All-Star Slugger Pujols Steps Up to MLS Plate

NEW YORK -- The competition for an MLS expansion team in 2011 includes heavy hitters like FC Barcelona and NBA star Steve Nash, who are attached to bids from Miami and Vancouver, respectively. St. Louis’s bid, considered a longshot by some, needed a big hit at some point if they were going to have a chance.

On Tuesday, they smacked a home run. St. Louis Soccer United announced that St. Louis Cardinals all-star first baseman Albert Pujols has joined the proposed ownership group.

A day after he was named the National League’s MVP, the Dominican slugger lent his name, money, and vast goodwill in the St. Louis area to the city’s MLS bid. But he says the decision was also personal.

“This means a lot to me and my family, as we all love soccer and we believe in MLS,” Pujols said in a statement released by SLSU. “Plus, this is something that will be great for our community, especially our youth. I strongly encourage St. Louis business leaders and sports fans to join me in this effort. St. Louis is an unbelievable sports town and we’ll be a great city for Major League Soccer.”

SLSU chairman Jeff Cooper said that the ownership group is still growing and that more announcements will come soon. He acknowledged that Pujols involvement was a coup for the bid.

“Albert’s commitment is a testament to the strength of the league, the interest and promise of Major League Soccer in St. Louis, and the overall quality of our team, stadium and youth complex plan,” Cooper said in the statement.

The St. Louis bid includes plans for an 18,500-seat soccer-specific stadium in Collinsville, Illinois, ten minutes outside of downtown, which would be surrounded by a soccer complex made up of a grass training field and 12 full-size synthetic turf fields. As has been the case with other recent soccer-stadium projects, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, in Commerce, Colorado, the SLSU plan includes a 400-acre mixed-use development with shops, hotels, residences, and open space.

SLSU was earlier this year awarded the rights to a Women’s Professional Soccer team, which will begin play next April on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. This team, too, would play at the Collinsville stadium, if it is built.

MLS received seven bids last month for the next round of expansion, set for 2011. Along with St. Louis, Miami, and Vancouver, the cities of Atlanta, Portland, Montreal, and Ottawa submitted bids. The announcement of the two winners is expected to come sometime in the early part of the new year.

In the meantime, Cooper believes Pujols’s involvement significantly improves St. Louis’s chances by raising the profile with some celebrity.

“In Albert Pujols, we have someone who will be terrific not only for St. Louis, but for all of MLS and the global soccer community,” he said.

-- Goal.com