St. Louis, Where there's Smoke?

photo: AC St. Louis Fanatic's Facebook

This morning the rumor mill sparked up that AC St. Louis and WPS team St. Louis Athletica were in financial trouble, the kind of trouble where they are having trouble paying bills. As the day went on, the news seemed to only add fuel to the fire.

Inside Minnesota Soccer - AC St. Louis and Saint Louis Athletica in Peril – Jeff Cooper Out
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Athletica, AC St. Louis rumors

AC St. Louis has been much hyped and after 30 years without a professional team in STL, this is sad news for soccer in the US as a whole. AC has only had two home games, the first of which sold out at 5,695 and the second at 2,985. Those two home crowds don't seem too bad for a first year club. Miami has been in the league for years and they drool over those numbers.
Jeff Cooper who chaired the ownership group in St. Louis, and had even tried to make an MLS bid, has simply left the organization just as the season started. It looks like Cooper, an attorney by trade, bit off more then he could chew. How big of a problem this becomes, only time will tell. MLS is less than a year away.