MLS

After Missouri Governor-elect Eric Greitens called public funding for stadiums "welfare for millionaires", the bill pledging $80 million in public funds for a soccer stadium in St. Louis seemed like a long shot. Now, the bill is officially dead.

Surely the picture above is not some kind of metaphor for Missouri Governor-elect Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, shooting down a proposal for an MLS team in St. Louis that included a hefty chunk of public funding for a new stadium.

That would be ridiculous.

Greitens has once-and-for-all said that state funding will not be used for stadiums if he can help it.

According to ESPN, Real Salt Lake and another team from the MLS Eastern Conference have entered discussions with Landon Donovan over the 34-year-old continuing his career in 2017. 

Donovan made a shock return for the LA Galaxy in 2016, appearing in nine matches for a Los Angeles squad that had been left depleted in attack following a serious injury to Gyasi Zardes and the questionable fitness of Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard.

There was a time when simply building a soccer specific stadium was setting the bar. Then came the era of enclosed-seaters around 20,000 following the same mold, like Sporting KC, Houston and Dallas. In today’s MLS world, a statement is needed in order to make an impact. Welcome to the "Purple Wall," MLS’s great new attraction. 

The MLS recently announced the pricing for the next round of teams to enter the league. With plans to add four more teams in order to reach 28, cities across the US are racing for selection. Long considered a candidate for expansion, St. Louis fans will be frustrated to see comments from the new governor-elect that could push their city down the bid list. 

There is no rest in professional sports. As soon as one champion is crowned, teams begin preparing to wrest their title away. Can the Seattle Sounders repeat in 2017? Can Toronto FC take the final step? What big players will move in, around or out of the league?

MLS quickly jumped into 2017 with the Expansion and Waiver drafts having already taken place. Here’s a look at the five biggest transactions to take place in this young MLS offseason. 

Up and down both Canada and the United States, there's a whole host of cities clamoring for a place in Major League Soccer. The love of the sport is growing with every passing day, and it's no surprise that everyone wants a piece of the action.

However, not every location has what it takes to participate in one of the fastest growing leagues in the world. Whether it's stature, popularity or overall appeal, not many places can touch these five when it comes to having the potential necessary for a long-lasting MLS club.

No one is going to argue that the MLS waiver draft is a sexy part of the off-season. The league, and especially Seattle, is still not recovered from the MLS Cup. Then Tuesday brought the exciting expansion draft as two new franchises grow the league in 2017. So even in an active year for the waiver draft, it isn’t a marquee event of its own week. This edition, though, might have been the saddest of MLS draft events. 

MLS is perpetually trying to prove itself by signing star players, battling other American sports for media coverage and comparing itself against leagues around the world that've been around since the turn of the 20th century. This year’s MLS Cup brought together a near perfect matchup on paper, and the television numbers responded accordingly.