ST. LOUIS — The day St. Louis had been waiting for finally arrived. We now have a name, colors and crest for our new Major League Soccer franchise.
On Thursday, the MLS4TheLou group and CEO Carolyn Kindle Betz announced the new franchise would be named St. Louis City SC with red, navy and yellow serving as the primary colors for the team.
The crest includes an image of the Arch and lines representing the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The colors are inspired by the city's flag.
"From Old North to South Grand, from the Metro East to west of 270, come together, St. Louis. Rise like the Gateway Arch and let the world know this is our home, this is our city," an announcer said in a video during the name reveal.
The name, colors and crest were announced during a live reveal in front of rows and rows of cardboard cutouts that fans submitted to replace the presence of real fans, who were not allowed to attend the event due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The franchise held multiple engagement sessions with fans leading up to choosing the team name and colors.
"We did not take this process lightly," Kindle Betz said Thursday.
Kindle Betz said the goal of the team, its name, colors and crest is to bring the entire region together as one city.
She watched the announcement video for the first time with everyone else in the St. Louis area and said she had a surge of emotions while it played.
"I have to tell you there are three major emotions going through me right now: one is love, one is excitement and one is gratitude," Kindle Betz said. "I love this city. I love this region, and together we can do great things."
She said bringing this MLS team to the city will put St. Louis on the international map.
It will still be a while before the team hits the pitch for its first game, as the franchise's debut has been pushed back to 2023 due to the pandemic. The construction on the state-of-the-art $461 million stadium and headquarters just outside of downtown St. Louis is still underway as planned and on schedule to be completed in 2022.
"It (postponing the inaugural season) was a decision (the MLS) made. We collectively agreed with them, and at first it's hard to hear it," Kindle Betz said on the expansion postponement at the time. "We were so excited about 2022, but when we really took a look at, unfortunately, everything going on, the uncertainty in the collective sports world, we're grateful because it will give us an opportunity to do things correctly, build momentum and have, quite frankly, an epic inaugural season."
You can watch the full MLS name announcement from Thursday in the YouTube video below.