A city steeped in soccer history made a bit more Tuesday, as St. Louis was awarded an MLS franchise—the fast-growing league’s 28th—by commissioner Don Garber. The unnamed club is scheduled to kick off in a new downtown stadium in 2022.
Two previous expansion bids had collapsed, the most recent following a public stadium financing referendum in 2017. But from that failure emerged the Taylor family of Enterprise Holdings, led by Carolyn Kindle Betz. Along with several family members and St. Louis FC owner Jim Kavanaugh, Kindle Betz promised a stadium built almost entirely with private financing.