Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
A view of the supporters section at CITYPARK
St. Louis CITY SC will have an opportunity to preview its new stadium this fall, after all.
The club announced Thursday that CITY2 will host German side Bayer 04 Leverkusen in a friendly at newly-named CITYPARK on Wednesday, November 16 at 7 p.m., opening the new facility to fans after full power was restored to the building earlier this week.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 28 at 2 p.m. on St. Louis CITY SC’s app.
The news comes a month after CITY was forced to scratch a scheduled soft opening of the stadium in September when a construction issue in the neighborhood, which was exacerbated by a rainstorm, cut full power to the facility. Now, after weeks of repairs, the 22,500-seat stadium is fully operational and ready to host fans for the first time.
"I don't remember the last time I cried as hard as I did last night when they told us that the power came back on," says CITY president and CEO Carolyn Kindle. "[The outage] was one of those things that you could have never predicted, and it happened. But thank you to everybody that's been working, literally around the clock, trying to bring the power back online. We were so excited to showcase this beautiful stadium, our home, [last month]. We had plenty of events that were planned, and we pivoted. ... Being able to stand up here today and announce that first international match here, it's just incredible."
Leverkusen is a former Champions League finalist (2002) and European Cup winner (1988 UEFA Cup) and perennial Bundesliga power, finishing third in the Bundesliga standings last season. The team competed in the 2022-23 Champions League group stage. During an announcement event at the stadium on Thursday morning, CITY officials played a video message from Bayer Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro, who said his club is eager for their visit to St. Louis. It is believed that Leverkusen's traveling party will be taking advantage of Lufthansa's new nonstop service from Frankfurt, German to Lambert St. Louis International Airport when the team travels to town on Sunday, November 13.
"This is truly symbolic of the global nature of our sport, and how it brings people and cultures together," Carro says. "Your beautiful new stadium is something all of you in the club and the city of St. Louis should be excited to show off to fans around the world. Our players and our entire organization look forward to a terrific week of visiting Missouri, experiencing the action on the St. Louis CITY SC campus, and partnering with the people of our mother company Bayer in the St. Louis community during these days to come."
Obviously, CITY's organization has strong ties to Germany. It's the native country of sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel, who came to CITY in 2020 after holding a similar role for Bundesliga side Fortuna Dusseldorf. Dennis Moore, CITY's chief revenue officer, noted how, during a recent trip to Cologne, locals called Pfannenstiel's name as he walked through town. And yet, what impressed Moore most about that visit to Germany was how much brand power CITY was already building overseas. Moore says he encountered a CITY season ticket holder who lives in Germany, but plans to make multiple trips to St. Louis for matches during the clubs inaugural Major League Soccer campaign in 2023.
"As we walked around the city, wearing our crest, the number of people that stopped us—they know St. Louis CITY—that is something that is really true to what we're trying to do and build an international fan base," Moore says.
Leverkusen began its outreach with CITY in 2018, when the German club visited with leaders of the grassroots effort to bring soccer to St. Louis. That meeting served as an educational experience for Kindle, who credits Leverkusen officials for advising CITY's management on best practices for launching their club. It's not clear whether CITY and Leverkusen will link for future games and events beyond the latter's visit to St. Louis next month.
For now, Kindle is excited about what the upcoming match means for soccer in St. Louis, and CITY's future on the global stage.
"I think that this is the first step and a potential partnership, if you will," Kindle says. "But I think we're just excited that they have interest to come to St. Louis. It's a great opportunity to put St. Louis back on the international map, which has been one of the goals of the club from the beginning."
