Wherever you go, you cannot help but connect with Major League Soccer executives, team owners, players, sponsors, you name it. It’s a great place to be, particularly in the wake of the news we shared this week that Albert Pujols has joined our effort to bring MLS to St. Louis. And believe me, everyone here knows. It’s a great feeling, and I know that I speak on behalf of our entire St. Louis soccer community in expressing gratitude to Albert for his commitment to our vision.

Albert Pujols obviously makes our St. Louis Soccer United application for an MLS expansion franchise much stronger, but we also believe he will make our ownership group all the more attractive for prospective investors – especially from the St. Louis area – to join us in our mission. I was very pleased to learn that St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay wrote in his weekly blog yesterday that our project is a winner with immediate and lasting benefits for the entire region. I appreciate Mayor Slay’s words of encouragement to our community and business leaders to be our teammates in this endeavor, and to act now as we finalize our group for consideration and presentation to MLS. I encourage you to read his thoughts here and share them with others if you feel the same.

Our WPS team will have some big news to share next week and we hope to complete our proposed MLS ownership group sometime in December. In both cases, you’ll be the first to know. In the meantime, I ask you to keep up the outstanding spirit and I encourage you to tune into MLS Cup on KDNL ABC 30 on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Until next week, best wishes.