The Bar Has Been Raised - Cooper Steps Up...

[theSTLbeat]

A couple things stick out to me Jeff Cooper's work over the past year or two:

First an estimated $1 million in franchise fees to deliver a WPS team. Wow! This is some major coinage thrown at the women's game. Thank you Jeff Cooper. All you SLSG bashers should be ashamed of yourself for knocking what Jeff is bringing to the table. I "hope" STL supports this franchise. Seems like they are building quite a team with Lori, Hope and the Brazilian flare (Jorge, Daniella).

The next is the $572 million number for the 18,500-seat stadium complex on 400 acres in Collinsville, slated to open in 2011. Are you kidding me? Feels high but wow! Again - thank you Jeff Cooper. I can't wait to see this unbelievable stadium.

I'm not a SLSG backer or a affiliated and you will grow to love my work soon because I'm a soccer beat writter and have an opinion on everything so like me or not - I'm here and you will read my posts because I call it as I see it.

Bottom line to this piece. Jeff Cooper has raised the bar, not only in STL but in USA. Of course not ground breaking stuff from a MLS standpoint but with this stadium, merger of the big 2+ the tournament club and addition of the WPS investment, this has the making of something special and we all need to take note, thank him for the coinage and get ready to buck up in support. Three words for those haters, join or lose.

Hey Sport Billy - you there? bring it...

I want Deniro!

Come back if you dare...see it my way from the start or you will in the end because I will beat you down... and the beat goes on and on and on..

[Celtic1888]

Hadley is really scrambling for gigs isn't he?

[morcas]

Wow is right, you've really stuck your neck out there saying that Cooper has done a lot. Whats next, a comment on how the Rams have underachieved?

[cachueira]

This is not politically correct, but I have no interest in the women's league. Will anyone outside of girls U-14 and below and their parents support this team? When Jeff Cooper actually gets an MLS franchise, then his merit is worth discussing. I appreciate his commitment thus far but the MLS obviously has concerns and other priorities.

[Upper90]

I would have to agree with the previous post that while an honorable move on Coopers part to bring a womens team in to St. Louis, I just do not see it being able to sustain itself for much longer than a season, esp. playing at SIUE. I certainly hope that they are eventually able to land an MLS team but still think we are a bit of an underdog because of the lack of adequate financing. Hope it happens but we will have to wait and see...

[LLMG]

I'm a bit more optomistic on the WPS adventure. I was at the Soccer Master Lori Chalupny signing and witnessed the power of female energy surrounding the gold medal win. I also went down to the dome last year and was impressed with the crowd there watching the US just coming off a miserable world cup loss. I commend Cooper for putting is coin into the game but while we are throwing out kudos to those that are stepping up - we most also thank the orginator of soccer money in STL and that is Denny Long. I think Lou Fusz also deserves some credit here even through I think he is making out like a bandit on what he puts in vs what he gets out of it marketing wise BUT he does hold the check book and that is some risk so thank you to Lou. Roger Upoff is also one we must mention along with whoever is the money behind this new upcoming WC Arsenal Club. I'm sure I missed a few others but then again this is a public board so I know someone will step and help me.

[worldwidesoccer]

