More St. Louis Soccer

This time from the PD: Failed deal in Salt Lake may bring a team here

St. Louis has moved back into the picture for getting a Major League Soccer franchise after a change of heart by the county government in Salt Lake City.

Dave Checketts, who owns the Blues, is considering selling his MLS team, Real Salt Lake, after a decision by the Salt Lake County Council not to provide $30 million in hotel tax money to help finance the team's $110 million stadium project.

Jeff Cooper, the Alton lawyer who is spearheading the group trying to bring an MLS team here, said he has had significant discussions with Checketts about purchasing the team.

"I think there is a possibility,'' Cooper said Wednesday. "We are closer than we've ever been to getting a stadium deal done and close enough that I feel very comfortable having extensive conversations with Real Salt Lake and the league about bringing a team here sooner rather than later."

Cooper was in China when Real Salt Lake's stadium deal fell through and he returned home to begin discussions.

"This is certainly the best opportunity so far,'' he said. "We've had really good discussions with Dave Checketts. Salt Lake City is his hometown, and this is certainly a tough thing for him to do. But he's run into so many walls in Salt Lake City they've almost forced him to sell the team. At this point, I don't think he wants to move out of Salt Lake City, but he and I have had good discussions that are ongoing.

"We've made significant progress. We're getting closer and closer with each day that passes."

If it does happen, it could be soon. Cooper said that having a deal done in the next couple of weeks was "certainly conceivable."

The fact that Cooper cut short his trip to China to jump in on this has to be a bad sign for Salt Lake. If bringing the team to St. Louis were really a distant longshot he would have probably stuck to his itinerary.

It is interesting to see how quickly St. Louis has gone form barely getting mentions as a possible expansion site to being a front runner.

Who else would like to see Brian McBride plying his trade for a St. Louis MLS side? It is getting to be about that time in his career to think about coming back stateside.

It's a thought.