St. Louis Soccer United (SLSU) is a professional soccer investment and development group dedicated to bringing a Major League Soccer team and state-of-the-art stadium facility to the St. Louis area. St. Louis Soccer United is proposing the development of a multi-pronged project that includes:
- Securing an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer
- A state-of-the-art soccer complex with an 18,500-seat stadium
- Eight fully lit FIFA-approved synthetic turf fields and a professional
grass training pitch
- Approximately 400 acres of new urbanism development including retail,
office, and residential uses
Major League Soccer, now at 13 teams with a 14th (San Jose) to join the league in 2008, will expand to 16 teams by 2010. St. Louis heads the list of potential expansion markets, including Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, and Portland.
In the race to expansion, St. Louis Soccer United has earned the support of key Major League Soccer figures including Dave Checketts, who is the investor-owner of the Real Salt Lake club in MLS as well as chairman of the St. Louis Blues, Scottrade Center, and Sports Capital Partners. Checketts expressed this in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "We’ve got to get a team there (St. Louis). It’s absolutely ready for it . . . there’s more passion for soccer there than any place I’ve been."
The proposed site for the state-of-the art stadium is located eight miles east of downtown St. Louis in Collinsville, Ill. The site is approximately 400 acres of former agricultural ground. Located at the junction of Interstate highway 255 (north-south) and I-55/70 running east-west, the highways offer excellent access to the site from all directions as well as local access off of Horseshoe Lake Road.
