AC St. Louis Back in the Game? Cooper Secures New Owner
Rumors were trickling in this past week that Jeff Cooper, owner of the USSF D2 Pro League team AC St. Louis, had found a new owner. On Friday the story seemed to be taking shape and by Friday evening it was confirmed by numerous St. Louis soccer insiders. Here what IMS has learned.
The new owner, who is not yet known, does not have a soccer background but according to one source does “have deep pockets.”
With the team, he will purchase Anheuser-Busch Center also known as AB Park. The facility was given to Cooper and his ownership group St. Louis Soccer United (SLU) by Anheuser-Busch in 2009 when Cooper made an eventually failed bid for a Major League Soccer team. The estimate of the soccer complex, which includes a 6,000 seat soccer stadium with natural grass, two grass exhibition fields, a practice field and two artificial turf fields, is valued at $8 million or more. The facility also has meeting and banquet rooms. The new owner will get AB Park for only $2 million as part of the deal. Another source said Cooper is looking to “get out and recoup losses incurred this past year.”
The potential owner of the St. Louis team is said to be meeting with several members of the North American Soccer League (NASL) within days. Selby Wellman, owner of the Carolina RailHawks, and Aaron Davidson, president of Miami FC and Traffic Sports U.S.A., will screen the new potential owner who will take Cooper’s place in the alliance of soccer team owners who are hoping to win sanctioning of D2 soccer in 2010.
Jeff Cooper
Cooper has had a checkered history in St. Louis soccer over the last several years. While previously held in high esteem, he has fallen from grace over the last 9 months.
In 2008 his bid for an MLS team failed when league officials were unimpressed with the finances of SLU. He started a WPS team Athletica in the spring of 2009. The team played at AB Park. After the failed MLS bid and another failed bid to purchase the United Soccer Leagues from Nike in the fall of ’09, he decided to start his own D2 team. He quickly rose to prominence with the NASL, becoming their spokesperson. After the failed attempt to purchase the USL, he reorganized his SLU group and sold the organization to brothers Heemal and Sanjeev Vaid in the fall of ’09. According to some sources he did so without notifying the USSF, NASL or the WPS. The new D2 team, AC St. Louis, quickly ran into financial troubles when the Vaids discontinued funding of Athletica and the D2 team in the winter of ’09/’10. During AC St. Louis’ inaugural season, the USSF had to bail out Cooper and the Vaids by using the team’s bonding money paid to the league in order to make several payrolls. Cooper then made the decision to fold in midseason his WPS team Athletica. The St. Louis native was able to secure primary ownership of AC St. Louis again but was said to be looking for a new owner for the second time in a year. He then fired his expensive head coach Claude Anelka (brother of Nicholas) and released the contract of popular St. Louis native Steve Ralston, an MLS veteran and former US National Team player who had been contracted as a player/assistant coach. Recently, Cooper has been adding players to the roster to reinforce the team’s chances of making the playoffs. It’s also believed he was trying to increase the worth of the team.
According to one source, the new owner is purchasing AC St. Louis because he has MLS ambitions. A source stated he is very interested in “exploring the possibility of MLS in the future.”
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if this is true then it is very good news for D2. get rid of Cooper and get another well financed team for 2011. seems like a win, win.
so as of right now NASL has Carolina, Tampa Bay, Miami, and Montreal that meet the USSF standards and definitely want to be in for next season. plus Rochester which meets the requirements and sorta mostly wants to be in NASL but is hedging its bets. Edmonton which meet the requirements but might get excluded because it is, gasp, in Canada. Minnesota and Puerto Rico don’t meet the requirements but definitely want in NASL and might be given exemptions. Austin meets the USSF requirements but doesn’t seem to like NASL all that much so hasn’t committed. And now St Louis which might have new ownership that meets the USSF requirements and would ostensibly want to be in NASL next season.
clear as mud as they say.
so best case scenario is that NASL has 10 teams next season. i’d guess they’d have to break up into two 5 team conferences:
NASL-North
FC Edmonton
Montreal Impact
Rochester Rhinos
NSC Minnesota Stars
AC St Louis
NASL-South
Carolina RailHawks
Austin Aztex
FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
FC Miami
Puerto Rico Islanders
i guess that works well enough. 2H/2A games against teams in your conference (16 games) and 1H/1A against teams in the other conference (10).
Any chance of Athletica making a comeback in the next few years under the new owner?
