Veteran sportswriter and Illini mouthpiece Loren Tate reports that the season-opening football series between Missouri and Illinois at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis will end after the 2010 season.

Read his report on the IlliniHQ website.

Here’s what Illinois AD Ron Guenther said: “Eventually, we might resume (the series) on a home-and-home basis, or perhaps return to St. Louis, but we have been leaning toward games on campus at some point in the future.”

And here’s what Guenther probably meant: We completed $120 million in stadium improvements in 2008. We want to add another home game every year, not play a neutral-site game.

The Arch Rivalry event has given the lie to a local lament that the Dome is an automatic buzzkill for football fans. Capacity crowds rocked The Ed in ‘07 and ‘08 as Illinois stormed back from huge deficits each time, only to lose 40-34 and 52-42 to highly-ranked Mizzou teams laden with NFL prospects.