Report: MLS to award St. Louis with expansion team

Major League Soccer appears bound for St. Louis.

The city has reportedly secured an expansion team and an announcement will be made sometime next week, sources told Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

An ownership group led by Enterprise Holdings Foundation president Carolyn Kindle Betz and World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh, along with other members of Enterprise's Taylor family, made a formal presentation to the board two weeks ago, which apparently impressed league commissioner Donald Garber.

The proposed plan includes a primarily privately funded downtown stadium and a majority female ownership group.

"Their project is amazing," Garber said. "It's a massive downtown stadium project. The Taylor family really is St. Louis."

Named "MLS4TheLou," the ownership group revitalized a previously failed attempt to get soccer in the city of St. Louis. In April 2017, a group led by Kavanaugh and investor Paul Edgerley failed to secure $60 million in public money for a stadium plan.

In an effort to bring professional soccer to St. Louis and help rejuvenate the city's downtown area, the Taylor family partnered with Kavanaugh and pitched a $250-million stadium that will be mostly privately funded. The new ownership group will also cover the league's expansion fee of $200 million.

MLS is looking to expand from 27 to 30 clubs, with Sacramento working on an expansion spot of its own.

St. Louis is targeting the 2022 season as its inaugural campaign.