NEW YORK 鈥 Major League Soccer team owners discussed several competing expansion proposals on Thursday and came away with a glowing impression of the 最新杏吧原创 bid, owners and league officials said.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got a great city, a great soccer city,鈥 said Bill McGuire, owner of Minnesota United FC and a member of the league鈥檚 expansion committee. 鈥淎nd a great group of owners.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 a good group,鈥 said Cliff Illig, owner of Sporting Kansas City, which is poised to gain a rival if 最新杏吧原创 gets picked. 鈥淚鈥檓 impressed.鈥
Still, a vote by the owners is a ways off, said owners and league officials who gathered in New York on Thursday for the league鈥檚 December meeting. At least a half-dozen cities are competing to win two coveted franchises. League Commissioner Don Garber said recently that picking expansion cities and growing the 26-team league to 28 could take as long as another year.
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The league has not publicly described the process yet. Several owners uniformly declined further comment on Thursday.
But details are beginning to come out.
The 最新杏吧原创 ownership group, made up of World Wide Technology chief executive Jim Kavanaugh and Enterprise Holdings鈥 Taylor family, presented its plans to league officials in September.
The next step for the group will land it in front of the league expansion committee, which the league is reorganizing now. Jonathan Kraft, president of the National Football League鈥檚 New England Patriots and owner of the New England Revolution, has served as chairman. Chicago Fire鈥檚 Andrew Hauptman, the Seattle Sounders鈥 Joe Roth and Philadelphia Union鈥檚 Jay Sugarman, plus Illig and McGuire, have recently served with Kraft.
The expansion committee has, in the past, recommended finalists who then present to the full league ownership. It also has picked recent team winners Nashville and Cincinnati.
The 最新杏吧原创 ownership group did not attend Thursday鈥檚 meeting.
But league executives and owners continued on Thursday to call 最新杏吧原创鈥 bid a front-runner.
Kavanaugh briefly played professional soccer and owns the minor-league 最新杏吧原创 Football Club. The Taylors bring a net worth that has been reported as high as $13.8 billion and a deep commitment to 最新杏吧原创. Their plans have recently won support from Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and 最新杏吧原创 aldermen, two entities that dogged last year鈥檚 failed bid for a team. And the ownership group has promised to pay out-of-pocket for a $250 million stadium on Market Street downtown.
Still, it鈥檚 unclear whether owners think 最新杏吧原创 gives the league the best chance to succeed.
The league now has 23 teams, with three others 鈥 Cincinnati, Nashville and Miami 鈥 approved and set to start playing by 2020.
Garber has in recent weeks said publicly that Austin, Texas, has the greenlight to start a team.
That likely leaves at least six other cities 鈥 Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Raleigh and San Diego 鈥 vying for one last spot, not two.
A league official confirmed on Thursday that Sacramento, Calif., also has an active bid.
Carl Lindner, owner of the new Cincinnati franchise, wouldn鈥檛 say on Thursday which city he favors. Still, he had a message for 最新杏吧原创:
鈥溩钚滦影稍 is one of the great Midwestern cities,鈥 he said.
鈥淗ang in there.鈥
A look back at the rich history of 最新杏吧原创 soccer
最新杏吧原创 ownership group lands MLS expansion slot
The bid to land a Major League Soccer team for 最新杏吧原创 began publicly in聽October 2018. Members of the Taylor family and of the Kavanaugh family joined forces to prepare a formal bid for an聽expansion team.听
Carolyn Kindle Betz (pictured with Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber) joined with Jim Kavanaugh, Andy Taylor,聽Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Christine B. Taylor, Alison Kindle Hogan, Kelly C. Taylor, Patricia A. Taylor and Barbara Taylor. The team will be the first in the league majority-owned by women.听
The group has聽deep pockets, with ties to Enterprise Holdings and World Wide Technology.
A formal announcement that 最新杏吧原创 will get a team was held Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019. The debut has been postponed a year, to 2023.听
In August 2020, the team's leadership announced its name, crest and colors: 最新杏吧原创 City SC.
In February, 最新杏吧原创 City SC won its first game against Austin FC, 3-2.
Five 最新杏吧原创 players were on team that defeated England in 1950 World Cup
A 最新杏吧原创an was the keeper for the 1950 match against England in Brazil, holding a blank slate against the side considered to be the best in the world.听
Frank Borghi, who died in 2015, was one of five 最新杏吧原创ans on the team that beat England 1-0.
He made a key save in the second half on a header, knocking it wide of the net. 鈥淚 was lucky to jump in the air and deflect it with my right hand,鈥 he said in a 2009 interview.
