Still in the throes of Post-Traumatic Kroenke Syndrome, St. Louis is grasping for a professional sports franchise to replace what the Rams took with it to Los Angeles. Before NFL owners even finished casting their secret ballots, St. Louisans sounded the call for a different kind of football, a Major League Soccer team.
It’s no surprise that professional soccer took hold over St. Louisans’ imaginations as they watched their American football team leave them in the dust. St. Louis has long been called America’s First Soccer Capital. There are 29 St. Louisans in the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and every U.S. men’s World Cup team has included one player from the Lou.
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Even Yogi Berra tried to bring an MLS team to St. Louis. Two years ago, MLS commissioner Don Garber said during his State of the League address that whenever he ran into Berra, the Yankees legend and St. Louis native would talk to him about soccer and St. Louis, not baseball or New York.
“It’s the birthplace of soccer in America,” Garber said of St. Louis. More recently, Garber said the Rams’ departure gives “a little more momentum” to St. Louis’ chances of being one of the cities where the league expands as it grows to 28 teams.
To make the cut, what St. Louis really needs is a stadium, specifically a soccer-specific stadium located downtown and funded by someone(s) with a spare $110 million laying around.
Space Architecture + Design launched a self-initiated stadium development study and designed a plan for a sunken stadium adjacent to Union Station, an iconic but lagging landmark in downtown.
“We envision an MLS stadium as the bookend to Clark Avenue, the ‘greatest sports street in America,’” architects wrote in a blog post touting their stadium plan, which they say would be physical proof of St. Louis’ “position as America’s greatest sports city.”
And it’s not just locals who think bringing the MLS to St. Louis is a good idea. Some MLS coaches told Sports Illustrated that St. Louis is their first pick for a future franchise. “I think St. Louis would make for a great cross-town rival for us,” Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes told SI. “In a lot of respects, their history in the game probably deserves one.”
St. Louis does deserve an MLS team, and if you agree, you can take action. Here are three things you can do to help bring MLS soccer to St. Louis:
1. Pledge to see at least one professional soccer match in St. Louis in 2016.
St. Louis might not have an MLS team, but this soccer-loving city does host two professional soccer teams: Saint Louis Football Club, which is about to start its second season, and St. Louis Ambush, an indoor soccer team.
Just before the Rams’ move to L.A. was final, former MLS all-star Taylor Twellman took to the radio to tell soccer fans how they could help bring a major league team in St. Louis.
His message: Support the teams you’ve got.
“It’s important that soccer fans realize there is a local team there, a [United Soccer League] team, Saint Louis FC,” Twellman said on 101 ESPN radio. “The No. 1 thing fans can do right now for the sport of soccer in St. Louis is support that team, because what that’s ultimately going to do is send messages to the ownership groups that are thinking about buying a franchise in St. Louis that they should do that.”
The MLS commissioner agrees. “Don Garber, when he visited last year with the stadium task force that was here, said the best way for MLS to happen is to support STLFC,” Saint Louis FC general manager Jeremy Alumbaugh told KMOX.
The USL just released next season’s schedule. If you want to buy tickets for an MLS St. Louis team in the future, buy STLFC tickets today.
You can also get tickets to Ambush games in St. Charles here.
2. Support “The Park.”
This year’s historic winter flood submerged STLFC’s home field at World Wide Technology Soccer Park, the first soccer-specific complex in America. Water from the overflowing Meramec River swallowed the five-field park and stands, leaving behind major water damage and debris.
“We’ve had a few floods before, but nothing like this,” STLFC GM Alumbaugh told KickTV.com. Here’s where STLFC’s most dedicated supporters usually sit:
Soccer fans quickly mounted an impressive fundraising campaign, bringing in more than $80,000 through crowdfunding to restore “The Park,” as fans affectionately call it. Local businesses—including Mission Taco Joint and G&W Sausages—joined in by donating proceeds to the clean-up effort.
STLFC has a long way to go before The Park is ready for the season opener in March, but the team’s die-hard fans, the St. Louligans, are already dreaming of opening day.
“Everyone’s seen the pictures today of inches of dirt and silt and crud,” St. Louiligans member Mitch Morice told KickTV.com. “When that day comes and everything is sparkling and shining and crisp, and there’s the new turf, and we’ve all come through this together…it’s going to be a unifying moment.”
The largest obstacle keeping St. Louis from the MLS is money in the form of an investor who’ll fund a new stadium. Here’s hoping that St. Louis’ billionaires feel more comfortable opening their checkbooks when they see how much money regular St. Louisans raised to restore their current team’s digs.
3. Meet a St. Louligan.
If you follow step No. 1 and end up at an STLFC game, you’ll quickly be able to spot the St. Louligans, STLFC’s fan club that’s built a reputation in just one season as one of the most dedicated and rambunctious supporter groups in the entire league. The St. Louligans are the reason why STLFC’s games sold out last year, even when the inaugural team had no chance of making the playoffs, and they’re the dominant force behind the fundraisers listed in No. 2.
See related: St. Louis’ Soccer Revival Starts With the Ladies
With face-paint, drums, tailgates, fundraisers, confetti, songs, and lots of heart, the Louligans are single-handedly proving to MLS executives and potential team owners that St. Louis has what they want: a fanbase that’s engaged, motivated, and untapped.
If you can’t join ‘em, help ‘em. Support the supporters by following them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter; listening to their podcast, This is Silly!; or by attending one of their events. At least buy a scarf, the international symbol of true soccer fandom.
Every additional retweet, like, or subscription helps the St. Louligans make the case that St. Louis is full of soccer fans who deserve more professional soccer.
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at [email protected] or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
