urbanSTL

^Surfing the building forums while building = Nicely done! Also, looking forward to seeing your work. The place is looking great in pictures and from the outside. (And of course you have my sympathy. Hot summer days on construction sites are . . . not my favorite. You live through it, I suppose. And hopefully the overtime makes many things better. But still, sweaty, dusty, unpleasant work.)

Upper tier seating is going in now. And yes, sod is going in next week!

When they lay sod and landscape the entire complex... "land-use // urban-design" aside, its going to feel like quite the facelift. 

Totally agreed. Can't wait to see what the finished project is going to look like, especially along Market, with landscaping, the planned sculptures, and the Brickline Greenway.  

Grass started going in today!

It's supposed to be the same texture as the Arch

 - That's a nice looking stadium. 

Looks great and what a fantastic location, really cool watching this part of the city transform in such a short amount of time.

What are the chances St. Louis could land a National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise? 

One of the biggest talking points in St. Louis landing an MLS team is the female ownership -- and deservedly so. 

It would be interesting to see if passion for soccer in St. Louis runs deep enough to support a women's club, but I think the support would be there -- City has already achieved season ticket sales records, SLU has the highest average attendance in all of NCAA, and City 2 games are selling out. I firmly believe St. Louis is going to be a smash success for MLS.

There is the question of where an NWSL club would play that would need to be overcome, but I'm sure something could be worked out. Perhaps they could play at Centene Stadium, with tarps put over the upper bowl and only lower bowl seating available. There is also a Major League Rugby stadium that is rumored for north of downtown that could be an option. 

Kansas City is currently considering an 11,000 NWSL-specific stadium on their riverfront for the Kansas City Current, something I'd be weary of here. Kansas City's previous NWSL club, FC Kansas City, relocated to Salt Lake City in November 2017 after just five seasons in KC, two of which included championships. Utah Royals FC folded in 2020. The Kansas City Current pull about 3,000-4,000 most games. 

^ It makes a ton of sense that St. Louis would eventually pursue an NWSL club, hopefully under the same or a similar academy umbrella as City.

If done that way, I believe you could really grow the programs, franchises, clubs together pretty seamlessly. 
 

Louisville's NWSL team shares its stadium with Louisville's USL-Championship team so it isn't exclusive, there just isn't an MLS team there to share with.

If I remember correctly, I believe Kansas City is advertising their potential NWSL stadium as the first of its kind. 

Building a stadium that houses two-to-three times what you currently pull in attendance, for a league that folded in your city and the city they left for (within the last five years), seems like a colossal financial misstep.   

I'd hope we could just have this incredible downtown St. Louis soccer hub at Centene Stadium. 

I’ll be the pessimist here. I don’t see an NWSL team working here. I’d love to be proven wrong and I don’t know how many fans they need to be viable but I’m just not seeing it.

In my limited research they would need at least 5k a game and I’m not convinced that would happen.

I disagree. St. Louis is a soccer city and I could definitely see the supporters groups being very active in helping drive attendance.  Add in playing at Centene Stadium, having the same high level quality of gameday production as the MLS team, and a stable NWSL and that's a pretty good recipe for success.