St. Louis City Soccer Club (stylized as St. Louis CITY SC) is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. The club competes in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

(MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. City SC was established in 2019 as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

; the team began play in 2023. The team plays its home matches at

Energizer Park Energizer Park, previously CityPark, is a 22,423-seat soccer-specific stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It is the home of St. Louis City SC, the city's Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise. The stadium is next to Union Station (St. ...

, a

soccer-specific stadium A soccer-specific stadium, mainly in the United States and Canada, is a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-purpose stadium whic ...

across from

Union Station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

in Downtown West.

History

Previous attempts

Soccer has had an established history at both the professional and amateur levels in

Greater St. Louis Greater St. Louis is the 23rd-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States, the largest in Missouri, and the second-largest in Illinois. Its core city—St. Louis, Missouri—sits in the geographic center of the metro area, ...

for more than a century. In 2007,

was considered a possible destination for

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake (RSL) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Fou ...

after the club founder announced he would sell the club if a new stadium was not built. From 2008 to 2009, St. Louis lawyer Jeff Cooper led a group of would-be owners who attempted to bring an MLS expansion team to Greater St. Louis, only to have the bids turned down in favor of other cities. Despite approved plans to build the $600 million Collinsville Soccer Complex, MLS was unimpressed with the bid's financial backing and suggested Cooper expand his group of investors. Cooper instead launched a second division men's club and a

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

franchise. AC St. Louis played only one season in Division 2 before folding in 2011; the Saint Louis Athletica folded midway through its second season in 2010. In late 2014, the city announced plans for a new stadium to host both American football and soccer. MLS commissioner Don Garber said in January 2015, "St. Louis has got a lot of activity going on with a stadium that they’re trying to get done for the NFL's

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)$200 million soccer-specific stadium next to

in downtown St. Louis. On January 26, 2017, a funding plan was approved by the city's Aldermanic Ways and Means Committee, and later by the entire Board of Aldermen, that would have directed $60 million in city tax revenue to the new stadium. Voters rejected the plan in an April 4, 2017, referendum, leaving the city's MLS future in doubt.

2018–2019: Expansion bid

In September 2018, the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...

'' reported that officials with the Missouri Department of Economic Development and MLS representatives had met and discussed a stadium proposal; St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson later confirmed that a new group was trying to bring a team to St. Louis. St. Louis's MLS bid was effectively re-launched on October 9 of that year, with Carolyn Kindle and other

heirs Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Official ...

to the

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car is an American car rental agency headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. Enterprise is the flagship brand of Enterprise Holdings, which also owns other agencies including Alamo Rent a Car and National ...

fortune as the primary investors. The stadium location remained near Union Station in the same area as in the original 2016 bid. This bid did not seek public funding through taxes or from the city and was not required to be decided in a public vote. On November 28, 2018, the Board of Aldermen's Housing, Urban Development, and Zoning Committee voted 8–0 to approve the stadium plan. On April 18, 2019, the MLS announced plans to expand to 30 teams, up from the previous plan of 28. The league, then at 27 teams, advised the Commissioner's office to advance the discussions with the Sacramento Republic and St. Louis bids, who would make presentations to the expansion committee. Two days later, the St. Louis group unveiled their stadium plan with a design produced by HOK and Snow Kreilich Architects. All 22,423 seats would be within 120 feet of the field and under a canopy. On August 20, 2019, MLS announced it had approved St. Louis as the league's 28th franchise, with play expected to begin in the 2022 season. The ownership group, led by Carolyn Kindle Betz and female members of the Taylor family, is the first female majority-owned team in MLS.

2019–present

On October 19, 2019, the ownership group released new plans for the planned soccer-specific stadium. The area was extended to encompass a plan and would likely exceed the original $200 million cost estimate. The ownership group agreed to purchase and own the land along with the stadium and will not seek tax revenue or public financing. The Missouri state government had promised $30 million in tax credits for the stadium project, but withdrew their offer in December 2019. The Missouri Development Finance Board instead approved a package of incentives worth $5.7 million in tax credits to help with construction of the $458 million stadium and surrounding area. Site preparation for the stadium, including demolition of highway ramps, began in early 2020 and continued through the early stages of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On August 17, 2020, former Fortuna Düsseldorf managing director of sports Lutz Pfannenstiel was introduced as sporting director of St. Louis City SC. Bradley Carnell, a former assistant coach at the

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conferenc ...

, was named as the team's first head coach in January 2022. On February 25, 2023, St. Louis City SC played in their first MLS match and defeated

Austin FC Austin FC is an American professional soccer club based in Austin, Texas. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018, the club began play in the 2021 season. Their home stadium is Q ...

