THE city of St Louis, Missouri, gained a Major League Soccer team this season, taking North America’s flagship soccer league up to 29 teams. 

They will play their first home game this weekend when they welcome Charlotte FC to the Citypark Stadium.

Their addition to MLS is significant as it sees one of the country’s historic soccer cities join the ever-growing league.

Despite not having an MLS team until this season, the city of St Louis would regularly be mentioned in soccer circles, perhaps even more than some existing MLS cities, thanks to its place in the sport’s history in the United States.

The most famous St Louis soccer story is the city’s link to the team that defeated England 1-0 in Belo Horizonte at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. That side contained five St Louisans, and on the back of such a monumental result in the history of US soccer, a book was written detailing these players’ stories — The Game of Their Lives, by Geoffrey Douglas, later turned into a film. 

A more recent book, Soccer Made in St Louis, by Dave Lange, looks in more depth at the city’s soccer history as a whole.

The region boasted an early professional league in the United States which ran until 1939, while six teams from the region have won America’s FA Cup equivalent, the US Open Cup — Stix Baer and Fuller, St Louis Kutis, St Louis Simpkins-Ford, Ben Millers, St Louis Busch Seniors and St Louis Scullin Steel. Only New York can boast more winners in that competition.

Despite its soccer past, until this year St Louis remained conspicuously absent from the present MLS setup, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t soccer being played.

There have been numerous teams over the years including more recently AC St Louis, Saint Louis Athletica, and Saint Louis FC (all now disbanded) and several indoor sides, but the nature of US soccer means it is difficult to maintain a team in the lower divisions when there is no prospect of promotion.

A supporters group known as the Saint Louligans have been present since around 2010, emerging from various fan groups who watched the AC St Louis club before taking their support to whichever team happened to be playing pro soccer in the city — and at times taking it to amateur or indoor teams, too.

Saint Louis FC played their final season in 2020, citing the financial impact of Covid-19 as the main reason for ceasing operations. By that time the MLS team was already approved by the league and scheduled to begin play in 2023. This could also have played a part in Saint Louis FC folding.

“Due to the 2020 Covid pandemic’s economic factors and the looming arrival of MLS to our city, Saint Louis FC folded in 2020,” reads the most recent entry in Louligans history on their website.

“While we’re sad that chapter is over, we’re excited for what’s next.