Brazil's fans, ecstatic to see their main rival lose, carried Borghi off the field on their shoulders.听
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know what they were doing at first,鈥 he said later. 鈥淚 was kind of nervous. They picked me up and carried me 110 yards to the dugout. It was kind of exciting.鈥
In addition to Borghi, Harry Keough, Gino Pariani, Frank (Peewee) Wallace and Charley Colombo were the 最新杏吧原创ans on the field for that historic win over England. (Also on the team from 最新杏吧原创 were Bob Annis, a reserve who didn鈥檛 play, and assistant coach William 鈥淐hubby鈥 Lyons.) Keough died in 2012, Pariani in 2007, Colombo in 1986 and Wallace in 1979.
Pictures from the 1950 World Cup
In 1995, a local team won a professional soccer title
On April 25, 1995, the Ambush staged a comeback to sweep the Harrisburg Heat in four games to become the only team in 最新杏吧原创 professional soccer to win a title.
The title was won three years after Dr. Abraham Hawatmeh brought the Tulsa Ambush to 最新杏吧原创.听
With the NHL locked out in 1994, the Ambush had the honor of playing the first regular-season game at the new Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center).
The team would lead the league in attendance that season, averaging 7,881 a game.
The Ambush folded in 2000; a team with the same name now plays in the Major Arena Soccer League. The area has a men's team, 最新杏吧原创 FC, in the USL Championship, a league one step below the top professional level, Major League Soccer.听
A team in the failed Women's Professional Soccer league, 最新杏吧原创 Athletica, didn't win a championship in its short-lived tenure.听
Other now-defunct professional soccer teams include: Steamers (Major Indoor Soccer League), Storm (MISL), and Steamers (World Indoor Soccer League/MISL). In October 2020, 最新杏吧原创 FC, a United Soccer League Championship team, played its final game.听
The last top-level men's professional soccer team was the Stars
The 最新杏吧原创 Stars were a team in the North American Soccer League, which was the top-level pro league from 1968 to 1984.听
The Stars played from the start of the league until 1977, when the team moved to California.听
Well-known national players were on the team, including Al Trost. (He taught at McCluer North High during the offseason.) Other well-known players included Pat McBride and English goalie Peter Bonetti.
The team wanted a better home field than Washington University's Francis Field (which had a 10,000-person capacity), and had trouble getting Busch Stadium for more than a few games during their season.
For the 1977 season, the team drew an average of 9,111 fans, but that included a crowd of more than 32,000 at Busch Stadium (the game featured Pel茅).
Robert R. Hermann was one of the owners of the team.听
Several local teams were once best in the nation
Several 最新杏吧原创 teams have won the National Challenge Cup, now known as the U.S. Open Cup.听
The tournament matches soccer teams from various levels, including Major League Soccer teams, in a single-elimination tournament to decide the best soccer team in the country.听
In May 1920, in what the 最新杏吧原创 Star described as "the greatest soccer game ever witnessed on any American field," the Ben Millers, a 最新杏吧原创 team, beat a Massachusetts team to win the title.
More than 10,000 people watched the game at Federal League Park, a stadium near the current 最新杏吧原创 University campus. The 最新杏吧原创 team was the first outside the East coast to win the title.
Many of the teams in the early decades were owned by companies, hence the familiar names.
Other 最新杏吧原创 teams went on to play, and win, the Challenge Cup, including:
鈥 Scullin Steel: 1922 (The team went to the finals again in 1923, but had to forfeit a replay after a tie.)
鈥 Stix, Baer and Fuller: 1933, 1934
鈥 Central Breweries: 1935
鈥 Simpkins-Ford: 1948, 1950
鈥 Kutis: 1957, 1986聽
鈥 Busch: 1988
Pictures from the Cup game
European clubs used to come here to play against local teams
From the 1930s through '70s, 最新杏吧原创 was a regular stop for foreign clubs making American tours. There were no professional American leagues, so teams played top amateur clubs.
Over the years, clubs came from: Canada, Mexico, England, Chile, Germany, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Scotland, France and Turkey, among others. Manchester United came twice, in 1950 and 1960, playing matches at old Public Schools Stadium. The 最新杏吧原创 teams almost always lost, though there was a 1-1 tie with Liverpool in 1964.
The games may have been regular events, but that didn鈥檛 mean they weren鈥檛 special.
