St. Louis Soccer United (SLSU) is a professional soccer investment and development group lead by chairman Jeff Cooper. With long term goals of bringing a Major League Soccer team and state-of-the-art stadium facility to the St. Louis, Missouri area, SLSU is the current owner of Women's Professional Soccer club Saint Louis Athletica and a future expansion team in the 2010 version of the North American Soccer League comprised of former USL First Division clubs. The group also operates a network of youth development clubs in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

[edit] MLS expansion effort

SLSU proposes an MLS team in St. Louis would play in a new soccer-specific stadium in suburban Collinsville, Illinois, located just 10 minutes from downtown St. Louis. The overall development would include:

• A state-of-the-art soccer complex featuring an 18,500-seat stadium with the St. Louis downtown skyline and Gateway Arch in view to the west.
• Twelve fully lit FIFA-approved synthetic turf fields and a professional grass training pitch designed to host regional, national and international youth soccer events.
• Approximately 400 acres of mixed-use, new urbanism development including 300,000 square feet of retail opportunities, more than 200,000 square feet of office space, two 120-room hotels, approximately 1,000 residential units, and internal bike and walking paths linked to more than 85 miles of scenic trails.

[edit] WPS: Saint Louis Athletica

When WPS was announced in 2006, SLSU was one of the then-six groups to have a team in the new league. Athletica features star goalkeeper Hope Solo, St. Louis native Lori Chalupny, (both of the USWNT,) and English striker Eniola Aluko. The team began play at SIUE before moving to Soccer Park in the middle of the 2009 season. Athletica have proven to be a strong and incredibly resilient team, securing second place in the league's first season a couple games before the season was over after having been in or tied for last place for the first two months of the season.

[edit] NASL: Starting a new league

After a failed bid to purchase USL-1 from Nike by the USL-1's "Team Owner's Association" (TOA), a group of which SLSU was a member, the six member clubs of the TOA (along with SLSU) decided to break away from USL-1 and start their own league. The revival of the NASL name was announced in mid-November of 2009, around the same time two more teams announced they were joining the new league, which with an expansion side in St. Louis brought the league up to nine teams, though the league has yet to be officially sanctioned by major governing bodies.

Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that the St. Louis NASL team should play at Soccer Park as well, and is expected to be built on St. Louis-area talent.

[edit] See also

• Saint Louis Athletica
• Women's Professional Soccer
• North American Soccer League (2010)
• Anheuser-Busch Center
• Major League Soccer

[edit] External links

• St. Louis Soccer United
• Saint Louis Athletica