Soccer has deep roots in St. Louis, dating back to 1907, when the city had the country’s only professional soccer league. Now, it’s about to start a new chapter as the city’s Major League Soccer team, St. Louis CITY SC, takes the field. Carolyn Kindle, whose family, the Taylors, started Enterprise, is the president of Enterprise Holdings Foundation. Along with other members of the Taylor family, Kindle is part of the first majority-women-owned team in the league.
Where does St. Louis CITY SC fit into the region’s sports ecosystem? With this city’s incredible soccer history and tradition, St. Louis deserves to have a Major League Soccer team. Soccer is the world’s No. 1 sport and, as a region that is welcoming to international visitors and residents, we wanted to bring this asset to St. Louis. MLS attracts a young, more diverse audience, and we hope our addition to the St. Louis sports landscape will help attract more people to our region.
How is the stadium different from most soccer stadiums? The goal was to create an inviting, open, and inclusive space where people will be able to meet, gather, and connect… The stadium will have no “back of house” and be accessible from every part of the city, as it is intended to unite and excite fans and supporters from every neighborhood and region throughout St. Louis… The farthest seat from the pitch is only 120 feet. Our signature ULTRA Club has 360-degree views of the city. The pitch is 40 feet below street level to amplify the sound and energy from a match. The canopy, one of the largest in Major League Soccer, will cover the majority of the stadium’s 22,500 seats and shade fans from the elements.
courtesy of St. Louis City SC
What plans do you have for the area around CITYPARK? Our vision is to make our stadium district a truly unique destination—not just for St. Louis and MLS but something rarely seen in professional sports. We’re one of the few U.S. professional sports teams that has a stadium, team headquarters, and training facility in one centralized downtown location. The 125,500-square-foot Lou Fusz Plaza located on the eastern side of stadium will welcome St. Louisans from every corner of the region. Drawing hundreds of fans through pre-match activations, the space will offer music, games, youth activities, food, merchandise, and vehicle displays. On non-match days, we’ll look to offer watch parties, movie nights, festivals, and more. Stretching the entire city block, the area will be a community meeting space and include more than 24,000 square feet of green space, 76 trees, and 1,000 linear feet of trail running along 20th Street. The trail is a part of Brickline Greenway. [And] the district’s parking garage across from the plaza will have 150 bike parking spots.
Besides MLS games, what kinds of events do you foresee at the stadium? Our plan is for the facility to become a destination for international soccer friendlies/tours, regional matches, college championships, state high school competitions, and other sporting events and tournaments. We also have other locations within the stadium available for events that will help ensure the new stadium district is vibrant 24/7, 365, including the 14,000-square-foot ULTRA Club, which has a view of the full stadium and the Arch. Outside the stadium, Lou Fusz Plaza will have a permanent built-in concession stand that has serving capacity both outside and within the stadium, with food offerings crafted by our flavor officer, Gerard Craft; dedicated power sources for food trucks along 20th Street; as well as green space housing power and data that can support up to eight additional portable concessions and is ideal for street fairs and festivals.
WITH THIS CITY’S INCREDIBLE SOCCER HISTORY AND TRADITION, ST. LOUIS DESERVES TO HAVE A MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER TEAM.
How is St. Louis CITY SC giving back to the community? We’ve been pretty vocal about being guided by a singular mission: to be an exceptional club and neighbor that unites the region through the power of sports. Soccer should be accessible to all, and we recently launched the club’s CITY Futures Program, which provides no-cost, multilevel, high-quality soccer training and holistic player-person development at five satellite locations throughout the region… As part of our efforts to have the most inclusive fan experience in the MLS, the club launched the CITY Moves initiative, [which] aims to engage underrepresented groups within our community to help us workshop an inclusive fan experience and creative representation… Another one of our larger community investments is a partnership with Great Rivers Greenway and their work to build a 1-mile stretch of the new Brickline Greenway segment. As part of the effort, we will host a permanent art exhibit commemorating the former Mill Creek Valley neighborhood, a historic Black neighborhood demolished in the 1950s where our stadium is located. Created by [local] artist Damon Davis, the exhibit will be part of a three-month St. Louis civic art exhibition, Counterpublic, kicking off in April 2023.
What’s innovative about another sports team in St. Louis? Sports has the ability to effect change, to move people, to energize entire cities. Our vision is to use soccer and the excitement around the new team to further St. Louis’ revitalization. We hope to unite the region and bring people together around something we can all agree on: our love of sports. From food to technology, we are on the leading edge of innovation in sports and the fan experience—and building a global destination for soccer fans.