Granted, the odds are probably slim to none, but I’d take slim over none any day.
Ditto. This is great news (if true).
Everyone seems to be down on Cooper. I get the impression he’s not not such a bad guy, per se, just maybe “out of his league,” pardon the pun.
Ditto its not true, only a dream. SO… you’re stating that a unamed deep pocket investor is going to buy St.Louis and be approved in time. I thought the USSF was using Oct. 1 as a deadline. The NASL model doen’t work …dream all you want. The USSF should just kill it now, rather than have them fold in the next year or so. This country is too big and travel costs too high. Puerto Rico jumping to NASL as one of their owners is the Puerto Rico Toursim board. Perhaps they are looking at NASL because USL teams don’t want the exspense of traveling there. Edmonton, another spot that is hard to get to and exspensive. Minnesota, please the taxpayers own the team don’t they. Teams cannot continue to lose money year after year. You think Austin is going to play with the NASL? The owner there is a class act. Let montreal play MLS in 2011. Let Miami and there deep pockets continue to fund a team that averages less than 300 fans a game. A please Mr. Gulati, be as concerned as many of us are as Mr. Wellman (the mouth of the South) starts speaking up again.
Irv, you off your meds again?
You know what’s funny? It wasn’t that long ago that Jeff Cooper was the fanboys’ golden boy. How could MLS not give him a team, they wondered?
irv isn’t totally off, some real concerns there…but still…irv, don’t you think you’re just a little too negative on the entire D2 world in the USA & Canada. Now, now, let’s leave aside the worst case scenario and agree that the other end of the spectrum…OleGunnar20′s season plan…could come to fruition. Anyhow, I think the solution is somewhere in the middle.
I’m glad to hear that St Louis will be getting some managerial and financial booster shots. Cooper was simply out of his league as someone else said above. Things are shaping up, hopefully.
Just out of curiosity (and I’m not trying to be sarcastic), what is the NASL’s model? As far as I know, they’re simply a group of owners who were unhappy with the way the USL was running the league. They haven’t really had a chance to be labeled a success or a failure IMO.
WeatherManNX01 , not only do I think that Athletica will not be back, I will make a prediction that after the World Cup bid is complete this December that the whole league folds. Word from insiders is the owners are taking big time hits and they can’t keep the league going like this.
KT, I will admit my error when I was upset that Nike turned their back on him for the sale of USL. I trusted some information from someone who I respected but perhaps they were duped as well.
Im glad STL fans might have a team next season but I would be concerned that this guy has no soccer background. If he is looking at this as an investment, He wont take long to see the numbers dont work out but from the sounds of it, will have some good property for a steal. He likely could make money similar to the way things are run at Silverback park and wouldnt be surprised if he just folds the team.
I could be wrong and he could just be a big fan of soccer (that just have never been involved as a player or coach), and wont mind absorbing the cost of running a team in a national league.
@Ole: Just to keep the record clear, Edmonton does NOT meet the standards. They would need to get a waiver for their stadium. It doesn’t seat enough people.
From what I understand, Silverback Park (in Atlanta) is very run down and only being rented out to the local Hispanic leagues. It would take over $1,000,000 just to get it back in practice shape, according to a friend of mine down there.
For any new investor, the issue becomes analyzing the various costs in purchasing the venue, against what revenues (other than D-2 team) are there that can cover the debt service. That is where Cooper got into trouble and if he got it for free from A/B, all the extra cost is doing is laying more debt obligation.
When A/B ran the stadium, they gladly absorbed the costs associated with the upkeep, but now, even $1.00 is a lot of money.
BQ – consider if you will what would have happened to USL if Cooper had been successful in the Nike disposition? All of the leagues would now have run the risk of collapsing, including PDL, just because of the Cooper fiasco, just one year after the purchase.
Of course, one could also argue that if Nike had sold to Cooper, USSF would not have stepped in as TOA/USL would have been one, so the standards would not have been elevated as a result.
Taking this a step further, we could blame Nike for all the problems in D-2 these days, as their decision created this fiasco.
Crazy. Just plain toture on St Louis soccer fans
Hey Weather Man, check this out: http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=3508
Another thing to remember is they only have 7 teams. That’s not going to fly unless they can find another owner to create an 8th team and I don’t believe with that talk I’m hearing that is going to happen.
