Dan Courtemanche Quotations

We've said it all along that we think St. Louis is a great market for a Major League Soccer team. The good news is we have a number of individuals that have come to us in recent months with interest in the St. Louis area and looked at feasibility studies and potential sites and have come to meet with us.

We continue to have discussions with San Jose city officials about the future of major league soccer returning to the Bay Area and are hopeful that this will continue to move forward.

First and foremost, we look at a specific market. Is it a passionate sports market, does it have the potential to draw television viewers, what it's history for soccer events, and we do research into the soccer audience. Second, they need to have an ownership group with the appropriate resources and business acumen to be a success and they need to have plans for a stadium, generally a soccer-specific stadium.

We've heard from a very vocal audience that some people are upset about the name. At no time did we want to offend people with the choice of the name ? soccer unites the world, and we want to do that with our league ? so we have had to look closely at changing the name.

Developing a brand name and identity for a professional sports team is a pretty detailed process. It can take a little longer than you expected, especially the legal process.

The bottom line is that at no time did the team or Major League Soccer ever want to offend any members of the Houston community. We certainly apologize to those who feel wronged or insulted. We're listening to their concerns, and we're carefully analyzing the situation. We want everyone to be part of Major League Soccer in Houston.

In the long run, this could be positive. At no time did we want this to happen, of course, but we're listening to our fans and our community.