forsberg_us wrote:

Carpenter to the bench

Suprised.  He had a career game last night

I know the pitcher made one of the outs, but come on. You can't strand a leadoff triple.

Did Horton just call MLS soccer "the highest level?" It's a fourth-tier league populated by players who aren't good enough to play in Europe or South America, and washed up Europeans who come here to collect a fat paycheck before they go back home to coach.

artie_fufkin wrote:

Did Horton just call MLS soccer "the highest level?" It's a fourth-tier league populated by players who aren't good enough to play in Europe or South America, and washed up Europeans who come here to collect a fat paycheck before they go back home to coach.

I know nothing about soccer and dont plan on learning.

Don Zimmer was right. If you don't have a bullpen, you ain't got squat.

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

Did Horton just call MLS soccer "the highest level?" It's a fourth-tier league populated by players who aren't good enough to play in Europe or South America, and washed up Europeans who come here to collect a fat paycheck before they go back home to coach.

Hey, don’t be a Mass-hole. This is St. Louis’ return to being a “3 sport” town. The MLS is replacing the NFL. The City has been having a St. Louis-gasm since the day this was unofficially announced.

Why is McLaughlin so fired up about soccer? It seems like he's been stumping for an MLS team for years.
 

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

Did Horton just call MLS soccer "the highest level?" It's a fourth-tier league populated by players who aren't good enough to play in Europe or South America, and washed up Europeans who come here to collect a fat paycheck before they go back home to coach.

Hey, don’t be a Mass-hole. This is St. Louis’ return to being a “3 sport” town. The MLS is replacing the NFL. The City has been having a St. Louis-gasm since the day this was unofficially announced.

Why is McLaughlin so fired up about soccer? It seems like he's been stumping for an MLS team for years.
 

It’s a St. Louis pride thing. If you didn’t follow it, and there’s no reason you should have, the way the Rams left was particularly despicable. The team and the NFL lied to the City about what they needed to do to keep the team because the assumption was that the City wouldn’t do it—except they did. So then the NFL had to break its own rules to move the team and the Rams and Kroenke justified the move on the notion that the City was a dying City that had no foreseeable future for any sort of endeavor, let alone an NFL team.

The City has actually undergone some decent revitalization efforts. It still has its issues, but a lot of the negative image comes from the crime stats which are skewed heavily by the fact that the. It’s and County are separate. St. Louis is becoming a destination for millennials, and the Cortex research area is one of the nation’s hot spots for technology and research.

But the image of the City has been shaped by being the City that lost an NFL franchise—twice. The idea of bringing an MLS franchise gained momentum and then was defeated by a foolishly shortsighted vote by taxpayers who thought they could spend tax credits that the owners would be given to improve City services. (Think Amazon deciding not to build in NYC and AOC thinking the City could spend the tax credits elsewhere). The idea was dead until several wealthy local families decided to come together and privately finance the whole thing, and do so with an entirely female ownership group. The City politicians considered trying to block it again under the guise of corporate welfare and McLaughlin made an impassioned speech to the City Board of Alderman telling them that the MLS was necessary to help repair the image of the City. It was sport returning to the City, not leaving. It was local businesses stepping up to improve the City’s image.

He felt very strongly that the City needed the positive news. Of course it comes of the heals of the Blues winning the Cup (sorry), so it builds on the positivity.

I found video of his speech to the Board of Aldermen.

https://youtu.be/X2kWa96f5lY

Last edited by forsberg_us (8/20/2019 10:28 pm)

artie_fufkin wrote:

I'm an enthusiastic soccer fan. I've attended a World Cup game. I attended a game in Barcelona. I watch my favorite English team - I probably shouldn't admit the one that's owned by Kroenke - on television every weekend. I'll set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. like I did last weekend to watch Arsenal. I follow the other top tier European leagues. I follow the UEFA Champions League. I pay attention to and watch most of the international tournaments and qualifiers. I spent a big chunk of my convalescence from my knee replacement this summer watching the women's World Cup, the Gold Cup and Copa America.


There has been an MLS team in Foxboro since the inception of the league 25 years ago. I've never attended a New England Revolution game. I've never thought about attending to a Revolution game. Someone offered me free tickets once and I declined so I could stay home and watch the Cardinals on television.
Part of it is because the Krafts own the team and the stadium and my animosity toward the Patriots. The Krafts also whined incessantly during the first decade of the franchise that people were ignoring "New England's fifth major league team," but the bottom line is the product MLS puts on the pitch isn't very good. I have no desire to open my wallet and spend money to watch players who aren't good enough to play in even mid-tier European leagues or has-beens like Zlatan Imbrahimovic, Frank Lampard or Wayne Rooney. Even when Thierry Henry - who is an Arsenal god - played for the Red Bulls, I had no desire to watch the 35-year-old version of him limp around the pitch.

You're missing the point.  Soccer is incredibly popular in St. Louis.  It's actually somewhat surprising that we don't have an MLS team already--probably because we already had the Rams.  We have something called St. Louis FC.  I had to look it up, but they play in something called the USL.  They apparently play to pretty big crowds in a small venue in the County.

Within 5 minutes of our house, there are 3 major soccer complexes: Maryland Height Sport Port has 12 full fields, Lou Fusz has 10 and Scott Gallagher has 7.  These things are packed almost every weekend.  St. Louis has a huge Catholic population.  Every parish has multiple soccer teams at every age level.

The people that own this new MLS team are building a stadium designed to hold about 22,000-25,000 people.  I'd be stunned if they don't sell out every game for the first few years of its existence.  The product may be inferior to a European League, but there aren't many people in St. Louis traveling to Europe anytime soon.

My guess is the baseball product in Springfield is inferior to what we see in St. Louis.  But if I lived in Springfield, I'd probably go to the games.