@ ERic: The standard states that a team must have a plan for a 5K seat SSS within 5 years. FC Edmonton does meet that standard. There should be no problem getting a waiver, especially if Austin can get one for a feild that isn’t even regulation size.
clear anti NASL bias by IMS.
Interesting…Buffalo is not the first place I would have thought of for a women’s pro soccer team. Or the second place. Or the third. I know Cary, North Carolina, had been mentioned at one point, as had a return to Los Angeles. I don’t think there was much beyond that (at least, not publicly).
It does make me wonder if WPS can succeed anywhere beyond WUSA (with “success” being loosely defined). Certainly they seem to have learned to be more fiscally responsible than WUSA (in that throwing money at it doesn’t make it the greatest thing since sliced bread and doesn’t put butts in seats, something I get the sense the FA is doing with England’s new women’s league). Certainly they seem to have tempered expectations to be much lower than they were before. But how long can they hold on? The Independence can’t survive on 2800-fan attendances too long, and the drop in Washington, which is a bit of a surprise for that team, must be raising a few eyebrows.
I do think there are plenty of missed opportunities – partnering with MLS would seem to be the obvious (and when the league was making a comeback post-07 World Cup, there was more than hints that a partnership was likely), and it has produced good attendance at the few MLS-WPS doubleheaders at RFK (which I think went from a few last year to only one this year). I’m sure there’s more involved than I can possibly imagine – logistics, costs, pride, etc.
As for your prediction of the league folding after the World Cup bid, I make a slightly altered prediction – they go one more season and see if they can grab a boost from the World Cup in Germany. If that doesn’t bring any remote bit of interest, then they’ll admit defeat (though for the sake of the ladies, women’s soccer, and my fandom, I hope everything works out alright).
But they have eight teams:
Montreal/Edmonton/Puerto Rico/Miami/Carolina/Tampa/St. Louis and…. Minnesota
But they only have 6 that qualify financially and only 62.5% are US based teams (unless Puerto Rico qualifies as a US based team, in which case they are at 75%)
So close and yet so far……
At this point in the game, the large crowds and small crowds have been seperated. It’s time to bring the big boys up and merge the usl d3 and the smaller market teams, and let the money making teams move up. Looking at it, only 1 non MLS bound team is drawing 7000 consistently, and that puts most teams at d3 level in money.
I meant usl 2
Hopefully they can now afford announcers for their WWWcast.
Anyone know if there is really any point in speculating if Minnesota will have a team next year? Ole mentioned a possible exemption, but would that really be in the interest of the league? The team is clearly not profitable, and it is hard to imagine there is any way that NSC would be able to make an argument worth keeping them on. Minnesota is over 400 miles from the closest team (that’s suggesting STL even is a team next year). If STL isn’t around, then the next closest is Carolina.
I think the league would look at that, and say considering the travel distance, there is no point to “exempt” them. 1. Not profitable; 2. No fan-base; 3. Isolated from all the other teams.
Shouldn’t we just hang it up?
I think your missing the point Lamps.
It’s not just about if the team is profitable. Almost every MLS team and D2 team is not profitable. Ultimately of course it is important if a team is profitable but it’s not the reason that the team should fold via USSF Standards. I’ve stated this many times here before but once again, the Stars will probably take less of a financial hit this year than just about any other team that’s drawing 5,000 fans or less per game. I have explained why many times on this blog so you will just have to go back and find them rather than me going through all the points again.
The Thunder showed there was a fan base. In the days of the NASL the Kicks had one of the highest attendance averages each and every year in the league. The problem with the team this year was about marketing. They didn’t have the money to do it correctly and they made some big mistakes concerning how they sold tickets and who sold the tickets. Again, I’ve spent so much time on this in the past not going over it point by point again.
Lastly, you needn’t worry. The NSC cannot afford to continue to play unless they find an investor or group of investors. They are fiscally sound people and will pull the plug themselves if they cannot find a partner.
“It’s not just about if the team is profitable. Almost every MLS team and D2 team is not profitable. Ultimately of course it is important if a team is profitable but it’s not the reason that the team should fold via USSF Standards”.
I would even go as far to say that the USSF standards are written with the expectation that clubs would almost certainly be unprofitable. The Stars simply got priced out of the market by the new standards IMO.
Exactly Coconut Monkey. USSF are written with the idea that teams need to understand they will lose big money for possibly quite a number of years before turning it around.
“The Stars simply got priced out of the market by the new standards IMO.”
