet the construction timeline to make the 2008 season is a steep
challenge - but one he intends to take on. Several parcels off of Illinois 255 in Collinsville's city limits are under
consideration for the project.
"We need to be breaking ground by March or April of this year in order to play in 2008," said Cooper. "Figuring out the
public-private partnership, how that's going to work and getting the stadium built under this timeframe is obviously going
to be a very, very difficult task. The one thing I can guarantee is this: There will be pro soccer in St. Louis in 2008.
We're going to get this done. St. Louis is the best soccer market in the country, and it has been without a professional
team since the inception of this league (MLS) and that's just wrong. We're going to make sure that changes by 2008," he
added.
If the stadium were not completed in time for an April 2008 season opener, Cooper said the team would likely play the
first two to three months of the season on the road, returning to open the new stadium in July of 2008 with the start of its
home games.
Cooper praises the city of Collinsville for understanding the big picture when it comes to the economic impact of
projects such as this one. The attorney says that since soccer is such a community-based sport, the basis for the pro soccer
stadium's success will rest in its community backing.
"What we're not asking the city for is to have ownership of the stadium," he said. "Our belief is that if a public entity
builds a stadium, it ought to be theirs. The city ought to be able to use it for anything it wants to use that stadium for.
The key to soccer, unlike so many other professional sports, is that you have to have full community buy-in. It's got to be
a community-based professional organization. If you're (investor) seen at all as getting something free from a community or
getting something that you're not generating other tax dollars with the other economic development that you bring along with
that project, I think it becomes untenable."
|
Cooper says pro soccer doesn't have the leeway that other professional sports do when it comes to commercial support.
"If you lose the support of your home community where you're doing it (the project), you don't have the leeway that the
St. Louis Cardinals or even the St. Louis Blues have - even though they're (Blues) having some pretty rough times right now.
These teams have huge TV contracts and other support. In contrast, in the soccer leagues, they're still at a maturity level
that doesn't allow them to keep propping up teams that can't make it on their own. What all this means is that if we can't
make it in our own community, the project - and the team - can't make it," he said.
No architect or general contractor has yet been selected for the project, but Cooper says several professional soccer
stadiums have been built in the U.S. over the past four years by a select number of firms who are known for this specific
type of work.
Chicago recently spent $110 million building the 20,000-seat Bridgeview Stadium, which opened in June 2006. Rochester,
N.Y. spent $44 million building its 14,500-seat stadium known as Paetec Park that also opened last June.
Gerald Barnhart, director of public relations for the USL, says it's true that for the professional soccer stadium
business model to work, the development of the adjacent youth complex is critical to the entire development's long-term
success.
"The model that has really grown has been the development of youth clubs as a support financially for the professional
club and for the development of future players," said Barnhart, noting that the USL opened a new stadium in Atlanta in 2006
as well, with stadiums in Montreal and Vancouver on schedule to open in 2007 and 2009 respectively. "When Saturday night
rolls around and professional teams are playing, there's more of a connection with those players when the youth complex is
already a successful operation. When people are growing up with the game of soccer in Europe, it's engrained in their
communities, kind of like the NFL is here. If you're a Chicago Bears fan when you're a youngster, you're forever a Chicago
Bears fan here," he said.
Cooper said with professional soccer, the economic model doesn't sustain the expense of a team coming in and building a
stadium. "It's completely different than professional football, for example. It's just not going to work that way with
soccer," he said. "We have to be realistic about it. Especially for soccer fanatics. You really think it's going to work, no
matter what you do, because you think everyone loves soccer as much as you do."
Cooper points to Huyghue, his partner in the pro soccer venture, as a good example of someone without a soccer background
who sees the pure business sense of the project.
"Michael Huyghue wrote the current salary cap for the NFL," said Cooper. "He was commissioner of the World Football
League and general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He's left the management side and has formed a sports agency and
represents some NFL players, a lot of pro golfers and he's very interested in soccer. It's people like Michael Huyghue who
are the symbol to me of what soccer is becoming in the U.S. He didn't play soccer as a kid. He doesn't know the history of
the game. He's not a true fan. But he's a very smart business guy who understands market trends when he sees them."
|