Cooper gets high marks for trying, however, at the risk of sounding like a wet blanket the continuing deteriation of the credit markets is probably going to forestall his being able to get this deal done any time soon (say three to five years). Eg., Collinsville can only fund the stadium construction if they are able to sell bonds. The muni bond market has been frozen for two weeks and only the largest and most credit worthy municipal bond issuances are finding buyers. Yields are declining and buyers have moved to the sidelines. The underwriting is just not there right now for a small muni issuance that not only is predicated on the revenue to be generated by the soccer stadium, but also by the retail, office, and residential side of Cooper's overall plan. Read the Wall Street Journal: all retail and office construction financing is non-existent. The retail and office and residential sides of his plan are not going to happen any time soon and without those revenue streams there is no way Collinsville will be able to make this work economically. The only silver lining I can see is that if MLS wants to continue to expand in this credit markets environment, then they are going to have to lower the franchise fee or spread it out over time. It seems out of whack as it is given that $50 million is more than the stadium's estimated cost. Further, even if Collinsville found a way to issue bonds and even if Collinsville could find a way to replace the revenue that wouldn't be coming in any time soon from the retail and office and residential sides, given the exhorbitant franchise fee, I don't see how Cooper can show a group of investors how they get paid back any time soon let alone turn a profit. Further, with only a 25,000 population tax base, no matter how much Collinsville is behind the idea, I really doubt they'll find any takers for this and other bonds they made need to issue for regular infrastructure improvements, etc. (meaning Collinsville like most small towns is going to find itself cash-strapped to try and keep up with the basics let alone go ahead with an issuance that if somehow completed is going to result in negative revenue). If this deal is going to get done, Cooper is probably going to have to get the state and county to step in which in this political environment is probably going to find few takers to finance yet another sports stadium by taxpayers. To be clear, I hope that Cooper can find a way, however, realistically when governors such as California's Schwartzeneger are having to send letters to Washington DC that they are out of money because they can't raise funds from the muni markets among others, it doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see how much the deck is currently stacked against Collinsville and getting this done.

[Sport Billy]

A couple things stick out to me Jeff Cooper's work over the past year or two:

First an estimated $1 million in franchise fees to deliver a WPS team. Wow! This is some major coinage thrown at the women's game. Thank you Jeff Cooper. All you SLSG bashers should be ashamed of yourself for knocking what Jeff is bringing to the table. I "hope" STL supports this franchise. Seems like they are building quite a team with Lori, Hope and the Brazilian flare (Jorge, Daniella).

The next is the $572 million number for the 18,500-seat stadium complex on 400 acres in Collinsville, slated to open in 2011. Are you kidding me? Feels high but wow! Again - thank you Jeff Cooper. I can't wait to see this unbelievable stadium.

I'm not a SLSG backer or a affiliated and you will grow to love my work soon because I'm a soccer beat writter and have an opinion on everything so like me or not - I'm here and you will read my posts because I call it as I see it.

Bottom line to this piece. Jeff Cooper has raised the bar, not only in STL but in USA. Of course not ground breaking stuff from a MLS standpoint but with this stadium, merger of the big 2+ the tournament club and addition of the WPS investment, this has the making of something special and we all need to take note, thank him for the coinage and get ready to buck up in support. Three words for those haters, join or lose.

Hey Sport Billy - you there? bring it...

I want Deniro!

Come back if you dare...see it my way from the start or you will in the end because I will beat you down... and the beat goes on and on and on..

What would you like me to bring?

I fully support Cooper's effort.
If he pulls off the MLS team - and I think he will - he will have 6000+ kids feeding directly into both men's and women's professional teams.

I don't know that that has been done anywhere in the US.

Let me correct 1 thing - the stadium will not be $572 Mil. That is the price for the entire project. The stadium comes in near $100 mil.

[Sport Billy]

One more thing.

Are you calling me a "hater"? - I don't get that.

Check out: www.eadsbrigade.org

[worldwidesoccer]

I want to make it clear that I have nothing but respect for what Cooper is trying to do and if ever MLS owed an individual for trying to grow the league in a market that for decades has developed some of the nation's best soccer talent, that person is Cooper. The aforementioned are obstacles that are outside of his control and strategically I think MLS erred in not awarding St. Louis earlier. More than just population bases, you need to make sure you are growing the sport amongst its core constituency. Leaving St. Louis out of this equation is like the Republicans leaving out Reaganites and the Democrats leaving out Clintonites.

[CescFabregas]

Would it be more realistic to obtain/start a team that plays in the USL?? Build a smaller stadium, slowly build the fanbase up and when the economy improves perhaps improve the stadium and complex???

I too hope he can bring the MLS here, but I'm beginning to have some doubts that it can happen. From everything that has been stated, I think he has done all he can....

waiting...

Cesc

[gatewayMS]

Will anyone outside of girls U-14 and below and their parents support this team?