Again, well written but I would add that they underestimated the cost of running a team even without the new standards. Which is probably exactly what happened to the other 39 teams that have come and gone from D2 in the last 15 years, and EXACTLY why USSF created the new standards.
So the idea then, is to find a minimum of eight owners worth $20,000,000 that are willing to lose $750,000 to $1,250,000 for the next three years, all in the spirit of that great game called soccer.
After each of these owners have collectively lost $18,000,000 ($750,000 x 8 teams x 3 years), or roughly the equivalent of the entire net worth of one of the eight owners, then what?
Continue? Bring in another genius worth $20,000,000 to do it all over again?
Maybe we have to face the reality that D-2 soccer just really isn’t a workable solution here in the US. The same goes for MLS as well. Just look at the MLS Dallas numbers.
Several errors or omissions in your comment Bart.
A couple of MLS teams and D2 are making money. It depends on attendance numbers of course and as I think you or someone pointed out once, revenue streams brought in by: first ticket sales, than suites if they are available and advertising. So your figures are skewed because not all are losing money. We also have to remember that many major league sports owners in the US claim they are losing money. Meanwhile the net worth of the team goes up drastically and the truth is, while they are taking losses on their taxes from deprecation and supposed poor profits, there team is appreciating. I don’t think that same scenario has necessarily been true of most D2 soccer teams, however.
With MLS they also have SUM, which is the hidden money maker and motivator for some owners to make the jump to Pro Soccer in the US.
While your scenario is possible, I think most people in the US are believing that the sport will continue to grow and it’s the reason MLS teams are finding it easier these days to find major corporate partners then in the beginning days of the league. D2 has not found that same acceptance by corporate America and most teams find it hard to find decent sponsors which in turns hurts profits.
With all that said, I think you can look around and claim these same problems are facing leagues world wide.
Lastly, I was thinking the other day that I believe D2 does have some issues in that it’s truly an entertainment league and not a development league. I believe D3 is much of a development league. By the time players get to D2 they have spent time in MLS or have been scouted and most likely have been passed over by MLS or possibly other leagues around the world. This is not really different than the Championship in England. That too is more of a entertainment league. The question is: Do we have enough dedicated soccer fans to follow a D2 league in the US to make it a profitable venture?
I think you and I are agreement with that last question Bart.
BQ,
Well stated, but we are both reaching the unfortunate same conclusion. Much like the AAA/AA/A baseball developmental set up, for soccer to endure here, we need a much larger fan depth that what currently exists for mere “entertainment” soccer.
The question is why do Americans watch soccer? We know they watch the USMNT as a point of pride of country. We know that with MLS, folks go to watch a special player or gain loyalty to the league.
Will fans watch an uprising soccer star in a development league so that the player has a fan following upon entry to the major leagues (US or Europe)? I think the answer to that question is evident with the Charleston Battery, a rock solid ownership group that took the D-3 route, won the championship and did not lose the fan base, but did, finally, start to make money this year by reducing expenses. In other words, revenue remained the same as when they were in D-2, but Charleston lost money, and with the lower expenses in D-3, were able to make a business decision that gained them profitability.
It seems that both USL and NASL, based upon your comments, are missing the point if D-2 really is an entertainment league and not the “highest level league short of MLS”. You could almost compare D-2 to the Harlem Globetrotters, a group of very talented basketball players that are no longer ready for prime time. Of course, the Harlem Globetrotters have a much larger fan base than any singular D-2 team.
Of course, USL is already a dedicated systemized group of developmental leagues. PDL, as you have mentioned before, is one of the best here in the US.
NASL, on the other hand, is interested in parking players for player contracts, that is the ultimate business plan, and MSL has not done a good job of that. Having said that, maybe we need NASL to have an entertainment league that parks players since we have a gap in that arena here in the US. The question then becomes, will setting up a player contract business in an entertainment league get US players more exposed to higher level teams throughout the global market? Traffic Sports appears to think so, and since they control Miami, they have a foothold in this business already. I just don’t think you can market players with an audience of less than 500 fans, as they have.
As it relates to certain (and very few) teams making money in MLS and D-2, the pattern is very clear. Be close to the Canadian border (on both sides), and your fan base will make you profitable. The closer a team is located in the America heartland, the more money it loses. Carolina is a great example. Despite horrible marketing on their part and an owner that can rival Ted Turner in stupid public statements, they have an excellent venue in a market that has educated and sophisticated folks living there, much like the folks along the Canadian border. They still cannot turn a profit. But wait, oh yeah, it was all USL’s fault as Wellman has claimed. Well, he has not done better with USSF. I think we are back to that real estate axiom, location, location, location………. Hello Canadian border towns …………..
