It’s been more than five years since St. Louis CITY SC CEO Carolyn Kindle helped lead an expansion bid to bring Major League Soccer to St. Louis. And while it has been a roller coaster on the field at times, the team’s impact on the community is undeniable.
“It’s been a game-changer,” Carolyn Kindle says of CITY SC’s Downtown West campus.
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There’s Energizer Park, which Prix Versailles recognized as “The World’s Most Beautiful Sports Venue” in 2024. The club’s training facilities are located across Market Street, in the same downtown footprint as the stadium. “One of the things we struggled with early on was, ‘Where do we put the training facilities?’” Kindle recalls. “With other teams, there can be a 40-minute drive between the stadium and the facilities. So to be able to tell the story that we are—as one of the unique clubs around the globe that has all of our facilities in this downtown footprint—is amazing.” And CITY SC headquarters, dubbed SoMa House (short for South of Market), utilized a century-old freight house, helping uphold the club’s sustainability goals.
As the club’s Downtown West campus demonstrates, it was created with the vision of being an asset to the city. The pillars of the club’s identity rise out of that foundation, but its philosophy goes beyond successes and failures on the pitch. Mini pitches, local programs, free soccer clinics, and accessibility programs have all provided avenues for the club to engage with the community.
The mini-pitch program is just one way that the club is giving back to the community. With help from various local partners, the club has built playing surfaces for underserved communities across the region. For instance, the club partnered with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation this past winter to create a mini-pitch at the center in East St. Louis. “That’s someone who has put her heart and soul into that community center,” Kindle says of Jackie Joyner-Kersee. “She’s transformed that community. So when we were talking about potentially installing a mini-pitch at the community center, it was just asking, ‘How we could help?’”
The club’s community outreach goes beyond mini-pitches and free soccer clinics, though. CITY SC recently wrapped up Women’s History Month celebrations with an internal leadership clinic and a Women’s History Month watch party. Kindle understands the challenges of being a woman in the predominantly male space of sports. And with more women entering the higher levels of sports, Kindle is happy to support those efforts where she can.
“The club having female-majority ownership has certainly sparked interest in women across the U.S.,” Kindle says. “Of course, myself as CEO, but we also have the first female head of sports science [Kelly Roderick], one of the first associate directors of groundskeeping [Maritza Martinez], and one of the first female academy coaches in MLS [Megan McCormick]. It’s been great to bring all of these intelligent women together and really work as a team.”
At the same time, Kindle is always looking for ways to push the club forward. “This year, we’re especially thinking of how we can continue improving this district, how we can continue developing the area,” she says. “I think there’s a lot we can still do with community partners here.”
