The MLS voted to expand to 30 teams on April 20th, virtually guaranteeing that St. Louis gets a franchise.

  First reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the news came in mid April after lots of uncertainty. The ownership group championing for the team is 100% locally based, including investors from Enterprise, the Blues’ arena sponsor. The expansion fee also increased to $200 million from $150 million with the voting. The leader of the ownership group, Carolyn Kindle Betz, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he expects the new teams to start playing in 2021 or 2022.

 “All of this is happening so fast after we were left in the dark for so long,” junior Connor Price said.

  With word of a new team likely coming, the ownership group released renderings of their proposed stadium, which would be in the fields west of Union Station, the proposed stadium has an open air top, natural grass field 50-feet below street level. It would hold 22,000 seats in two different tiers. The seats also will be covered with plastic sheeting to protect from weather.

 “Seeing a picture the proposed stadium makes this all seem a little more real,” sophomore Hannah Stumpf said.

 The commissioner of MLS, Don Garber, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he  invited both cities vying for an expansion team to to make formal bids in the coming weeks. He also added that the ownership group has a lot of work to do.

 “I’m confident that the ownership group can get the deal done and bring soccer to St. Louis,” junior Blake Ebner said

 If the deal goes through St. Louis could have an MLS team by 2021.