Yet for clearly obvious reasons, Sunil Gulati does not want to be running leagues that mainly have successful Canadian teams. e.g. the 75% rule. This has even been a challenge to MLS with SUM as well. They are contract with CONCACAF and the Mexican Primera. Those rights do not run into Canada and therefore SUM does not get monies from international games played there.
Back on topic: After last night’s game, 2 directors from the St.Louis FO both said that the sale simply is not true. So unless Cooper is keeping things from his top employees, as great as this would be for St.Louis, it doesn’t look like it’s true.
And yet again on topic, those directors might be told to not come forth with the announcement until the deal is done. This is a little more complicated than merely buying a team, there is the real estate portion as well.
Cooper has no choice but to sell, as NASL will not let him return next year and neither will USSF, given what happened this year.
Honesty is an illusions, folks.
true, but funny thing is I didn’t even ask them, they just told me while discussing the game and other soccer news.
“Back on topic”? I think this is all very much on topic because it’s all about if there will be a viable 8 teams and a viable AC St. Louis to help create a league next season.
Gerry, please explain the meeting set up with the NASL. I now have over a half dozen sources who have confirmed this. I’m not saying I’m wrong. But if I’m wrong then I have inside sources from across the country that are all saying the same thing. I am well aware of FPF’s claim and what two members of the AC St. Louis staff said last night.
I’m sticking to my story because the people I’ve been in contact with have not failed me in the past.
Please see Bart’s point as well.
To be honest, I have thought the same thing that Bart has said but I also stand by what we report. I’m sure we will find out a lot more as the week goes on and hopefully whatever happens is in the best interest of D2 soccer and St. Louis soccer.
“whatever happens is in the best interest of D2 soccer and St. Louis soccer.” Totally agree with you Steve! We all want what’s best for soccer in the US and North America.
Steve,
BQ is correct, NASL is definitely visiting (or already has over the weekend) the proposed new owners in St. Louis to see if they will indeed meet the D-2 standards. St. Louis is important to NASL as it gets them into two time zones, and has an established venue that works.
Cooper will not just give the club and park away, however, he certainly will want the return of his losses if he can get them.
I personally think any new owner would be nuts to pay him anything, as this is not income producing property and the team has no brand value. Yes, at some point the real estate is worth some monies, but not as a soccer stadium.
The other question that has not yet been raised is whether Anheiser Busch placed any deed restrictions on the park when they transfered the deed to Cooper’s group. I cannot imagine a sophisticated company as A/B having just given away millions of dollars of real estate for philanthropic reasons without ensuring the legacy thereof.
That may be the monkey in wrench, but if the money was right, I am sure Cooper would find a way around it.
Bart, I was only saying that I had thought the same thing as you about the sources keeping quiet for legal reasons. They could risk a lot by even implying that the rumors have a pulse. But I’m reporting what I was told by a trusted friend and source and will stand by it until I learn otherwise. I’ve been told I would be given a heads up if something indeed does happen.
I’d much rather be right than be first to report something potentially false. I respect Brian and will continue to read his site, so we’ll see what happens this week. Like I said… Hopefully the best interests of D2 soccer and St. Louis soccer are at the front of everyone’s mind.
Bart, you just made me think.
Could the new owners be AB?
Reacquire their property, and get a team to boot? Kit sponsorship? Plenty of reason for them to want to be in MLS.
I don’t believe for one second that AB would be an interested party, even if a sale is made. Ever since the inbev buyout, they have been trying to cut costs anywhere possible. I don’t believe they would get into the business of professional sports. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe they would.
I would agree with Steve. A/B wants to sponsor sporting events, not own them.
I strongly believe that it’s not New Owners, but new investors (majority), which after the Vaid debacle NASL would obviously want to put him/her/them through a vetting process.
@BQ “not only do I think that Athletica will not be back, I will make a prediction that after the World Cup bid is complete this December that the whole league folds. Word from insiders is the owners are taking big time hits and they can’t keep the league going like this.” Wow that’s a strong prediction Could you elaborate on that?
Jessica, if you are correct, than I would totally agree with you AND so would USSF want to check them out carefully.