Soccer in St. Louis, which dates from 1882, includes pro, college, select and prep soccer teams in St. Louis, Missouri, collectively forming one of the nation's richest municipal soccer heritages."MONDAY MORNING CENTERBACK: TIME FOR MLS TO ADD ST. LOUIS" , Soccer By Ives, January 5, 2009.
Roots
One of the earliest soccer games in St. Louis took place on Sunday, February 12, 1882, at 3:25 p.m. The Hurleys defeated the Hornets in front of 2,000 people at Sportsman's Park. The game was played under the "Association Foot-Ball Rules of Great Britain"."FOOT-BALL" , St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 13, 1882."FOOT-BALL", St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 13, 1882.
Former professional teams St. Louis Soccer League (1907–39)
The St. Louis Soccer League, founded in 1907, was the country's only fully professional soccer league of its day. St. Leo's, the league's only fully professional squad, dominated the standings for seven years.
Before 1914, most teams participated only in local competitions. In 1913, the St. Louis Soccer League came to national attention when St. Leo's tied the Paterson True Blues, winners of the American Cup. At the time, the American Cup was the most recognized regional cup and was the de facto East Coast championship.
In 1914, the new United States Football Association established the National Challenge Cup. When the St. Louis teams entered the competition in 1918, it became the first truly national competition; over the next few years, it replaced the regional cups. St. Louis teams initially had difficulty getting past Chicago and Cleveland teams, but in 1920 Ben Millers stunned the East Coast teams by knocking off Fore River to become the first club outside of the northeast to win the cup. SLSL teams went to the next four finals, winning the cup again in 1922. SLSL team also went to the final in 1926, 1929 and every season from 1932 to 1939.
The club Stix, Baer and Fuller F.C. was successful during the 1930s, reaching the finals of the National Challenge Cup for six consecutive years from 1932 to 1937, and winning titles in 1933, 1934, and 1935.
In 1935, the SLSL began to see internal strife, including lawsuits between teams over player tampering, which led in 1939 to its dissolution.
Stars (NASL) (1967–77)
The St. Louis Stars played from 1967–77 in the North American Soccer League. The team was known for its high concentration of American players, many from the St. Louis area, in contrast to other NASL teams' reliance on foreign players."History of Soccer in St. Louis" , David Litterer. The team moved to Anaheim in 1978 and became the California Surf.
Steamers (MISL) (1979–88)
The St. Louis Steamers played in the Major Indoor Soccer League in 1979–88. The league awarded St. Louis a franchise on July 31, 1979, and the home opener on December 14, 1979, drew over 18,000 fans to the team's home field at the St. Louis Arena. Part of the Steamers' attraction was that their roster was drawn in large part from local talent.
Their average seasonal attendance exceeded 12,000 fans from 1980–81 to 1984–85, and reached its peak during the 1981–82 season, when the team averaged 17,107 fans per game, including 19,298 fans in the Steamers' match at the Arena against the Denver Avalanche. They outdrew the NHL's St. Louis Blues in four consecutive seasons: 1980–81 through 1983–84."Ambush return to St. Louis" , St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 22, 2013.
In 1981–82, the Steamers won their second straight division title, and reached the MISL Championship finals, where they lost to New York in a five-game series.
The Steamers played their final match on April 15, 1988, in front of 4,839 fans. The club folded after the 1987–88 season, and the MISL terminated the Steamers' franchise.
Storm (MISL) (1989–92)
The St. Louis Storm were a soccer team based at the St. Louis Arena that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League from 1989 to 1992.
Ambush (NPSL) (1992–2000)
The St. Louis Ambush was a professional indoor soccer team that played in the National Professional Soccer League from 1992 to 2000. The team was founded in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they played one season before coming to St. Louis. The Ambush made the playoffs every year that they played in St. Louis, except their final year of 1999–2000. The Ambush won one National Professional Soccer League championship (1994–95 season), defeating the Harrisburg Heat. They played in four NPSL Championship series (1994, 1995, 1998, 1999), losing to the Cleveland Crunch twice (in 1994 and 1999), and to the Milwaukee Wave (1998).
Steamers (WISL/MISL) (1998–2006)
The second team to use the name, these Steamers played in the World Indoor Soccer League in 2000–01, then in the MISL from the 2003–04 season to the 2005–06 season.
The Steamers were granted a World Indoor Soccer League expansion franchise in December 1998 but did not begin play until the 2000 season. In 2002, the team, along with fellow WISL teams Dallas Sidekicks and San Diego Sockers joined the Major Indoor Soccer League when the two leagues merged.
Athletica (WPS) (2009–10)
Founded in 2008 by St. Louis native Jeff Cooper, the Saint Louis Athletica competed in Women's Professional Soccer from 2009 to 2010. Athletica initially played its home matches on the campus of Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville, and later moved to Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park in the suburb of Fenton, Missouri. The team folded in May 2010 when English owners brought on by Cooper before the 2010 season stopped funding the team.