3–2 at

Q2 Stadium Q2 Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium located in the North Burnet section of North Austin, Texas, United States. It is the home of Austin FC, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team that began play in 2021. The stadium hosted its first event on June ...

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. The team won their first home game 3–1 against Charlotte FC on March 4 at CityPark. St. Louis City SC became the first MLS expansion team team to win their first five matches; they also matched the points record to open the season set by the

Los Angeles Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

in 1996 and

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The ad ...

in 2012. On April 1, 2023, St. Louis City SC lost their first game in their history against

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United Football Club, often shortened to MNUFC, is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the W ...

with the score 0–1 in CityPark. The club broke the record for most wins by an MLS expansion club, defeating Sporting Kansas City 4-1 and reaching 17 wins in September. At the end of their inaugural season, St. Louis City SC finished first in the Western Conference and qualified for the

2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup The 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup was the 59th season of the North, Central America, and the Caribbean's premier club Association football, football tournament organized by CONCACAF, and the first since it was rebranded as the CONCACAF Champions Cu ...

. They were eliminated from the MLS Cup Playoffs by eighth-seeded rivals

in the first round after losing the first two games in the best-of-three series. St. Louis City would begin their 2024 campaign with a five-match undefeated streak, but only won one match. On July 1, 2024, the club fired head coach Bradley Carnell, citing the club's poor performance through the first half of the 2024 season. John Hackworth, the club's Technical Director, was named as the interim head coach.

Colors, badge, and sponsorship

The crest features the iconic

Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary Catenary arch, arch, it is the world's tallest arch and List of tallest buildings in Missouri, Missouri's ...

, and the two curved lines symbolize the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

's two longest rivers, the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

and the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

, which is located just a few miles north of Downtown St. Louis. Officially, the team's colors are city red, river blue, energy yellow, arch steel gray, and white. The shade of red can easily be mistaken as a shade of

magenta Magenta () is a purple-red color. On color wheels of the RGB color model, RGB (additive) and subtractive color, CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red. It is one of the four colors of ink used in colo ...

pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

, or bright

maroon Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown". Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...

depending on the lighting.

Sponsorship

On March 31, 2021, Purina, a pet food maker founded and based in St. Louis, became the club's first jersey sponsor and founding partner. On July 14, 2021, Together Credit Union, a local

credit union A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit cooperative financial institution. They may offer financial services equivalent to those of commercial banks, such as share accounts (savings accounts), share draft accounts (che ...

, became the club's second founding partner and the official banking partner.

Stadium

The team plays in

in downtown St. Louis that is the anchor of a development area that includes team offices, training facilities, and commercial districts. The stadium is intended to field 17 to 23 soccer games a year and serve as a venue for concerts, high school sports, and more. The design of the stadium is intended to connect the surrounding area and the downtown area together while blending with the neighborhood.

Ownership and management

The St. Louis City SC ownership group consists of

Enterprise Holdings Enterprise Holdings, Inc. (doing business as Enterprise Mobility) is an American private holding company headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It is the parent company of car rental agencies Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Nationa ...

Foundation president Carolyn Kindle and female members of the Taylor family (

), and is the first female majority-owned team in MLS. The group also includes CEO of World Wide Technology, Jim Kavanaugh and members of the Kavanaugh family.

Club culture

Supporters

Many new independent supporters' groups were organized in anticipation of the MLS squad's arrival, supporting City 2 throughout their 2022 campaign. These groups include Saint Louis City Punks, sporting denim vests and

Punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

vibes, as well as the No Nap City Ultras, a supporters' group of parents and their young children, and STL Santos, a supporters’ group for Spanish speakers. 2022 also saw the arrival of a new drum corps and supporters' group, the Fleur de Noise, who will take up the role of drumming and leading chants for the supporters. The oldest active soccer supporters' group in the St. Louis area is the St. Louligans, though they are far from the only supporters' group in St. Louis. Their name references

football hooliganism Football hooliganism, also known as soccer hooliganism, football rioting or soccer rioting, constitutes violence and other destructive behaviors perpetrated by spectators at association football events. Football hooliganism typically involves ...

, the disruptive and disorderly behavior of soccer fans, though this type of phenomenon is not generally found among soccer fans in North America. The St. Louligans were founded in 2010 when several local soccer fan groups joined forces at AC St. Louis home games. They have provided strong support for a number of St. Louis area soccer teams, including AC St. Louis, Saint Louis Athletica, St. Louis Lions, and Illinois Piasa. St. Louligans was the official supporters group for Saint Louis FC, a

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

side founded in 2014. Saint Louis FC worked closely with the St. Louligans to encourage their support. Notable contributions of the group include awarding a new fan each week with a ticket, and coordinating with the Coopers, supporters for

Louisville City FC Louisville City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in Louisville, Kentucky. The team plays in the USL Championship, which is currently the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club was founded in 2014 after O ...

