Jeff Cooper, Other Team Owners to Form New Soccer League

Tired of waiting for Major League Soccer (MLS) to grant St. Louis an expansion franchise, Jeff Cooper is joining other soccer team owners to begin -- in the words of Penny Marshall -- a league of their own.
Cooper, a well-off Illinois attorney with the Simmons Law Firm, has been attempting to get an MLS franchise in the St. Louis area for a number of years though his outreach group St. Louis Soccer United. 

In a statement today, Simmons announced that he and the owners of soccer franchises formerly of the USL-1 conference in Atlanta, Miami, North Carolina, Minnesota, Montreal and Vancouver would form the new league.

"This will be a league that will offer the best of both worlds - outstanding experience and leadership at the ownership level combined with the promise and ability to chart our own course for success as a new league," said Cooper.  "It's this structure that motivated me to bring St. Louis into the new league, and why I believe the new league will have a lot of success at launch next year and well into the future."

Simmons already owns the Saint Louis Athletica, a women's professional team that plays in Fenton.

No word yet on where the new team would play (Cooper has previously proposed building a stadium in Collinsville, Illinois) or what the new league is to be called.

Attempts to reach Cooper and other people behind the new league were unsuccessful. More news when/if they return our messages.

Updated: Read a Q&A with Cooper here.