City Red. River Blue. Energy Yellow. Those are the colors of St. Louis City, Major League Soccer’s (MLS) newest team, joining Sacramento, Ca. in the 2023 season. 

“St. Louis is a city with a rich soccer tradition, and it is a market we have considered since the league’s inception,” Don Garber, MLS commissioner told Forbes.

The team, as depicted by their newly designed logo, stands for St. Louis’ immense soccer history and long awaited franchise. The crest illustrates the Arch and the intersecting Missouri and Mississippi rivers that define what many soccer enthusiasts deem the “Soccer Capital” of the United States.

For these enthusiasts, and the rest of St. Louis, the move will fill the void of the 2016 Rams’ relocation, a move that enraged many St. Louisans. 

No longer will patrons visit downtown St. Louis and notice an empty America’s Center. No longer will they struggle to find a reason to visit the gateway to the west.

Instead, they’ll drive down Market Street and catch a glimpse at the future of our city— a stadium holding 22,500 fans from different backgrounds. They’ll experience a new reason to trek downtown.

The stadium, holding 23,038 fewer seats than the Cardinal’s Busch Stadium, will ensure everyone receives an encapsulating experience, with the closest seats reaching 15 ft. from the pitch.

In this newly developing fanbase, the team is also set to attract a myriad of newfound soccer fans, many of whom share the same support for other major sports around St. Louis. 

Regardless of their familiarity with the sport, we all need something to look forward to. Whether you’ve grown up playing in the “Soccer Capital” that is St. Louis or you are hopping on board today, it will be a new beginning for all supporters. One that we can definitely look forward to.

The franchise also will be paramount to St. Louis’ prominent youth soccer development. 

Known as a soccer town, players from across the city and region will now have a new program that will specialize in developing young talent. The youth academy will provide players with world class coaching and a pathway to professional soccer, which is certain to revolutionize the structure of St. Louis soccer and give players a vision of their own pathway.

St. Louis soccer will be a game changer. Those summer nights under the lights. The whistle blowing. Fast paced runs. Slide tackling. The ball crashing into the net. The faint smell of popcorn in the air. That’ll be St. Louis. That’ll be our CITY.