World Wide Technology Soccer Park
is a soccer complex which includes four
soccer-specific stadiums
, with the main field,
West Community Stadium
,
[2]
holding 5,500 seats. Located in
Fenton, Missouri
, United States, a suburb southwest of downtown
St. Louis
, it is operated by
St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club
whose 275 teams and 3,600 players use it for both practice and games. It is also the home field for
Webster University
's men's and women's soccer teams and was the home of
Saint Louis FC
from 2015-2020. The complex has five playing fields?three turf and two grass?and one main exhibition turf field, most of which are lighted. The fields are primarily used for
soccer
but also host
field hockey
and
lacrosse
teams. In addition to the playing surfaces, the complex features offices, home and away locker rooms, a fan shop, a banquet hall, a
veranda
overlooking the main field, two concession stands, a press box, and a private office.
History
[
edit
]
Opening and Anheuser-Busch
[
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]
The
St. Louis Soccer Park
opened in 1982 with funding from
Anheuser-Busch
who outright purchased it in 1985 and renamed it the
Anheuser-Busch Center
. During the Anheuser-Busch ownership, the main exhibition field, known as West Community Stadium since August 2019, was opened and capable of seating 5,500 spectators, for hosting international, collegiate and youth soccer competitions.
August Busch IV
, the former CEO of Anheuser-Busch, who disliked going to Anheuser-Busch's headquarters, renovated a portion of the Soccer Park offices complete with his own luxurious and secluded office that includes a private bathroom (formerly soccer club coaches offices with a shower) and conference room. During Anheuser-Busch's takeover by Belgium beer maker
InBev
, the board and executives of Anheuser-Busch met in August's conference room at the Soccer Park. At one point during the takeover proceedings, August said "My war room is the Soccer Park" describing the frantic effort of the executives to save Anheuser-Busch from being sold.
[3]
St. Louis Soccer United
[
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]
In March 2009, Anheuser-Busch wrote a letter of intent to transfer ownership of Soccer Park to Jeff Cooper and his organization
St. Louis Soccer United
(SLSU) in order to strengthen SLSU's bid for a
Major League Soccer
expansion team
. While the MLS bid failed, SLSU announced in May that
Saint Louis Athletica
, the
Women's Professional Soccer
team also run by SLSU, would play the rest of their home games at Soccer Park, having previously played at
Ralph Korte Stadium
on the campus of
SIUE
.
[4]
In the summer of 2011, Jeff Cooper and SLSU sold the soccer park to St. Louis Scott Gallagher, a local soccer club.
[5]
[6]
Jeff Cooper originally received a bid for the Soccer Park from a non-soccer organization but this news spread to
World Wide Technology
executives
Jim Kavanaugh
and Tom Strunk who, in an effort to keep soccer strong in St. Louis, personally financed the deal - estimated at $1.9 million - on behalf of St. Louis Scott Gallagher.
[7]
Current ownership
[
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]
In March 2012, St. Louis Scott Gallagher broke ground on a $1.5 million renovation after it signed a partnership with Webster University and received sponsorship from
Nike
,
Windows Mobile
and
Wells Fargo
in addition to a considerable donation from
World Wide Technology
, who had a number of executives play soccer at
SLU
.
[8]
[9]
[10]
The renovations included replacing the main exhibition field and another grass field with turf, replanting the two remaining grass fields with
Bermuda grass
, replacing the out dated scoreboard with a state-of-the-art video board and sound system, and converting one of the coaches' conference rooms into a first-class Team Pro Shop.
International games
[
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]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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