, to create the Kings' Cup rivalry competition between the two teams. Saint Louis FC folded in 2020. The new stadium contains a supporters' section with space for more than 3,000

standing Standing, also referred to as orthostasis, is a position in which the body is held in an upright (orthostatic) position and supported only by the feet. Although seemingly static, the body rocks slightly back and forth from the ankle in the ...

spectators, three capo stands, a long integrated

tifo ''Tifo'' () is the phenomenon whereby ''tifosi'' of a sports team make a visual display of any choreographed flag, sign or banner in the stands of a stadium, mostly as part of an association football match. ''Tifo'' are most commonly seen in ...

rigging system, a drum riser for drum corps during matches, and a dedicated supporters bar.

Rivalries

Chicago Fire FC

The Chicago Fire have emerged as a regional rival for St. Louis City SC, mirroring the 160-year sporting and cultural dislike between the two Midwestern cities, most evident in the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry in Major League Baseball. For their first encounters in 2023, the two teams met twice in the space of a week, and Chicago won both matches despite their visitors sending large numbers of traveling supporters. On May 11, 2024, St. Louis beat Chicago for the first time by a score of 3-1 at home in the first meeting between the two sides in the 2024 season.

Sporting Kansas City

St. Louis City has also developed an early rivalry with

. Prior to the first meeting, a St. Louis fan podcast, the Soccer Capitol Podcast, became the center of attention and heightening tensions between supporters. A series of emails from Sporting Kansas City’s front office arrived in the inbox of the podcast’s Gmail account. The club believed the Soccer Capitol Podcast was infringing on the trademark “The Soccer Capital of America,” which was registered to Kansas Training Partners LLC, an affiliate company of Sporting Kansas City. St. Louis City SC won the first match between the two clubs on May 20 at CityPark. On September 30, 2023, St. Louis fans unfurled a huge banner reading ‘You’re not in Kansas anymore.’ The two teams played in their first postseason matchup in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs, with Sporting Kansas City (the #8 seed) upsetting the #1 seeded St. Louis in a best-of-three series.

Players and staff

Roster

Out on loan

Technical staff

Head Coaches

* Includes regular season, playoff, CONCACAF Champions Cup, Leagues Cup, and U.S. Open Cup games.

Executive staff

Club record and statistics

Year-by-year

Player records

* MLS =

* PO = MLS Cup playoffs * OC = U.S. Open Cup * LC =

Leagues Cup The Leagues Cup is an annual soccer competition between clubs from Major League Soccer (MLS), the main soccer league in the United States, and Liga MX, the main soccer league in Mexico. It is hosted in Canada and the United States. It began in ...

* CCC =

CONCACAF Champions Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

Current players on the St. Louis roster are shown in bold.

Most appearances

Top goalscorers

Honors

MLS Western Conference The Western Conference is one of Major League Soccer's two conferences, along with the Eastern Conference. The division of the conferences broadly follows the path of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, with club ...

** Winners (Regular Season):

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Player honors

Player development

Reserve team

On December 6, 2021, the club announced it would be fielding a

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the new

MLS Next Pro MLS Next Pro (MLSNP) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada that is affiliated with Major League Soccer (MLS). It launched in 2022 with 21 teams and now comprises 27 reserve sides of MLS clu ...

league, in the third tier of US Soccer. St. Louis City 2 began play in the 2022 season, despite the MLS side not beginning play until 2023.

Academy

The St. Louis City SC Academy was announced by the club in August 2020 and joined

MLS Next MLS Next (stylized as MLS NEXT) is a youth association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada that is managed, organized, and controlled by Major League Soccer. It was introduced by the league in 2020. It is a successor to th ...

in the 2021–21 season. The academy were granted an expansion team in the United Premier Soccer League in 2022. The team competes in the KY / TN Conference - Premier Division. In the 2023 fall season, the Academy was the runner-up in the UPSL National Finals, falling 2-1 to Chiriaco FC. In the 2024 spring season, the Academy became the UPSL Gateway Premier champions and secured a spot in the National Round of 32.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Louis MLS team 2019 establishments in Missouri Association football clubs established in 2019 Soccer clubs in Missouri Major League Soccer teams Soccer in St. Louis Soccer clubs in St. Louis Sports in Greater St. Louis