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CITYPARK, the home of St. Louis CITY SC, opened its doors for its first Major League Soccer (MLS) game on March 4. Media outlets, including Fast Company, Sportico and Sports Business Journal, gave rave reviews of the city’s new soccer stadium.
Designed by HOK and Snow Kreilich Architects, the 22,500-seat stadium, anchors a mixed-use district that includes the team’s academy facilities, headquarters, practice fields and training facility. The site is across the street from the city’s historic Union Station and at the edge of the Gateway Mall, a strip of green space that links the stadium to the Gateway Arch and the Mississippi River.
The stadium’s design aims to catalyze downtown activity year-round and reinvigorate the neighborhood. The stadium features public gathering spaces for hosting events, concerts and more, and its design fits seamlessly within the neighborhood’s pedestrian scale. Its sleek form features a flat portico complemented by tall, slender columns that frame the upper seating bowl and views of the city. A canopy provides protection from the elements while amplifying fan noise in the seating bowl, which sits 40 feet below street level. Local food and beverage offerings and sophisticated technology enhance the fan experience, making it intuitive and reflective of the city.
Here are excerpts of media reviews of St. Louis’ new soccer stadium:
Fast Company | How St. Louis Designed Its New Soccer Stadium to Feel Like Part of the City
“The 22,500-seat facility, which is hosting the team’s inaugural home match in March, was built as urban infill, taking over a blank piece of land once reserved for a highway extension. As such, the stadium is surrounded not by massive parking lots or sprawling openness but by the actual city the club is named after. … The perimeter has a partly porous design, with places where people can catch glimpses of the action on the pitch. A canopy shading system seems to hover above the stands, providing weather protection while giving the stadium an airy, open look from the outside.”
Sporting News | St. Louis’ CITYPARK Stadium: Everything About STL City SC’s New Soccer Home in 2023 Expansion Season
“Top-flight professional soccer is finally back in the sport’s American hotbed of St. Louis and it is accompanied by a brand new stadium for the team that will call the city its home.”
MLSsoccer.com | CHILLS! St. Louis CITY SC Serenaded by Epic Tifo at CITYPARK
“‘I think we have set the bar really high,’ St. Louis CITY SC Head Coach Bradley Carnell said. ‘There’s not too many stadiums with this atmosphere; I can tell you that now.’”
Sportico | St. Louis MLS Stadium Brings Next-Gen Tech to Scaled-Down SoFi
“‘This is an MLS stadium, and it’s one of the most tech-savvy, tech-advanced stadiums in the world,’ says Ken Martin, Cisco’s sports and entertainment solutions group general manager. ‘St. Louis is a great example of how you can take a world-class architecture and deploy it into a smaller venue.’”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch | A Historic Night for St. Louis Soccer and a Historic Win for St. Louis CITY SC
“‘It was incredible,’ said midfielder Eduard Lowen, whose penalty kick five minutes into first-half stoppage time put City SC ahead. ‘The moment I stepped out I had goosebumps. You could tell the whole city was waiting for this moment so long.’”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch | ‘More Than Soccer:’ St. Louis Businesses See CITYPARK Luring More People, Money Downtown
“Investment has poured into the Downtown West neighborhood since MLS announced a new St. Louis team in 2019, with roughly $820 million in development and 300 occupancy permits issued to date. In 2020 alone, the area had the most building permits citywide. … St. Louis City SC officials said they want CityPark and the excitement around the new soccer team to be catalysts for change: lure development, generate civic pride and, hopefully, usher in a new era for St. Louis.”
Sports Business Journal | CITYPARK Stadium a Gateway to Opportunity
“St. Louis City SC lived up to its name with the construction of its $458 million campus, which ensures the team’s entire footprint lies with St. Louis’ Downtown West neighborhood. The project, much of which was built during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, includes the club’s soccer-specific stadium, as well as a training facility. ‘The fact that we play, train and all of our staff will work in the city is, for lack of a better term, very on brand and authentic to everything we’re trying to do,’ said St. Louis City Chief Revenue Officer Dennis Moore.”
Source: HOK
