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He's the best coach that has ever coached the National Team. Our culture and environment of soccer in this country is different for a lot of good reasons and a lot of bad reasons which makes it very difficult for a foreigner to step in and understand it quickly.

I think you're very right about missing the WC being the biggest setback possible and I know he will not only qualify us for Russia, he'll do it putting our players in the best position to get good results. Gulati needs to start planning for the overall direction of the program now and just let Arena coach and get the most out of our existing players.

Under Arena and Bradley, progress may have been gradual but the arrow was always pointed up. I think we're going to have a very sensible and successful 2 years with Bruce.

Well, really, nothing damning has happened for the US in terms of qualifying. The loss at home against Mexico is not a killer. Loss on the road at CR is also not a killer if we beat them at home. But, we can't afford to have any slip-ups against anyone else. Beat the teams we should beat. Get a draw or better in Mexico and a win over CR in the states and we're through easily.

What does everyone think of that letter Cordes sent to SC STL? I want to know what the real goal is with that letter. I haven't read the entire thing but from summaries I've seen (not the best source obviously), it sounds like they took a lot of shots at Peacock and the group. Throwing out that they'll put up the $80M so the public doesn't have to without offering a single detail on how or what they want in return is a huge red flag in my opinion.

Is their purpose just to undermine the group and help make sure public money is voted down with hopes that they can get back in the game? Are they just trying to screw things up enough that they can somehow wedge their way into the ownership group? Are they just being complete dicks because they can?

tlombard wrote:Is their purpose just to undermine the group and help make sure public money is voted down with hopes that they can get back in the game? Are they just trying to screw things up enough that they can somehow wedge their way into the ownership group?

Yes.

They had a competing stadium offer over on Grand Ave, with SLU interested as well.

https://nextstl.com/2016/10/mls-stadium ... versation/

I knew about the competing stadium and that's why I figure that they may just be trying to screw things up to get back in the game. Although in my opinion, taking that approach isn't going to get them back in the running, it's going to screw everything up for St. Louis and cause us to lose out on a chance at a team. I just don't see any way that approach works out for them unless they are of the the belief that if they can't have the team here then nobody can.

And I want the stadium downtown anyway even though the Grand location would be really close to where I live and super convenient for me. Heck, it's within walking distance of my job too. I think the stadium belongs downtown closer to more restaurants and bars and such. There's just nothing really around that part of Grand except for SLU, Captain D's and a Rally's.

tlombard wrote:I knew about the competing stadium and that's why I figure that they may just be trying to screw things up to get back in the game. Although in my opinion, taking that approach isn't going to get them back in the running, it's going to screw everything up for St. Louis and cause us to lose out on a chance at a team. I just don't see any way that approach works out for them unless they are of the the belief that if they can't have the team here then nobody can.

And I want the stadium downtown anyway even though the Grand location would be really close to where I live and super convenient for me. Heck, it's within walking distance of my job too. I think the stadium belongs downtown closer to more restaurants and bars and such. There's just nothing really around that part of Grand except for SLU, Captain D's and a Rally's.

I actually do not want the stadium downtown, the SLU site is somewhat better, but I'd rather the stadium be built/integrated into a neighborhood. That way the surrounding neighborhood could develop around it and tie itself to the team. You'd have a lot of organic economic development. There's a lot to be said when the Blues were playing at the Arena. It was Dogtown's team, and the neighborhood flourished around the team.

The area where they want to build the stadium is stale & compact, and I don't see the opportunity to have a lot of economic development around it. I hope I'm wrong if that is the final site.

Can we demolish everything between Vandeventer and Kingshighway right there south of 44 (well, other than the Botanical Garden buildings and maybe O'Connell's) and build it there? That would be perfect. At least for me.

And I don't disagree at all with building it in more of a neighborhood area than downtown or the proposed site on Grand. I do want to keep it pretty central in the city though. None of that West County BS that I'm shocked I haven't heard yet even though the league says they want downtown stadiums.

I just prefer the downtown location over the Grand one since SLU basically controls that entire strip and I don't think any actual development would happen convenient to the stadium if it were to be built there. It would just be a stadium surrounded by SLU facilities.

tlombard wrote:And I don't disagree at all with building it in more of a neighborhood area than downtown or the proposed site on Grand. I do want to keep it pretty central in the city though. None of that West County BS that I'm shocked I haven't heard yet even though the league says they want downtown stadiums.

I just prefer the downtown location over the Grand one since SLU basically controls that entire strip and I don't think any actual development would happen convenient to the stadium if it were to be built there. It would just be a stadium surrounded by SLU facilities.

While the SLU site is far from perfect, I could at least convince myself of the dual-use between the MLS and NCAA...which I think would be awesome. I still think they could do that with the downtown stadium, but SLU has been very big about bringing their teams back on campus (NCAA basketball).

My perfect site would either be at:

Old North St. Louis, south of Crown Candy. where you have good highway access to Interstate 70 for both IL and MO drivers. You'd have a neighborhood with some momentum that is already rehabbing itself. You'd have the new NGA to the west, I believe a future N-S metrolink line would be located nearby, and there is close proximity to downtown. Lots of room to spread out for practice fields/academy/parking/etc.

Old Lemp Brewery Site. Good highway access with Interstate 55. You'd have a solid neighborhood to integrate into, with a Bosnian population nearby which would guarantee a lot of tickets being sold. Once again, I think a future N-S metrolink line would be located nearby, as well as a nice partnership with A-B being so close. No good parking options, though.

Just some thoughts.