Baseball's Pujols Joins St. Louis Investment Group

The St. Louis bid to land a Major League Soccer franchise during the next round of expansion got a major boost today as it was announced that the city's ownership group - St. Louis Soccer United - has attracted a new investor: baseball superstar Albert Pujols. The St. Louis Cardinals slugger, who was named this past week as MVP of the National League for the second time in his career, has thrown his support behind the idea of professional soccer returning to the Gateway City and will now become the face of the region's effort to field an expansion team in the next three years.
"I am very proud and excited to join the effort to bring Major League Soccer to the St. Louis area," said Pujols in a statement released by the group today. "This means a lot to me and my family, as we all love soccer and we believe in the MLS.

"Plus, this is something that will be great for our community, especially our youth," he continued. "I strongly encourage St. Louis business leaders and sports fans to join me in this effort. St. Louis is an unbelievable sports town and we'll be a great city for Major League Soccer."

Lead investor Jeff Cooper has been trying for some time to organize a solid group of investors that will convince Major League Soccer to move into the area. Many thought that the city would be granted one of the two most recent expansion slots to be allocated, but those went to Seattle and Philadelphia, respectively, with commissioner Don Garber confessing that the league was hesitant to move into St. Louis because the group's investors didn't have deep enough pockets.

"Obviously, [Pujols'] involvement strengthens our bid," said Cooper. "It helps in every aspect, and obviously having Albert involved makes us deeper financially. It makes us more attractive as a group when you have someone of his stature that involved in the group. People are going to want to be a part of the business Albert is involved in."The group's plan to build a $400-million soccer, retail and entertainment complex in Collinsville, IL. has already been designed and approved, with the only thing holding up construction being the league giving the city a green light. Putting a soccer-specific stadium in such a location would follow the league's pattern of building in suburban areas that are relatively easy to reach to all people in the metropolitan area; Collinsville sits approximately 14 miles east-northeast of downtown.

"You can stand on the ground at our site and you have a beautiful view of downtown and the Arch," Cooper explained. "It is an easy place to get to. We are one of the closest stadiums to downtown in MLS, closer than Toyota Park in Chicago, or Home Depot Center, or Dick's Sporting Goods Park."

The group's bid is one of seven that were submitted to the league before last month's deadline; St. Louis is vying for one of the next two expansion slots against Miami, Vancouver, Portland, Ottawa, Montreal and Atlanta.

"We feel our bid stands above everyone else's," admitted Cooper. "That being said, the way soccer is going to break through, every great market (in North America) are phenomenal markets and great for soccer. I hope everybody gets a team eventually."