鈥淚t was fun playing against (those teams),鈥 said Bob Kehoe, a defender who took part in several of them in his long career. 鈥淭hey were almost always better than we were. We鈥檙e fledglings, newcomers to the game and they鈥檝e been playing for hundreds of years. We were rarely, if ever, successful. But we鈥檇 learn from them, pick up nuances, say, 鈥業 never saw a team do that before.鈥 It was enjoyable, even if you got embarrassed.鈥
Manchester City played a team of CYC All-Stars in 最新杏吧原创 in 1958, in front of about 4,000 people. The teams played at the Public Schools Stadium.听
"As expected, the all-professional English League team won the match, by a score of 6-2," read the Post-Dispatch article. "The 最新杏吧原创 players, all amateurs, were delighted to have held the First Division team to a 1-1 score at half time and to have escaped with only six goals charged against them, one of those a penalty kick."
The day Pel茅 played Busch Stadium
The greatest soccer player of all time had scored 1,268 goals over his illustrious career when the New York Cosmos faced the 最新杏吧原创 Stars on June 23, 1977. But with tenacious marking from Bob O'Leary and Roger Verdi and acrobatic goaltending by John Jackson, the Stars kept the incomparable聽Pel茅聽and the rest of the Cosmos off the scoreboard in a 2-0 victory.
Among his three shots, Pel茅 sent a header over the net and fired wide on a free kick. His frustration showed with 5 minutes to play when he literally tackled the Stars' Al Trost from behind.
"He should have had a caution for that but I guess because it was Pele' the referee decided to let it go," Trost said.
After the game,聽Pel茅 raced over to Jackson and shook his hand.听Pel茅, then 37, retired at the end of the '77 season with his Cosmos winning the NASL title. The crowd of 32,605 at Busch Stadium was the largest to see a professional soccer game in 最新杏吧原创.
Billikens' 10 NCAA soccer championships
The Billikens men's soccer team won 10 NCAA soccer championships from 1959 to 1973.
Bob Guelker coached the team through 1966, then the team was coached by Harry Keough, a defender who played on the 1950 U.S. World Cup team.听
SLU played against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 27 times from 1971-1998 in the "Bronze Boot" matches. The rivalry was resurrected in 2018.听The 1980 match holds the record as the largest soccer crowd at an NCAA men's game (22,512).
Guelker coached at both colleges.听
U.S. Soccer has played several World Cup-qualifying matches here
In November 2015, the U.S. Soccer men's team defeated St. Vincent and the Grenadines in Busch Stadium.
Before that, the national team played a qualifier in November 1989, against El Salvador at the Soccer Park in Fenton.
The 2015 game drew 45,000 people; the 1989 game had a sellout crowd of 8,500.
The team had played two previous matches in 最新杏吧原创 in the run-up to the November game.听The Americans had come to 最新杏吧原创 twice before in qualifying for the 1990 World Cup. The first was in the preliminary round, when it beat Jamaica to advance into the final round of qualifying. In their second match in that round, the Americans beat Costa Rica.
The November聽1989 match ended in a tie, but the U.S. team later qualified for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, losing all three matches. It was the first time the American team made the World Cup since 1950.
The women's team has played at least two friendly matches in town, with one in May 2019.
Hermann Trophy is annually awarded here
Soccer's version of the Heisman Trophy, the Hermann Trophy, is awarded through the Missouri Athletic Club, and presented at the club in 最新杏吧原创 every year.
The top NCAA Division I women's and men's soccer player receives the trophy. Previous awardees include players who went on to be on the national roster, including Americans Christen Press, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Michelle Akers and Tisha Venturini; and Canadian Christine Sinclair; men who went on to the national team include Alexi Lalas and Al Trost.
The award is the result of a merge of previous awards for soccer players given by Robert R. Hermann and the club.听
Youth and high school soccer thrive here
From the soccer program at Christian Brothers College High School, which was inducted into the Missouri sports Hall of Fame this year, to the myriad youth clubs, hundreds of children and teens play soccer in 最新杏吧原创.
Some of those players grow up to play for the U.S. national teams, including聽Ruth Harker, a goalkeeper for the University of Missouri-最新杏吧原创. She was named to the first-ever U.S. Women's National Team in 1985, a team that played one game in Italy.听
Other players include:聽Lori Chalupny (Nerinx Hall),聽Kevin Grimes (Rosary),聽Chris Klein (De Smet),聽Pat Noonan (De Smet), Steve Ralston (Oakville), Tim Ream (St. Dominic), Josh Sargent (St. Dominic), Becky Sauerbrunn (Ladue Horton Watkins) and Taylor Twellman (SLUH).