Garber called the competition good for the league.

“Life is good when you have options,” he said. “I believe that there are many cities in our country today that can support an MLS team. We’ve got to get this last one over the finish line and then sit down and figure out what happens to those cities that were not part of the 28 that we set out to finalize a couple of years ago.”

This is the third time Garber has visited St. Louis in connection with an expansion bid. The first came as the region fought to keep the National Football League’s Rams in St. Louis. The effort failed, but the idea to build a stadium that could be used by a soccer team started the conversation with MLS. Almost two years ago, a second attempt, headed by Kavanaugh and current Schnuck Markets President Dave Peacock, skidded to a stop when St. Louis city voters turned down a request for $60 million in public stadium financing.

Garber said on Monday that he does not feel burned by any of the past attempts. Instead, he said he believed they set the groundwork for this one.

“We were missing a handful of things that have really changed in the last year or so,” Garber said on Monday, Kindle Betz sitting to his left. “The first is the involvement of the Taylor family. The second was a real confirmation on the stadium project.”