Stadium of dreams
By Tom Timmermann and Shane Graber
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Aug. 10 2007
Efforts to bring professional outdoor soccer back to St. Louis will enter a decisive phase on Monday when a prominent Metro East lawyer will propose a $100 million stadium complex in Collinsville that he intends to be home to a Major League Soccer franchise.
The Collinsville City Council will hear a presentation from East Alton attorney
Jeff Cooper about a 400-acre development project that would include an 18,900-seat stadium, a hotel, at least two restaurants, about 1,000 single-family homes, several youth soccer fields and nearly 500,000 square feet of office and retail space.
While the complex would be a destination point in the Metro East area, it would not come without risk; Collinsville would have to sell about $20 million in bonds to get the project started. The City Council is expected to vote Sept. 10 on the project, which would be located at Interstate 255 and Horseshoe Lake Road."When I saw it," said Collinsville Mayor Stan Schaeffer, "I was expecting a stadium — and I got a suburb." Schaeffer and the four Collinsville City Council members make up the five-person panel that would vote on the proposal. He said the city has been working since January last year to make this happen.
Collinsville would pay off what likely would be 25-year bonds from sales taxes on everything bought at the complex, a parking tax included in ticket costs, and an entertainment tax also included in the price of a ticket.
Once the bonds are paid off, the city would still collect that tax money, Cooper said.
"The city stands to make $40 million to $50 million above and beyond the bonds in the first 10 years," he said. "What we're prepared to do is put an $80 million to $100 million investment into Collinsville, and we're asking the city to help us out with some of that with taxes that will be paid off from the project.
"Collinsville is also investing in its own future."
If the stadium plan is approved, St. Louis soon could be granted an MLS expansion franchise that would begin play in 2009. Cooper has negotiated extensively with the league about securing a team and is confident that once a stadium deal is done, a team would soon follow.
"I'm extremely optimistic,'' said Cooper, who this year tried to buy an MLS franchise, Real Salt Lake, from Blues owner Dave Checketts. Once the deal is done, "it's in MLS' court at that point. Then it's up to MLS to help us get this deal done, which they've committed from Day One to do the minute we had a stadium deal."
Collinsville City Manager Bob Knabel said he and his staff will recommend during next month's council meeting that the city approve the complex. He acknowledged that the proposal includes no guarantees. If the league, team or stadium tanks, the city will have to find other ways to pay off the bonds.
"There's always a risk, but you're also trying to cover those risks with what you see as reasonable resources," Knabel said.
Cooper said that an analysis commissioned and conducted by Economics Research Associates estimated the project would create $2.3 billion of economic impact to Collinsville and the surrounding area over 10 years.
At present, the ownership group consists of Cooper and Michael Huyghue, the president of a sports management company and the former general manager of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars. Cooper said he is in discussions with other potential local investors.
While Collinsville isn't the only city where the team could go, it's the only city that would be ready by 2009. MLS plans to add only two more teams by 2010 before stopping expansion for several seasons. Also, the current expansion fee is $30 million, but that price is expected to go up — possibly to $50 million — as the league enters the David Beckham Era, which is expected to bring in more revenue. When Toronto received an expansion franchise in November 2005 to begin play this season, the price tag was $10 million.
St. Louis is one of several cities working to get a team before the league settles at 16 franchises. (The league currently has 13 teams, and an expansion team in San Jose, Calif., will start next year.) But the league won't consider a city for expansion unless it has an appropriate venue, preferably an 18,000-seat soccer-specific stadium that the team controls. Without that, it's difficult for teams to show a profit.
A franchise in St. Louis would be appealing to MLS.
"Major League Soccer is excited about St. Louis Soccer United's efforts to bring an MLS team to one of the most passionate and storied soccer markets in the United States," MLS President Mark Abbott said Thursday. "We continue to believe the greater St. Louis area would be a tremendous home for an MLS club and are pleased to see the interest from the city of Collinsville in a soccer-specific stadium and mixed-use development."
St. Louis has a strong soccer heritage. A St. Louis team would create a natural rivalry with franchises that already exist in Kansas City and Chicago. St.
Louis University is consistently among the NCAA's leaders in soccer attendance, and there are many players with St. Louis roots in the league. Additionally, preps soccer thrives here in relation to most other markets.
The discussions with the league, Cooper said, have moved past topics like the expansion fee and on to issues such as hosting the MLS All-Star Game or MLS Cup, the league's championship game, as well as the method for choosing players in the expansion process and acquiring international players.
Cooper said the team would need to break ground by November to be assured of having the stadium done in time for the 2009 season.
The Gateway City Supporters Club was officially established today following a vote on the Bigsoccer.com forum for MLS expansion in St. Louis.
We have a new website at www.leaguelineup.com/gatewaycitysc
If you want to join us please submit an online registration form at the website above by clicking in the Directory on "online forms" and following the instructions there.
Our Message to MLS:
"The fans are organized and ready, we just need a St. Louis MLS team to support."
From the Illinois Business Journal
Collinsville soccer project blooming into large-scale, mixed-use development
By ALAN J. ORTBALS
The proposed professional soccer project in Collinsville is moving forward and expanding far beyond a new stadium, according to Jeff Cooper, managing partner in the law firm of SimmonsCooper LLC and investor in St. Louis Professional Soccer Expansion Group LLC which is pursuing the Professional Soccer League franchise.
While exact plans are still being molded, Cooper has acquired rights to more than 400 acres of land in the Collinsville area and is planning a mixed-use development that will include residential, office and retail components along with the soccer
stadium and multiple soccer fields for amateur play.
