Newest MLS Team to Make Historical Season Debut

St. Louis City SC has already made history ahead of its first MLS game on Saturday. 

The league’s 29th team is the only MLS club with a woman as a founding owner and president, Carolyn Kindle, and is the only majority-female ownership group in the league.

The local ownership group has nine people, including Enterprise chief executive Andy Taylor and members of his family.

The team, which paid a $200 million expansion fee to join the league, will play its first home game on March 4 at the 22,500-capacity CITYPARK. Its new $461 million venue was originally called Centene Stadium as part of a 15-year naming rights deal, but the club announced the name change in October after agreeing to “reshape” the partnership with Centene.

League Only Getting Bigger

St. Louis City SC was the only expansion team for the 2023 season, but MLS commissioner Don Garber said on Wednesday that he wants to announce a 30th team by the end of the year, which would triple the 10 teams it had in 2004. 

“I think San Diego and Las Vegas are the most likely opportunities for 30,” he said, mentioning Detroit, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Tampa as other possible expansion sites.

The league is expanding its playoff format as it kicks off its 28th season and, earlier this week, it announced three major deals with Adidas, Audi, and RBC Wealth management. Adidas, which plans to help the MLS grow its U.S. audience, agreed to a multiyear extension worth $830 million.