Major League Soccer plans to announce next week that ºüÀêÊÓƵ has secured an expansion team, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the league’s expansion timeline.
Sources spoke on condition of anonymity, as the ºüÀêÊÓƵ ownership group and MLS have not publicized the announcement.
Plans have been made for an event Tuesday in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
MLS leaders declined comment Wednesday.
The ownership group released a statement: “Major League Soccer is responsible for the timing of any announcements around League expansion, but we remain confident ºüÀêÊÓƵ has made a strong case for a team.â€
Early Thursday morning, the ownership group announced plans for a special announcement on Tuesday at The Palladium. The announcement mentioned the attendance of ownership group members, Mayor Lyda Krewson, president of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed and additional special guests.
People are also reading…
Sources said that event will be the announcement and celebration of the league's endorsement as an expansion city.
League commissioner Don Garber’s praise of ºüÀêÊÓƵ has been overflowing lately, especially during the MLS All-Star Game two weeks ago in Orlando, Florida.
Garber called the ownership group’s expansion effort “amazing†after the ºüÀêÊÓƵ group’s presentation to the league’s full board of owners in Orlando.
That presentation was a condensed version of the ownership group’s meeting with the league’s expansion committee last month at league headquarters in New York City, which came after Garber and top league officials met with ownership group members in both ºüÀêÊÓƵ and New York.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ ownership group, spearheaded by Carolyn Kindle Betz, president of Enterprise Holdings Foundation, and Jim Kavanaugh, CEO of World Wide Technology, presented a plan to the league that included a primarily privately funded downtown stadium and a majority female ownership group.
Named “MLS4TheLou,†the ownership group led by Betz, Kavanaugh and other members of Enterprise’s Taylor family revived a previous failed effort to secure an MLS team for ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The city has a rich soccer tradition that has long been on the radar of MLS, increasingly so after the Rams football team left in 2016.
The most recent soccer swing-and-miss came in April 2017. Agroup led then by Kavanaugh, an owner of ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ United Soccer League team ºüÀêÊÓƵ FC, and Boston-based investor Paul Edgerley was unable to secure $60 million in public money for a stadium plan through a business-use tax that was rejected by city voters.
The Taylor family, citing the area’s soccer tradition and a desire to see MLS help revitalize downtown, then came forward to partner with Kavanaugh, pitching a $250 million stadium that will be largely privately financed. The new ownership group has said it will cover the league’s $200 million expansion fee.
Garber, who visited ºüÀêÊÓƵ in March to meet with the group and potential sponsors, told the Post-Dispatch at an April ownership meeting that the league was entering “exclusive, formal†discussions with ºüÀêÊÓƵ and Sacramento as it aimed to expand from 27 teams to 30. Sacramento continues to work on an expansion spot. Thanks to the efforts of National Football League team owner David Tepper, Charlotte, North Carolina, has emerged as an expansion challenger.
Garber said during the All-Star game festivities that the ºüÀêÊÓƵ project was advancing rapidly.
“Their project is amazing,†Garber told Fox Sports. “It’s a massive downtown stadium project. The Taylor family really is ºüÀêÊÓƵ.â€
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ expansion team is targeting 2022 to start play.
Final plans for stadium financing, sponsorship deals and team details, such as team name and colors, have not been revealed.
Soccer history in ºüÀêÊÓƵ
A look back at the rich history of ºüÀêÊÓƵ soccer
ºüÀêÊÓƵ ownership group lands MLS expansion slot
The bid to land a Major League Soccer team for ºüÀêÊÓƵ began publicly in October 2018. Members of the Taylor family and of the Kavanaugh family joined forces to prepare a formal bid for an expansion team.Ìý
Carolyn Kindle Betz (pictured with Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber) joined with Jim Kavanaugh, Andy Taylor, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Christine B. Taylor, Alison Kindle Hogan, Kelly C. Taylor, Patricia A. Taylor and Barbara Taylor. The team will be the first in the league majority-owned by women.Ìý
The group has deep pockets, with ties to Enterprise Holdings and World Wide Technology.
A formal announcement that ºüÀêÊÓƵ will get a team was held Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019. The debut has been postponed a year, to 2023.Ìý
In August 2020, the team's leadership announced its name, crest and colors: ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC.
In February, ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC won its first game against Austin FC, 3-2.
Five ºüÀêÊÓƵ players were on team that defeated England in 1950 World Cup
A ºüÀêÊÓƵan was the keeper for the 1950 match against England in Brazil, holding a blank slate against the side considered to be the best in the world.Ìý
Frank Borghi, who died in 2015, was one of five ºüÀêÊÓƵans on the team that beat England 1-0.
