Collinsville FC Still On Hold

After finalizing funding for a suburban soccer stadium, Philadelphia will officially receive a Major League Soccer expansion franchise next week. The announcement is scheduled for Thursday.

Jeff Cooper and St. Louis have been shut out again.

Even though Cooper fulfilled the league's No. 1 wish by securing financing for a beautiful soccer-specific stadium complex in Collinsville, the St. Louis bid has been skipped over in favor of San Jose, Seattle and now Philly.

Cooper remains undeterred and upbeat. Though Philadelphia will get the 16th MLS team, Cooper is confident that St. Louis will be No. 17, pegged to begin play in the 2010 season. And he expects that announcement to happen by early summer.

...

There should be no more waiting.

It frustrates me, the way the MLS and league commissioner Don Garber take Cooper for granted. The league couldn't ask for a better owner than Cooper. He's a soccer devotee and a goodwill ambassador, and he will build support for the sport at the grass-roots level.

One of these days, Cooper will run out of patience. Does he feel as if the MLS is misleading him with false promises?

"The MLS has always been honest and up front with me about where we stand," Cooper said. "And I've been given every indication that we're next."

Well, suppose the MLS puts Cooper off again? Suppose Miami makes a late rush to land a franchise, and the MLS ends up being seduced by South Florida's broader demographic appeal?

"I would be pretty angry," Cooper said

I've been impressed with the way Cooper has gone about his business. I don't really have any reason to believe the MLS team in Philly will be unsuccessful, although I cannot say I know that its success is assured either...but it still looks like a necessary step for a league hoping to present a larger national sporting scene footprint.

A team in St. Louis will help in that regard as well - providing a natural rival for the Chicago Fire is not a negligible benefit - but it isn't the market Philadelphia is and, right now, that matters most.

Still, I would like to see the league commit to the St. Louis effort sooner rather than later. To leave them twisting in the wind past this summer, particularly if Cooper lines up more money men as requested, would show MLS to be a pretty bush league operation.

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