AC St. Louis (NASL) (2010)
Cooper also founded the AC St. Louis, which played its only season in 2010 in the NASL Conference of the temporary Division II Pro League. Wearing green, white, and yellow, A.C. St. Louis also played its home games at the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park. Its first coach was Claude Anelka, the older brother of French international striker Nicolas Anelka, who was replaced by Dale Schilly midway through the season"Claude Anelka Relieved Of Coaching Duties" , A.C. St. Louis, June 24, 2010. Retrieved May 2, 2014. as a consequence of the same ownership issues that doomed the Athletica. The club planned to join the new North American Soccer League in the 2011 season, but folded in January 2011"AC St. Louis Closes its Doors for Good" , IMS Soccer News, January 17, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2014. after USSF stopped backing the team's finances and new owners were not found.
Saint Louis Football Club (USL) (2015–2020)
In May 2014, the Division III USL Pro league (now the Division II USL Championship) announced that an expansion franchise would begin play in the 2015 season at the St. Louis Soccer Park in Fenton."USL PRO announces 2015 expansion to soccer hotbed St. Louis" , MLSsoccer.com, May 1, 2014.
Current professional teams St. Louis Ambush (MISL/MASL, 2013–)
The St. Louis Ambush is a professional indoor soccer team based in St. Charles, Missouri. The second team to use this name, the Ambush joined the Major Indoor Soccer League in 2013. In the 2013–14 season, their only season as members of the MISL, the Ambush posted 4–16 record. After the season, the team announced that it would leave the MISL, along with five other teams, to join the MASL.
St. Louis City SC (MLS, 2019–)
In 1993, the new Major League Soccer league looked at St. Louis and 26 other cities for original franchises, but St. Louis did not ultimately submit a bid.
The city later made several unsuccessful efforts to land a franchise as Major League Soccer expanded from 10 teams in 2004 to 19 teams by 2012. In 2007, the Real Salt Lake team came close to moving to St. Louis until the Utah governor intervened to help build a stadium in Salt Lake City.St. Louis Unfit For Current Round of MLS Expansion" , Soccer Newsday, February 26, 2014. In 2008, efforts to establish an expansion team in the St. Louis suburb of Collinsville, Illinois, floundered when MLS awarded its 16th franchise to Philadelphia, which opened play in 2010. Later in 2008, St. Louis bid for one of two MLS expansion slots to enter the league in 2011. St. Louis was considered one of the early front runners,"MONTREAL BOWS OUT OF MLS EXPANSION RACE" , Soccer By Ives, November 21, 2008. due in part to the city's soccer history and a stadium plan."Montreal in pole position for one of the expansion spots" , ESPN FC, October 17, 2008. But the St. Louis bid lacked an ownership group with deep pockets, and MLS awarded the expansion slots to Portland and Vancouver.
In 2017, MLS began to consider adding a team in St. Louis, beginning in 2023. The wealthy people who would own the team sought public funds to help build a $200 million soccer-specific stadium next to Union Station 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. But voters rejected the plan in an April 4, 2017, referendum, leaving the city's MLS future in doubt.
In September 2018, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on a meeting between officials with the Missouri Department of Economic Development and MLS representatives regarding 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 Betz and other heirs to the Enterprise Rent-a-Car fortune as the primary investors. The stadium location remains the same as in the original 2016 location, near Union Station. On November 28, 2018, the Board of Aldermen's Housing, Urban Development, and Zoning Committee unanimously voted 8–0 to approve the stadium plan.
On August 20, 2019, Major League Soccer announced that St. Louis had been granted an expansion team, to start play in 2022.
On August 13, 2020, the St. Louis MLS ownership group announced the official name of the team as St. Louis City SC, along with the crest and colors of the club.
On February 25, 2023, St. Louis City SC played in and won its first match in Major League Soccer by a score of 3–2, against Austin FC at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas.
St. Louis City 2 (MLS Next Pro, 2021–)
On December 6, 2021, MLS and City SC jointly announced that City would field a reserve side, unveiled as St. Louis City 2 (City2), in MLS' revived reserve league of MLS Next Pro starting in 2022. In its first season, City2 played home games at Hermann Stadium at Saint Louis University and Ralph Korte Stadium at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Starting in 2023, City SC moved all City2 home games to its home ground of Energizer Park.
College
SLU Billikens (NCAA)
The Saint Louis University Billikens men's soccer team competes in NCAA Division I in the Atlantic 10 Conference, and play at Hermann Stadium.
The Billikens were dominant in men's collegiate soccer during the late 1950s through the mid-1970s, winning 10 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championships, a record that still stands, and making another six NCAA Final Four appearances. During their dynasty run from the 1960s through 1970s, coach Bob Guelker led the team to their first five championships and notched an 89% winning percentage.SLU Record and History Book (2013) Harry Keough coached the last five championship teams. SLU's longest winning streaks were 19 games from 1969–70 and 24 games (including 14 consecutive road wins) during 1970–71, plus an unbeaten streak (wins and ties) of 45 games in 1969–71. The Billikens last appeared in an NCAA national championship finals in 1974.
Soccer is the main fall sport at SLU, which has not sponsored American football since 1949. The team consistently ranks among the top of all Division I soccer teams in attendance. The Billikens led the NCAA in average attendance for the 1999, 2001, and 2003 seasons.NCAA Soccer Men’s Attendance Records , 2012.