He made a key save in the second half on a header, knocking it wide of the net. “I was lucky to jump in the air and deflect it with my right hand,†he said in a 2009 interview.
Brazil's fans, ecstatic to see their main rival lose, carried Borghi off the field on their shoulders.Ìý
“I didn’t know what they were doing at first,†he said later. “I was kind of nervous. They picked me up and carried me 110 yards to the dugout. It was kind of exciting.â€
In addition to Borghi, Harry Keough, Gino Pariani, Frank (Peewee) Wallace and Charley Colombo were the ºüÀêÊÓƵans on the field for that historic win over England. (Also on the team from ºüÀêÊÓƵ were Bob Annis, a reserve who didn’t play, and assistant coach William “Chubby†Lyons.) Keough died in 2012, Pariani in 2007, Colombo in 1986 and Wallace in 1979.
Pictures from the 1950 World Cup
In 1995, a local team won a professional soccer title
On April 25, 1995, the Ambush staged a comeback to sweep the Harrisburg Heat in four games to become the only team in ºüÀêÊÓƵ professional soccer to win a title.
The title was won three years after Dr. Abraham Hawatmeh brought the Tulsa Ambush to ºüÀêÊÓƵ.Ìý
With the NHL locked out in 1994, the Ambush had the honor of playing the first regular-season game at the new Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center).
The team would lead the league in attendance that season, averaging 7,881 a game.
The Ambush folded in 2000; a team with the same name now plays in the Major Arena Soccer League. The area has a men's team, ºüÀêÊÓƵ FC, in the USL Championship, a league one step below the top professional level, Major League Soccer.Ìý
A team in the failed Women's Professional Soccer league, ºüÀêÊÓƵ Athletica, didn't win a championship in its short-lived tenure.Ìý
Other now-defunct professional soccer teams include: Steamers (Major Indoor Soccer League), Storm (MISL), and Steamers (World Indoor Soccer League/MISL). In October 2020, ºüÀêÊÓƵ FC, a United Soccer League Championship team, played its final game.Ìý
The last top-level men's professional soccer team was the Stars
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ Stars were a team in the North American Soccer League, which was the top-level pro league from 1968 to 1984.Ìý
The Stars played from the start of the league until 1977, when the team moved to California.Ìý
Well-known national players were on the team, including Al Trost. (He taught at McCluer North High during the offseason.) Other well-known players included Pat McBride and English goalie Peter Bonetti.
The team wanted a better home field than Washington University's Francis Field (which had a 10,000-person capacity), and had trouble getting Busch Stadium for more than a few games during their season.
For the 1977 season, the team drew an average of 9,111 fans, but that included a crowd of more than 32,000 at Busch Stadium (the game featured Pelé).
Robert R. Hermann was one of the owners of the team.Ìý
Several local teams were once best in the nation
Several ºüÀêÊÓƵ teams have won the National Challenge Cup, now known as the U.S. Open Cup.Ìý
The tournament matches soccer teams from various levels, including Major League Soccer teams, in a single-elimination tournament to decide the best soccer team in the country.Ìý
In May 1920, in what the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Star described as "the greatest soccer game ever witnessed on any American field," the Ben Millers, a ºüÀêÊÓƵ team, beat a Massachusetts team to win the title.
More than 10,000 people watched the game at Federal League Park, a stadium near the current ºüÀêÊÓƵ University campus. The ºüÀêÊÓƵ team was the first outside the East coast to win the title.
Many of the teams in the early decades were owned by companies, hence the familiar names.
Other ºüÀêÊÓƵ teams went on to play, and win, the Challenge Cup, including:
• Scullin Steel: 1922 (The team went to the finals again in 1923, but had to forfeit a replay after a tie.)
• Stix, Baer and Fuller: 1933, 1934
• Central Breweries: 1935
• Simpkins-Ford: 1948, 1950
• Kutis: 1957, 1986Â
• Busch: 1988
Pictures from the Cup game
European clubs used to come here to play against local teams
From the 1930s through '70s, ºüÀêÊÓƵ was a regular stop for foreign clubs making American tours. There were no professional American leagues, so teams played top amateur clubs.
Over the years, clubs came from: Canada, Mexico, England, Chile, Germany, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Scotland, France and Turkey, among others. Manchester United came twice, in 1950 and 1960, playing matches at old Public Schools Stadium. The ºüÀêÊÓƵ teams almost always lost, though there was a 1-1 tie with Liverpool in 1964.
The games may have been regular events, but that didn’t mean they weren’t special.
