ST. LOUIS — Khalia Collier has spent the past decade building a St. Louis professional sports team from the ground up. She’ll now play a role in launching the city’s newest sports franchise.
Major League Soccer expansion franchise St. Louis City SC said Tuesday it has tapped Collier, owner of the St. Louis Surge of the Global Women's Basketball Association, as its vice president of community relations. In that role, Collier will oversee City SC’s community impact and outreach efforts.
“Khalia’s drive and passion to create transformative change in St. Louis is incredibly rare. She truly loves our city and that shines through when you see the way she motivates and empowers her Surge players to be leaders in the community, on and off the court,” Carolyn Kindle Betz, CEO of City SC, said in a statement. “A sense of community has been at the heart of everything our ownership group and team have done since day one, and I firmly believe there’s no one better than Khalia to take the reins and lead our community development.”
Collier became owner of the St. Louis Surge in 2011 at the age of 23. She will remain owner of the women’s basketball team, but relinquish her position of general manager as she joins City SC. The Surge plans to name a new general manager soon, she said.
As City SC’s vice president of community relations, Collier said she plans to build upon the ownership’s vision of being a franchise that is inclusive of the entire region. That will include an intentional approach aimed at helping build and engage with a fan base that is representative of the entire region and includes new soccer fans, she said.
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