Location, Location, Location!
Games Sun. and Mon....practice Tues., Wed., Thurs....Tournaments on weekends, and a life. I'm sure I will take my girls to a game and buy a T-shirt, but if the Stadium was on this side of the river we would go to every game if the girls wanted to. If I'm putting up half a billion, I would find a better location than Collinsville. Just the opinion of a parent with younger girls who love soccer. It won't matter while the games are being played in a 3,500 seat facility but it will in the 18,000 seat stadium.

???What happens to SLSG if this fails???

[Sport Billy]

Will anyone outside of girls U-14 and below and their parents support this team?

Location, Location, Location!
Games Sun. and Mon....practice Tues., Wed., Thurs....Tournaments on weekends, and a life. I'm sure I will take my girls to a game and buy a T-shirt, but if the Stadium was on this side of the river we would go to every game if the girls wanted to. If I'm putting up half a billion, I would find a better location than Collinsville. Just the opinion of a parent with younger girls who love soccer. It won't matter while the games are being played in a 3,500 seat facility but it will in the 18,000 seat stadium.

???What happens to SLSG if this fails???

I cannot believe how uninformed people can be.
Cooper tried to get it built in St. Louis. Of all of the municipalities he spoke with (including StL County and City) only 3 would even talk to him and Collinsville is the only one who would cut the deal.

The stadium local is 7 miles from downtown. It takes less than 10 minutes. You'd spend more time than that trying to park downtown.

Where exactly is he supposed to build it? St. Charles would be a traffic nightmare. Chesterfield would be horrible expensive?

The only people who complain about Collinsville are those who have never made the trip.

Times to Stadium:

Chain of Rocks Bridge =15 min
JB Bridge = 25 min

Even from the areas farthest points:

NW = St. Charles = 37 minutes
W = Chesterfield = 44 minutes (and that's going around 270 because 64 is closed - it will be much quicker when it reopens in 2010)
SW = Valley Park = 39 minutes

[1234567]

click here

[gatewayMS]

I'll take the traffic in St.Charles over the drive to Collinsville anytime!

The only people who complain about Collinsville are those who have never made the trip.

I drive it everyday from West County, my business is 3 miles from Collinsville... it's the worst stretch of hwy. in the bi-state area, constantly under repair(for the last 5 years), and poorly marked, there is no where to pull over in emergencies in a lot of places, it's a very dangerous stretch of hwy., and is not a drive i would want my wife and kids to take alone in case they broke down in in E. St.Louis! Things i don't even think about on a drive out 40 to St.Charles, or 270 to Earth City.

Obviously there is no place to build in St.Louis city, but I would go to more games if they were in Fenton, St.Charles, Wildwood, Eureka, Maryland Heights, Earth City area, Columbia IL., St.Peters, O'Fallon, or even Wentzville. I would think Collinsville was the best deal, but not the only option. I wish it could have been more convenient for selfish reasons, I'm sure ppl. in other areas would think differently.
In the only conversation I've had with ppl. on this subject, all 5 parents from this area had the same thoughts as I do about the location.
Why Edwardsville until the stadium is built? What is with the Illinois sites, is inconvenience a new marketing strategy.

[Celtic1888]

click here

What does this have to do w/ soccer? Did anyone stop going to ball games because the DeWitts worship at the feet of Lil George?

[STL_Soccer_Fan]

I'll take the traffic in St.Charles over the drive to Collinsville anytime!

The only people who complain about Collinsville are those who have never made the trip.

I drive it everyday from West County, my business is 3 miles from Collinsville... it's the worst stretch of hwy. in the bi-state area, constantly under repair(for the last 5 years), and poorly marked, there is no where to pull over in emergencies in a lot of places, it's a very dangerous stretch of hwy., and is not a drive i would want my wife and kids to take alone in case they broke down in in E. St.Louis! Things i don't even think about on a drive out 40 to St.Charles, or 270 to Earth City.

