MLS Commissioner Don Garber "called St. Louis a 'great soccer market' on Tuesday, boosting hopes that a proposed open-air football stadium downtown could -- eventually -- draw a soccer team as well," according to Hunn & Timmermann of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Garber said that growing MLS "was a 'long-term project' and cautioned that any expansion into St. Louis wouldn’t happen before 2020 and would also need an ownership group to step forward." He was in town "to meet with local business leaders and public officials, including Gov. Jay Nixon and Mayor Francis Slay." Garber "talked at length with Dave Peacock, who co-leads Nixon’s stadium task force, and the HOK architects designing the stadium." He stressed that it "was merely a fact-finding visit." Garber: "We really hope to be able to work with them." Hunn & Timmerman note in the next six months, the league "will determine its future expansion plans, and Garber expects the league to go beyond 24, though he couldn’t say how far or how soon." Garber said that it "was far too early to talk about the financial commitment a team would make and how any lease might be structured." Hunn & Timmerman note MLS "has pushed for teams to play in soccer-specific stadiums (particularly downtown stadiums)." But Garber said that he "liked what he saw in HOK’s stadium renderings, in which a curtain would come down from the stadium’s roof to cover the upper deck and reduce the stadium capacity to about 38,000." However, he "killed any hopes that an MLS team could help with construction funding." Garber "closed his day in St. Louis by meeting with fans" at the Cardinals' Ballpark Village. About 250 fans "attended the late afternoon session" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 5/20),
