A group of St. Louis aldermen, "eyeing the tens of millions of dollars spent to redo city-owned sports facilities in recent years, is pushing the soccer team partners to own their proposed stadium," representing the "first wrinkle" in the city's effort to land a MLS team, according to David Hunn of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Alderman Christine Ingrassia said, "We've been burned a couple of times before. I think they should own it" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 11/18). In St. Louis, Ben Frederickson notes prospective local MLS owners have "spent parts of the past month on an 'eye-opening' tour of MLS stadiums." Ownership group members visited the Red Bulls, Galaxy, LAFC and Sporting KC, and the St. Louis group's leader, Carolyn Betz, was a "constant." Betz said, "We asked, what are things they would do differently? What are things they would keep? Really, it was an opportunity to start gathering information. Our main question was, tell us everything you can about stadium, team ownership and so on." Betz said that it "remains unclear how MLS views its expansion race." The only news MLS will share during the league's annual meetings next month is its "plan to revisit expansion discussions." Betz: "We are expecting it to be the first quarter of 2019." Frederickson noted a visit from MLS Commissioner Don Garber is "tentatively targeted for mid-December." Passing the soccer resolution introduced last week by Alderman Lewis Reed "would be a major selling point," as would the "full clearance to build on the selected stadium site." But Betz "hinted stadium design plans could shift some from the renderings revealed by the previous ownership group" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 11/18).
