ST. LOUIS - Major League Soccer's leadership will meet this week in Florida during the league’s All-Star Game festivities, but St. Louis fans should not anticipate news then about an expansion team coming to the city.
The MLS board of governors, which consists of two representatives from each of league's 27 teams and is responsible for selecting expansion markets, will meet Wednesday in Orlando. While expansion may be discussed by the board, an MLS spokesman said the league is not planning to announce new teams during the All-Star Game events.
“While we have many events taking place this week in Orlando as part of the MLS All-Star festivities, we do not plan to have any expansion news coming out of the July 31 MLS Board of Governors meeting," said Dan Courtemanche, MLS executive vice president for communications. "While expansion has been on every MLS Board of Governors meeting for more than a decade, any announcement of a new expansion team will take place in the market where the new club will be based.”
Typically, the league foreshadows expansion by issuing a news advisory announcing a forthcoming “very special announcement” — or, in Austin’s case in January, a “legendary announcement” — about the future of soccer in that city. The event itself then becomes a celebratory press conference in which MLS Commissioner Don Garber shares the stage with owners of the new franchise.
It remains unclear when MLS plans to announce which cities will be awarded its 28th and 29th teams. Garber previously said the league hoped to have a final decision on those franchises made before the league’s All-Star Game, which will be played Wednesday.
#MLS4THELOU, the ownership group leading St. Louis’ bid for a team, on July 15 met with the MLS expansion committee in New York. That meeting followed a decision in April by the MLS board of governors to expand the league to 30 teams, beyond its previous target of 28 clubs, authorizing the league to work exclusively with the ownership groups in St. Louis and Sacramento for teams 28 and 29.
The league said earlier this month that the ownership groups from St. Louis and Sacramento, along with those backing expansion bids in other cities, were planning to attend All-Star week events in Orlando. A spokesperson for #MLS4THELOU confirmed Monday that members of the ownership group will be attending the MLS All-Star Game.
If awarded as either team 28 or 29, #MLS4THELOU will pay a franchise fee of $200 million. The ownership group’s plans include a stadium just west of Union Station that would have capacity of about 22,500 with the ability to expand to 25,500 and be surrounded by a Downtown West District with mixed-use retail, restaurants and gathering spaces, according to renderings released in April.
