Football is finally back in St. Louis, technically. After six years of planning, funding, and building, the newest addition to Major League Soccer (MLS), and the newest addition to the city of St. Louis is almost fully underway.

The St. Louis CITY Soccer Club kicked off on Nov. 11 with the expansion draft, gaining the team its foundation. Each MLS team protected 12 players on their roster, then St. Louis got to pick five players from the remaining pool, excluding teams that lost players in the last expansion draft in 2021.

CITYPARK, the team’s new stadium, held its inaugural game on Nov. 13 when CITY2 (the team’s developmental squad) faced Bayer 04 Leverkusen of the Bundesliga on their USA 2022 tour.

“It was a special night,” Marc Abel, St Louis CITY Vice President of Communications, said. “We had a sold out (22,500) crowd and a lot of energy in the stadium with fans and supporters excited about the first full stadium event.”

Builders and designers had the opportunity to learn from stadiums before and specifically design CITYPARK to create the best atmosphere possible.

The Taylor Family (founders of Enterprise Rent-A-Car) lead the ownership group and were the ones who mostly funded the creation of the stadium.

“The Taylor family takes money they’ve earned from Enterprise and uses it to make St. Louis a better place,” Abel said. “They’ve put money towards the arch, CITYPARK, and the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum.”

After the NFL moved the Rams from St. Louis following the 2015 season, the city was missing a third major sports presence. One of the goals of this new MLS team is to fill that void left in the Rams’ absence

“The ownership group wanted to bring an MLS team to St. Louis to shine a light on this incredible city and restore a little bit of the pride that might have been lost when the NFL left town,” Abel said. “We are excited about how supportive the region has been in embracing the team.