St. Louis’ MLS stadium plans have reportedly gotten bigger ahead of their start in the league in 2022.
According to the St. Louis Dispatch, the stadium which will cost roughly $250 million, will now contain practice fields and other facilities next to the stadium. The venue’s capacity will be 22,500 after stadium renderings were released back in April.
The stadium will take the place of current highway ramps, parking lots, and private businesses alongside Olive Street. Also, rather than leasing the stadium from the city, the MLS ownership group, led by the Taylor Family, plans to retain private ownership, taking responsibility for its maintenance and some property taxes.
Construction on the area will begin once a final agreement between the Missouri Department of Transportation and the city. MoDot owns the highway ramps that will be removed to make room for the project, in which the city is planning to purchase before selling it to the ownership group.
“There is some work being done to amend that agreement itself,” MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna told the Post-Dispatch. “We’re working through that process, all in conjunction with a potential sale.”
“We understand there to be some time considerations, and we’re trying to do our best to move the needle.”
St. Louis is currently playing in the USL but will continue early preparations for its arrival in the league in just under three years time.
Why mention the USL team? It won’t be the same franchise in MLS, will it?
That seems to be the plan. The ownership group consists of the the Taylor Family and Carolyn Betz as the majority owners and current CEO of St. Louis FC, Jim Kavanaugh as a minority owner. St Louis FC is currently owned by SLSC Pro, LLC (St Louis Scott Gallagher) who Kavanaugh is heavily involved.
Thanks for the info! For some reason, I thought it would be a separate team.
Once again I urge MLS to aim larger and build stadiums that are at least in the 30 to 35 k range.
THIS! I can appreciate the fact that attendance is stagnant across MLS right now, but these stadiums aren’t for now – they are for 10 yrs from now. Build it and they will come!!.
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We also need to get the USNT games into more soccer stadiums, and 20k isn’t enough for those games (again, disregard any current moods towards the MNT, but this applies to the WNT too!)