Obviously there is no place to build in St.Louis city, but I would go to more games if they were in Fenton, St.Charles, Wildwood, Eureka, Maryland Heights, Earth City area, Columbia IL., St.Peters, O'Fallon, or even Wentzville. I would think Collinsville was the best deal, but not the only option. I wish it could have been more convenient for selfish reasons, I'm sure ppl. in other areas would think differently.
In the only conversation I've had with ppl. on this subject, all 5 parents from this area had the same thoughts as I do about the location.
Why Edwardsville until the stadium is built? What is with the Illinois sites, is inconvenience a new marketing strategy.

If you don't like I55/70 then take I-270 into Illinois then get on I-255 to Collinsville. Best interstate in the area, and don't go through ESTL.

[gatewayMS]

If you don't like I55/70 then take I-270 into Illinois then get on I-255 to Collinsville. Best interstate in the area, and don't go through ESTL.

Your right, and I do, it's 8 miles longer than 44 through downtown, but takes the same amount of time, you still go through E St.Louis and Centerville for a few miles.
Thats not the route he is talking about though.

[TheLink]

Madison County law firm big Biden donor

Sen. Joe Biden (Robert Cohen /P-D)By Bob Albrecht and Deirdre Shesgreen
POST-DISPATCH WASHINGTON BUREAU
10/05/2008

WASHINGTON — Employees of four law firms specializing in asbestos suits were four of the top 10 donors to Joe Biden's failed presidential campaign, records show. Among them was SimmonsCooper, a Madison County firm that has a close relationship with members of Biden's family.

Campaign records and interviews reflect a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the Illinois law firm and vice presidential nominee Biden, who as a senator from Delaware has been a steadfast supporter of trial lawyers.

From 2007 to Sept. 2, top asbestos-law firm employees donated $171,000 to Biden's presidential campaign.

All told, Biden's Senate campaign funds have received $4.9 million from law firms since 2003, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group.

On two occasions, Biden voted against legislation that would have severely cut into the profits of firms handling asbestos cases. The bill was intended to offer relief for companies facing an avalanche of asbestos-related suits, like the ones filed by SimmonsCooper.

Biden and other opponents said the measure would have stripped victims of their right to sue, a principle Biden has embraced throughout his Senate career, said David Wade, a Biden campaign spokesman. Asbestos is the catalyst for a potentially deadly lung disease called mesothelioma.

Americans are "tired of big powerful corporate interests writing the rules and sticking it to the little guy," Wade said in an e-mail responding to questions from the Post-Dispatch. "In Joe Biden, they've got a champion with a 35-year Senate record defending victims' rights to have their day in court and hold big interests accountable."

LONG RELATIONSHIP

No firm's members in recent years have contributed more to Biden's efforts than those of SimmonsCooper LLC, which has branches in East Alton, Chicago and El Segundo, Calif.

Since 2001, SimmonsCooper employees have contributed $196,050 to Biden's Senate and presidential campaigns.

The relationship between Biden's family and SimmonsCooper runs deeper than campaign donations. In 2005, as the Madison County Record originally reported, SimmonsCooper partnered on some of its asbestos cases with a Delaware firm that Biden's son Beau had just joined.

The Los Angeles Times reported recently that in 2006, Biden's brother James and youngest son, Hunter, secured a pledge for a $2 million investment from SimmonsCooper for a hedge fund company the Bidens wanted to purchase.

The Bidens collected half the investment from SimmonsCooper but later returned the money when the deal fell through, according to Nicholas Gravante Jr., a lawyer representing Hunter and James Biden.

Wade said Beau and Hunter Biden's relationship with SimmonsCooper has nothing to do with the senator.

"Hunter Biden met Jeff Cooper (SimmonsCooper's former managing partner) several years ago, and they became good friends and socialized together long before they went into business," Wade said. "Sen. Biden's opposition to the asbestos bill was well-established long before his son represented mesothelioma victims."

SimmonsCooper declined to comment for this story.

But Cooper told the Times last month that SimmonsCooper teamed up with the Delaware firm — Bifferato, Gentilotti & Biden — partly because of his friendship with Beau Biden and partly because it was "one of the best firms in the state." Said Cooper, "It was only natural that we worked with my friend Beau Biden and his firm."

