RSL/St. Louis Stadium End-Game

Well, it looks like Real Salt Lake's (RSL) stadium fight is finally coming together - at least on the political side. It looks as if there will be something concrete for the team to say yes or no to by the end of the week in any case - though I can't quite tell if the ball is in RSL's court exclusively (normally, I'd answer that question but my synapses have a lot of gunk blocking them today).

Like everyone else, I'm just wanting this damn saga to end - almost, but not quite, to the point where I don't care what happens.

But there's another developing wrinkle in this story - namely, what will come of St. Louis' hard-press courtship of the team? An excerpt from a Saturday article in the Deseret News points in an interesting direction:

"But three cities around St. Louis are anxious to play host to a Major League Soccer team in their town."

"Jeff Cooper, a lawyer who is the managing partner of Simmons Cooper in St. Louis, is negotiating a deal for his group to own the team. He said they are "very, very close to a stadium deal," and he's expecting to come to a resolution sometime next week."

"Stadium plans, he said, would be much like the one proposed in Sandy, with a public-private partnership. The difference, he said, is that these public leaders are willing to put "their money where their mouth is."

So, what happens if/when St. Louis gets their stadium situation sorted out just when the Utahns get theirs approved and RSL decides to stay put? With St. Louis that far along - and with the right people interested - wouldn't St. Louis look really good for an expansion town? Put another way, reading that passage, wouldn't you think St. Louis will go ahead and build even with an available team out of the picture?

(#######)