“It was fun playing against (those teams),†said Bob Kehoe, a defender who took part in several of them in his long career. “They were almost always better than we were. We’re fledglings, newcomers to the game and they’ve been playing for hundreds of years. We were rarely, if ever, successful. But we’d learn from them, pick up nuances, say, ‘I never saw a team do that before.’ It was enjoyable, even if you got embarrassed.â€
Manchester City played a team of CYC All-Stars in ºüÀêÊÓƵ in 1958, in front of about 4,000 people. The teams played at the Public Schools Stadium.Ìý
"As expected, the all-professional English League team won the match, by a score of 6-2," read the Post-Dispatch article. "The ºüÀêÊÓƵ players, all amateurs, were delighted to have held the First Division team to a 1-1 score at half time and to have escaped with only six goals charged against them, one of those a penalty kick."
The day Pelé played Busch Stadium
The greatest soccer player of all time had scored 1,268 goals over his illustrious career when the New York Cosmos faced the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Stars on June 23, 1977. But with tenacious marking from Bob O'Leary and Roger Verdi and acrobatic goaltending by John Jackson, the Stars kept the incomparable Pelé and the rest of the Cosmos off the scoreboard in a 2-0 victory.
Among his three shots, Pelé sent a header over the net and fired wide on a free kick. His frustration showed with 5 minutes to play when he literally tackled the Stars' Al Trost from behind.
"He should have had a caution for that but I guess because it was Pele' the referee decided to let it go," Trost said.
After the game, Pelé raced over to Jackson and shook his hand.ÌýPelé, then 37, retired at the end of the '77 season with his Cosmos winning the NASL title. The crowd of 32,605 at Busch Stadium was the largest to see a professional soccer game in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Billikens' 10 NCAA soccer championships
The Billikens men's soccer team won 10 NCAA soccer championships from 1959 to 1973.
Bob Guelker coached the team through 1966, then the team was coached by Harry Keough, a defender who played on the 1950 U.S. World Cup team.Ìý
SLU played against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 27 times from 1971-1998 in the "Bronze Boot" matches. The rivalry was resurrected in 2018.ÌýThe 1980 match holds the record as the largest soccer crowd at an NCAA men's game (22,512).
Guelker coached at both colleges.Ìý
U.S. Soccer has played several World Cup-qualifying matches here
In November 2015, the U.S. Soccer men's team defeated St. Vincent and the Grenadines in Busch Stadium.
Before that, the national team played a qualifier in November 1989, against El Salvador at the Soccer Park in Fenton.
The 2015 game drew 45,000 people; the 1989 game had a sellout crowd of 8,500.
The team had played two previous matches in ºüÀêÊÓƵ in the run-up to the November game.ÌýThe Americans had come to ºüÀêÊÓƵ twice before in qualifying for the 1990 World Cup. The first was in the preliminary round, when it beat Jamaica to advance into the final round of qualifying. In their second match in that round, the Americans beat Costa Rica.
The November 1989 match ended in a tie, but the U.S. team later qualified for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, losing all three matches. It was the first time the American team made the World Cup since 1950.
The women's team has played at least two friendly matches in town, with one in May 2019.
Hermann Trophy is annually awarded here
Soccer's version of the Heisman Trophy, the Hermann Trophy, is awarded through the Missouri Athletic Club, and presented at the club in ºüÀêÊÓƵ every year.
The top NCAA Division I women's and men's soccer player receives the trophy. Previous awardees include players who went on to be on the national roster, including Americans Christen Press, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Michelle Akers and Tisha Venturini; and Canadian Christine Sinclair; men who went on to the national team include Alexi Lalas and Al Trost.
The award is the result of a merge of previous awards for soccer players given by Robert R. Hermann and the club.Ìý
Youth and high school soccer thrive here
From the soccer program at Christian Brothers College High School, which was inducted into the Missouri sports Hall of Fame this year, to the myriad youth clubs, hundreds of children and teens play soccer in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Some of those players grow up to play for the U.S. national teams, including Ruth Harker, a goalkeeper for the University of Missouri-ºüÀêÊÓƵ. She was named to the first-ever U.S. Women's National Team in 1985, a team that played one game in Italy.Ìý
Other players include: Lori Chalupny (Nerinx Hall), Kevin Grimes (Rosary), Chris Klein (De Smet), Pat Noonan (De Smet), Steve Ralston (Oakville), Tim Ream (St. Dominic), Josh Sargent (St. Dominic), Becky Sauerbrunn (Ladue Horton Watkins) and Taylor Twellman (SLUH).