James Berg and Rob Christlieb, partners in the real estate development firm, Crossroads Development LLC, are master planning the project and acting as owners'
Crossroads Development LLC is planning a 400-acre, mixed-used project in Collinsville using a 'new urbanism' theme similar to New Town at St. Charles in St. Charles County, Mo. as shown above.
representatives in dealing with a variety of planners and real estate developers.
"We envision a mixed-use development where the residential can help support a Main Street-like retail component," said Berg. "There will also probably be some larger big-box or mid-size-box retailer anchor stores and there will be a youth soccer complex that is going to draw teams from the entire St. Louis metro area on a regular basis for games. It will be a regional hub for tournaments. We'll have a very nice facility there for people, and all the amenities that people expect when they go to those kinds of things."
Berg said the intent is to draw in multiple developers to take pieces of the project and to develop the 400-plus acre tract in two phases. Phase one would contain the soccer stadium and fields, using them as the focal point of the development. Cooper coaxed Berg into moving here from Portland, Ore., where he owned a residential development company, to bring something different to the Southwestern Illinois area.
"We're looking to do something in the new urbanism realm and show that that model can work here in Southwestern Illinois," said Berg. "We're focused on building a community and we think there's a great opportunity there."
New urbanism is an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing, jobs, goods and services and be "walkable." An example in the St. Louis metro area is New Town at St. Charles.
In addition to his effort to bring a men's MLS team to Collinsville, Cooper is also working on a professional women's team as well. Cooper currently owns a semi-pro women's team called River City East and he has signed a letter of intent for a women's professional team as part of a re-launch of the Women's United Soccer Association league. The WUSA operated in eight U.S. cities from 2001 to 2003 and shut down after the 2003 season. According to Berg, there are seven or eight cities committed to that re-launch right now. Berg said that the women's team would probably start play at Busch Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo. in 2008.
In addition to the venue for professional soccer, the development would include nine youth soccer fields. The youth soccer fields are a key component of the development plan and a major generator of activity - and indirectly revenue, according to Paul Mann, community development/TIF director for the city of Collinsville.
"With youth soccer you can have year-round users who will be utilizing services in the area," said Mann. "They're looking at nine youth sports fields that will be laid out throughout this development and utilized as green space, greenways and malls."
Another part of the development plan is to hold concerts in the stadium, consistent with the operations of other MLS stadiums around the country.
"If you go all the way back to the Mississippi River Music Festival, concerts by famous performers were here at one point," Berg said. "But, since then, the Metro East has had to go over to St. Louis to see music. I think this will be a good opportunity to have concerts, probably six to eight large concerts a year here."
Mann has been working with Cooper and Berg on the project for more than a year now. He said that part of the reason the project has expanded beyond the stadium and fields is to generate the tax base to support the costs of infrastructure and more. Mann said the stadium will be privately owned - the city of Collinsville will not own it - but that the city will consider supporting the project through tax increment financing. Whether that will be done through the expansion of an existing district or the creation of a new one has not yet been determined.
Mann said that the city is working on an agreement with the developers, and he expects to be able to complete that agreement over the summer. Cooper said the goal is to play the 2009 MLS schedule in the new stadium in Collinsville.
vice president/coo: Alan J. Ortbals
email: aortbals@ibjonline.com
Park planned at I-255, Horseshoe Lake Road
Collinsville officials are continuing to talk with private investors in hopes of bringing a 14th Major Soccer League team to the area. The talks began more than six months ago.
"Discussions are taking place. Issues are being resolved. Progress is being made," said Collinsville City Administrator Bob Knabel on Tuesday.
One thing that has not been released publicly are details about the negotiations.
The two sides are considering having a soccer-specific park built near Interstate 255, on Horseshoe Lake Road.
An amphitheater had been proposed for the site but was never built. The site is part of an existing tax increment finance district, Knabel said.
The Major Soccer League has been around for 13 years, with the nearest franchises in Kansas City and Chicago. It got a publicity boost recently when the Los Angeles Galaxy announced they had signed former English captain and Real Madrid star David Beckham to a contract. The league has also been hoping to increase attendance by building soccer-specific stadiums near large cities. Since 1999, the MLS has constructed six stadiums, which are generally a third of the size of football stadiums.
Plans call for stadiums to be built soon in Salt Lake City and East Rutherford, N.J.
"Having a stadium and a complex on this side of the river would be a great thing," said Dale Schilly, program director for Metro United of Southern Illinois. Metro United hosts tournaments, such as the Final Four Showcase Tournament in December, that attract teams from across the country.
Practices and games are played at the Metro United Soccer Complex, off Horseshoe Lake Road, and at signs ups for tryouts recently parents and players signed petitions meant to show support for bringing professional soccer to the area. Petitions are still being circulated, Schilly said. Over the years, thousands of teens have come to Collinsville from places like Chesterfield, Mo., and Schilly has no doubt that they and others would return now to watch professional soccer.
The petitions will be passed along soon to Nate Brinson, who said Tuesday that he has also been collecting petitions in the St. Louis area and Illinois. Neither Brinson nor Schilly knew how many petitions have been signed so far. Brinson plans to turn them over to East Alton attorneys Jeff Cooper and John Simmons, who head the exploratory group looking to bring a team here.
Cooper said that discussions between his group and Collinsville officials are continuing and that "we hope to have an announcement soon."
Said Schilly: "We're interested in this for the development of the game here. We're just excited they're as close as what everybody says they are."
©Edwardsville Intelligencer 2007
