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ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Major League Soccer will be officially awarding a franchise to St. Louis, a source has confirmed to KMOX's Tom Ackerman. The announcement will come next week.
Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. will be the press conference that soccer fans in St. Louis have been waiting a long time for.
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In October 2018, a prospective MLS ownership group was announced in St. Louis, led by Carolyn Kindle Betz, of Senior VP of Enterprise Holdings and Jim Kavanaugh, CEO of World Wide Technology. The group is rounded out with Andy Taylor, Executive Chairman of Enterprise Holding and six other female members of the Taylor family.
They will be the first female majority owned club in the league's history.
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The preferred site for an open-air soccer stadium sits adjacent to Union Station in downtown St. Louis. The stadium also would be available for concerts, high school and collegiate tournaments, soccer camps and family shows.
The stadium proposal is heavily privately financed, with no request for citywide tax revenues or tax increment financing.
Prior to the announcement, MLS expansion was set through 2021, with Inter Miami CF (2020), Nashville SC (2020) and Austin FC (2021) beginning play in the next two years, bringing the total of MLS clubs to 27.
St. Louis and Sacramento will likely earn the 28th and 29th spots and could begin play as soon as 2022.
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The push for pro soccer in St. Louis began in 2016, led by an ownership group with local business leaders Dave Peacock and Jim Kavanaugh, and Boston-area businessman Paul Edgerley.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber stated St. Louis would likely be accepted into the league if a new stadium was agreed to be built. The St. Louis group, called SC STL, offered to pay $95 million of the propsed 22,000-seat stadium. They also offered to cover maintenance and operations costs for 30 years, and pay the $150 million MLS expansion franchise fee.
A proposition on the 2017 April ballot asked for $60 million in public funding. It failed by about 3,300 votes in the highest turnout for an April St. Louis election in decades.
Major League Soccer will grow to a total of 26 teams when Cincinnati, Nashville and Miami begin play in the coming years. MLS has formally stated its goal of adding another two expansions in the future, with a number of cities in the running, including St. Louis, Phoenix, Detroit, Charlotte, Las Vegas and San Diego.
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