Thank God

Ever since MLS got going, while I was living in the DC area, I was always worried that my old hometown of St. Louis would be granted an expansion franchise. I was a DC United fan...but could I root against the team from back home?? I'm not sure. Then today I read this: Collinsville may develop stadium for MLS expansion team

Collinsville Mayor Stan Schaeffer acknowledged Saturday that Collinsville is the Metro East site that is under consideration as the potential home of a Major League Soccer franchise in the St. Louis area.

Schaeffer said he was encouraged by a meeting Friday.

"The city and the investment group, the economic development office and our corporate counsel have been crunching numbers,'' he said. "It hasn't looked good to this point, but it's looking better.

"I know it's going slowly, but we would like to have a handle on the ancillary economic development and see if that's adequate enough for us to make a move."

The proposed stadium site is on 200 acres at Horseshoe Lake Road and Interstate 255, just north of Interstates 55-70 and 64.

To my mind, the east side isn't St. Louis at all...its downstate Illinois. Sure we like it better than, say, Chicago, but it isn't like Soulard, or Dogtown, or Webster Groves (or even Chesterfield)...it isn't really St. Louis.

I can root against them.