BenFred: Garber, Kindle Betz Discuss What Comes Next for St. Louis’ MLS Team
Date Posted: August 21, 2019
Posted In: Discussion,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The sound of Major League Soccer coming to St. Louis was applause in Orlando.
That, MLS commissioner Don Garber and MLS4TheLou ownership group leader Carolyn Kindle Betz confirmed to the Post-Dispatch Tuesday morning, was when the “best known secret in professional sports” became official.
St. Louis was getting MLS expansion team No. 28.
“It’s hard to imagine Major League Soccer without St. Louis in it,” Garber told the Post-Dispatch before Tuesday’s official announcement in front of a packed house at The Palladium.
“This is such a great, historic soccer city,” Garber said. “There have been a number of efforts, even back in the formative years of Major League Soccer coming together in the early ’90s where, when the original cities were earmarked, St. Louis was one of them. But we have needed a committed ownership group, and we needed a stadium plan. We always knew the market would support a team. We were missing, really, the two most important aspects, and that was secured very recently with the Taylor family, Jim Kavanaugh and their hard work with the city to secure an unbelievably exciting stadium site.”
“I believe this is a three-sport city,” Garber added. “And I’m pleased to be the third league to come in and capitalize on a lot of the exciting things that are happening here in town.”
The Post-Dispatch will have comprehensive coverage of Tuesday’s announcement online and in Wednesday’s newspaper.