On Thursday, St. Louis' Major League Soccer ownership group announced the club's long-awaited name, crest, and colors on the campus of Harris-Stowe State University, a few blocks from where the soccer stadium will be located. Carolyn Kindle Betz, the face of the ownership group, announced that the team name will be the St. Louis City SC, shortened to "The City."
Viewers also got a first look at the crest design, which features a line representing the Gateway Arch, and additional lines representing the rivers. The club colors will be a pink-red, blue, and gold.
Betz said that the ownership group received more than 6,000 name suggestions from residents, and that the word "city" was cited most often. Betz then tasked the club's marketing team with telling the story behind the term. "It's a great opportunity for us to expand the definition of city to include the north, south, east, west, everybody in the region, but it also allows us to make sure we remember and highlight different cultures and the iconic neighborhoods, but also to really embrace the proud heritage," Betz said.
Nearly a year ago, MLS4TheLou, an ownership group spearheaded by Enterprise Holdings Foundation president Betz and World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh, announced that Major League Soccer had officially awarded St. Louis an expansion team, the league's 28th team. MLS4TheLou became the league’s first women-majority ownership group.
Photography by Laura Miserez
The MLS4TheLou ownership group with Don Garber
The soccer team was originally slated to begin its inaugural season in 2022; because of COVID-19, that has been pushed to 2023, as announced in July. “We’ve been working closely with the league and collectively agreed that the adjusted timeline was the best decision to position our club for a historic launch and long-term success,” Betz said in a statement. “We can’t wait to get on the pitch in 2023 and are still moving full steam ahead to build a world-class club and stadium district that will invigorate Downtown West and be a meaningful part of our current downtown renaissance.”
Plans for the team's stadium downtown were designed by local firm HOK and Julie Snow, co-founder of Snow Kreilich Architects. It will seat 22,500, will be covered by a translucent canopy, and the field's pitch will sit 40 feet below street level.
In October 2019, MLS4TheLou announced it was expanding plans for the stadium to encompass about 31 acres and include an area north of Market Street, between 20th and 22nd streets. It will feature a hub around the stadium for year-round use. The Downtown West District will include retail and restaurants open beyond the 17 home games a year. In the area west of Union Station—south of Market—will be team offices and a training facility.