SimmonsCooper partner Michael Angelides told the Times that the firm supports a lot of Democrats and described Biden as "a real champion for consumer rights issues."

ASBESTOS BILL

A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden twice helped block legislation that would have established a trust fund, bankrolled by insurers and companies with asbestos claims against them, to provide financial support for asbestos victims. In exchange for paying into the fund, the companies would have been shielded from asbestos lawsuits.

In 2004, Biden argued that the trust fund could not guarantee compensation for all victims, and he successfully attached an amendment allowing victims to return to court if the fund ran out of money.

The bill's Republican supporters argued that the trust fund would help ensure that the people who were actually sick received support, instead of allowing trial lawyers to intimidate businesses into settlements.

"While the personal injury lawyers are busy making themselves into millionaires, they are depriving the truly sick of available resources," Sen. Orrin Hatch said in a Senate speech in 2004.

Under the weight of Biden's amendment, the bill collapsed.

"He consistently opposed the asbestos bill because it was unfair," Wade said. "He thought it was dead wrong that if the trust fund ran out of money for the victims, they couldn't even get their rights back."

The Senate took up a similar asbestos measure two years later, with a heftier trust fund — $140 billion — for asbestos victims.

At the time, an independent study showed there had already been more than 700,000 lawsuits filed alleging asbestos-related illnesses, including mesothelioma. The litigation costs and insurance claims associated with asbestos claims had amounted to more than $70 billion, bankrupting almost 80 companies, according to the Office of Legislative Policy Analysis.

But Biden continued to express concern that victims would get shut out.

"The real problem is that there are a lot of people out there suffering from the effects of asbestos," Biden said during Senate floor speech in 2006. "There are not a lot of companies out there with the money to pay all of these claims. There is the concern that some of the very companies we have to go to, to recover from, may very well declare bankruptcy."

He added, "The victims are not in this bill."

The bill fell one vote shy of the 60 it needed to end a filibuster, and it has not been resurrected.

Ed Murnane is president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, a business advocacy group that lobbies for tort reform and supported the Senate legislation.

"It's unfortunate that this legislation was not passed," he said in an interview this week. "I assume there will be other attempts to do it, but there's a lot of politics involved."

Murnane said things have improved in Madison County, where SimmonsCooper is filing fewer asbestos cases.

"Hopefully the election is not going to result in the door opening once again, the door that appeared to be closing."

'TERRIBLE INJUSTICE'

Michael Thornton, a partner at Boston-based Thornton and Naumes LLP, whose firm practices asbestos litigation and raised money for Biden's presidential bid, said the asbestos legislation constituted a "terrible injustice."

"Sen. Biden has been a trial-lawyer advocate for many terms in the Senate," Thornton said. "We represent victims, we think it's in the best interest of our clients, if they have an opportunity, to go to court. Sen. Biden agrees."

Before the asbestos bill was derailed, SimmonsCooper started trying some of its asbestos litigation in Delaware, with the help of the firm where Biden's son practiced.

"SimmonsCooper didn't hire Beau," Wade said. "He litigated the cases in Delaware, he handled the documents, managed the court proceedings, did the work, and was compensated as co-counsel."

SimmonsCooper continues to rely on the firm as its local counsel, although Beau Biden has left the partnership. He is now Delaware's attorney general and the captain of a National Guard unit awaiting deployment to Iraq.

In addition to SimmonsCooper, Biden's presidential bid received campaign donations from employees at other law firms that specialize in asbestos litigations, including the Law Offices of Peter Angelos, New York's Weitz & Luxenberg and Thornton and Naumes LLP.

[2moody4u]

Let me see if I get this; people are willing to drive 200 miles to watch their U10's play three games of kick and chase in a tournament, but won't drive 30 miles to watch pro soccer? Personally, I drive 20 to 30 miles every weekend to watch my child play, and would drive twice that far to see a pro game. I suppose that these people who won't drive past East St. Louis, won't attend the premeir tournaments that will be held at the new complex? My bad, your probably already entered in the Metro Fall Classic, or are just hating because you weren't accepted